Cabbage is bad for them???

[buckabucka]

I've read several times here about hanging a cabbage in the coop to provide hours of entertainment. Then I was browsing the toxic plants page, and it says:

Brassica spp. (CABBAGE, KALE, MUSTARD); leaves; plant is goitrogenic; may contain toxic levels of nitrates; B. napus (CULTIVATED RAPE) is hepatogenic.

Is this really something to be concerned about? And no flax seed??? (FLAX (Linum usitatissimus); entire plant, esp. immature seed pods; plant is cyanogenetic and goitrogenic; may contain toxic levels of nitrates.)

The toxic plant list is so extensive that I feel overwhelmed just browsing through it.

I'm really jumping the gun here, - chicks do not arrive until May 12, but some of this information seems contradictory.

Any ideas about this out there?

Thanks.
Robin

 

[obchix]

Mine LOVE cabbage! And they have been fine since eating it.... They actually will seek it out in the garden.

 

[thechickenchick]

I feed mine cabbage often with no issues.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Mine get a head a week on grocery day and they are still kickin after a year!

 

[savingdogs]

I'm interested in this as well because I noticed it on the poisonous plants list as well, just after I had given them one to play with.

I've been buying flock blocks instead, but we have a farmer's market nearby that often has day-old cabbage that they GAVE me, but now I'm afraid to use it.

How is it poisonous yet some people have great luck feeding it?

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:
All I can say is, if someone was giving me free cabbage my girls would be VERY happy!

 

[backdoorchicken]

i was hanging a head in the run often but they(5) were destroying that thing in one day.

 

[buckabucka]

I want to give them cabbage! I'm just going to go for it. It seems like all these people can't be wrong.

Maybe the toxic plant people are paranoid and overly cautious?

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Mine picked my 3 poor kale plants clean (good thing russian kale is sturdy) And they had the whole acre to forage in. They wanted to eat that, even with all the other tasty things about.

 

[jerseygirl1]

Mine love cabbage...............they poop green for days......................then, just for kicks, giv'em RED cabbage, purple poop kicks butt!!!!!!!!!!!!