Can a hen eat rice

Rice is not a good treat, snack, or food for birds of any species.

Why? Because the first stop in a birds digestive system is the crop. In the crop, food stops to be pre-digested, and to help be ground down. When rice stops here, it expands. Now, in small quantities (1/4 cup or less per dual purpose chicken, much less for smaller birds) once a week with no other similar source (oats, bread, etc) this is relatively harmless. However, in larger quantities, it can EASILY kill the bird.

This is because when it expands in the crop, it stops the movement of the digestive system. This can cause -

• Complete crop stasis. This is were the crop does NOT move food and the bird starves. Does its' crop feel very hard? Are its' stools watery and clear? If so, the bird has crop stasis.
• Sour Crop. This occurs when food in the crop doesn't move and sours.This can be detected by smelling the birds breath. Is it foul? Does its' crop feel like a water filled balloon? If so, it has sour crop.

These two conditions can affect a single bird at the same time. When it does, the crop will present as sour crop, and the birds stools will be watery, green, and VERY foul smelling.

• Bacterial and Fungal infection. The two above often lead to severe bacterial and fungal infections of the digestive tract, which kill wild birds and can be hard to treat in domestics.