[egbert]

As I looked through the cupboards on Sunday morning for some jam, I noticed that a jar here or there was out of date, so pulled them out, discovered more behind, decided to give the shelf a scrub while I was at it . . .  4 hours later I had been through every cupboard in the kitchen cleaning and clearing out stuff that was years old.

So, in the afternoon I made my chooks a lovely warm mash consisting of bran flakes (BBE 07) fruit mix (BBE 08) Uncle Bens Risotto (BBE 08) and baby porridge my son refused point blank. They seemed happy.

Then the OH asked whether I should be feeding them food we ourselves refused to eat as it was years old? I know that the BBE is usually fine to ignore for up to a year on many dried foods. They seem happy this morning anyway. Should I be concerned? 

I also have a lot of porridge oats for them to munch through (I filled a stale icecream cornet this morning with oats and fruit for them to have at!) Are they ok to eat dry oats or should I be mixing them with water as the OH (always a positive outlook) asked if this was like the chinese rice torture, where we give them dried oats then as they drink water it will expand inside them and explode?     Any thoughts?   

[daddymatty82]

add the dried oats to some warm water  and they will love it if the food is out  of date what's wrong with that its still edible just not as nutritious  as it 1st was there aint no harm in it i give my birds mouldy bread fruit cake  bit of rice and pasta now and again. just think of a pig with feathers they will eat anything in or out of date if they dont like it they wont eat it