When I was preparing to welcome my first dozen baby chicks home, I spent nearly a year reading books and researching online to absorb all I could about caring for chickens. The internet is a powerful tool, but it is also the birthplace of many a cyber-legend and I came across much conflicting information about treats for chickens. I wanted the facts in order to make the best decisions possible for my pet chickens, not stories, experiences or opinions about what my neighbor’s great-great grandmother may have fed the chickens she considered livestock.
In my effort to get to the bottom of some of the most common chicken treat misconceptions, I researched extensively before making my treat choices. My chickens are only fed treats, snacks and table scraps in moderation because excessive treats and the wrong treats can be harmful to their health, stunt growth, shorten their lives and interfere with egg production. In making decisions about treats for your chickens, you may wish to consider the following five most common myths and facts.
MYTH: Chickens should not eat avocados.
MYTH: Chickens should not eat raw potatoes or potato skins.
FACT: Chickens should not eat GREEN potato skins. The green color indicates the presence of solanine, a toxin that affects the nervous system when consumed in large quantities. However, the average, healthy human would have to eat 4.5 pounds at one sitting to experience any neurological effects. Similarly, a chicken would need to consume large quantities of green potato skins to experience any ill effects. The leaves and stems of the potato plant DO contain high levels of solanine and are toxic to chickens. Bottom line: if I shouldn’t eat it, I don’t feed it to my chickens.
MYTH: Chickens should never eat onions.
MYTH: Yogurt is good for chickens.
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http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html
http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/onions.html
http://www.avocado.com/site/fun-facts/avo-info/avocado-toxicity-in-animals-and-pets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytohaemagglutinin
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/211102.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1912&aid=2236
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7255913
74 Comments
Based on this short tutorial I would say my chickens are lucky to have survived my ignorance. From now on I will limit my chickens treats to the occasional handful of mealy worms. I keep a bag handy at all times to get my girls back in the coop if I let them out for an afternoon’s walk and forage. All they have to hear is the loud crinkle of the plastic bag and they come running from all corners of my property.
Really appreciate the piece by Kathy “The Chicken Chick” re: myth/fact, especially re: onions & garlic. Had never monitored my girls’ intake of these awesome foods. Have always paid attention to their overall well-being tho. I 1st started giving them onion & garlic free-choice pretty much in defiance of the “news” that it shouldn’t be done because it will “give the eggs that flavor”. #1; even if it did … anything wrong with those flavors? #2; what a bunch of baloney! Mine gobbled up any garlic/onions I offered, and the eggs tasted like … EGGS! I will now watch for the symptoms that Kathy outlined, and continue to allow my girls to enjoy the (for them) non-toxic foods that we both enjoy … just in a new-found sense of moderation.
Hi. You say “avocado pits and skin contain persin”. I surely agree, but I don’t know where you have read that avocado flesh does not contain persin. May you provide details of the information source, thank you.
Can I give Aurora organic super natural granola with chia and flaxseed?
I have some in my pantry and was going to give it to them. I recently suddenly lost a chicken
and we don’t know what happened to her so I am paranoid what to feed them.
Our backyard hens just ate half a container of spinach and spring green mix, will giving them about three large carrots and about 1/8 of a small onion harm them?
No, they won’t be hurt by eating that amount of onion. They will, however, be healthier if their diet is limited to a complete commercial layer feed. Even healthy dietary extras like carrots, etc. dilute their diet, preventing them from getting all the nutrients intended for them in their feed.
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You are very knowledgeable! I actually believed some of these myths before reading this!
grape tomatoes were one of the first treats I gave mine along with oatmeal. Then one day , I went out and they started pecking my red painted toe nails!! too funny. They love sunflower seeds and mealworms but also my winter squash and pumpkins.
We would give our girls bits of stale cracker or chips. We kept the treats in a plastic bag in the truck. They got to where all it took was opening the truck door to come running. Now we call ‘chips’ if we want to round them up. They also love grapes, cucumbers that have grown to big and the rinds of watermelon. They can eat those down to just a transparent shell.
What did chickens eat before companies started making pelleted “protein” food? You know, back in them olden days before the web.
We have named all our animals and in fact some of the chickens know their names. The two roosters especially come when called by name. Last night I accidentally called Royal “Louie” (the other rooster’s name) and he looked at me like “”scuse me?”
I have to laugh – my girls come running across the yard the moment they hear my back door open….or if they hear me say, “Girls!!!”. They are such a joy! My elderly neighbors (we all live on about an acre) had asked if it was okay if he gave them some of the veggies/fruits from his garden/trees that they just couldn’t eat themselves and I agreed. I catch him sitting back near their coop tossing them summer squash and watermelons and just sitting and watching them from the shade of his trees. He mentioned that when he was growing up, they never had chickens for “pets”, but grew 5000 of them at a time for food….and he is absolutley loving watching my “pets” (I don’t consider them that). It helps that they get free “suburban-fresh” eggs as my five girls tend to lay 4-5 a day.
Their supplemental garden diet has provided them with such rich, orange yolks – another treat my neighbor enjoys.
Chickens are such a blessing!
I’m a bit confused because you say that avocados are ok, but in one of the sources you cite (http://www.avocado.com/site/fun-facts/avo-info/avocado-toxicity-in-animals-and-pets), it clearly states:
“According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, feeding avocados to your pets or any other animal should be avoided at all costs. Animals such as cattle, horses, goats, rabbits, birds, dogs, cats, and even fish can be severely harmed or even killed if they consume the leaves, bark or fruit of the avocado tree.” How did you determine that the flesh is ok? Thanks.
i have to note that we had an avocado tree at our last house and one of my dogs would gather up the ones that would fall off the tree and eat them after they ripened. he would hoard them under bushes etc. we figured he would eat about 1-3 large hass/fuerte avos a day. we kept finding perfectly clean avo pits all over the yard. his fur was bunny-soft!! after we moved, he lost weight (he was very trim before so it was worrisome) and his fur got rougher. he never had a problem eating all those avos- did it for about 2 years. i think it really depends on the animal, and of course, everything in moderation.
So, I feed my chickens a salad everyday. It consists of lettuce, frozen mixed vegies that have been thawed, then grated carrots on top of the vegies, then chopped green beans, grated apples and then grapes. topped off with cherrios.
Now that I am reading this blog, am I feeding this to often? Most of my chickens are 3 years old and are not producing many eggs anymore. I worry now that maybe too much vegies and more chicken food.
What are the thoughts??
my roses!
My girls used to love mealworms then one day they quit….couldn’t make them take one! Now they love watermelon and sunflower seeds…..and one other thing, opera. When we sit down there in the evenings with our glass of wine and enjoy watching them, I turn on my Andrea Bocelli on Pandora and they stop in their tracks. My Silkie Stella actually sits down facing me and listens!!! Seriously.
I am SOOOO glad I’m not the only one who has named her girls! Eva, Emma, Betty, Ginger and Rose enjoy the finer things of chicken-life as well!
My babies enjoy tomatos, cucumbers, cabbage, kale, apples, squash and green beans. They get the scraps from my canning and also they have their own section of garden planted just for them. We have also tried crawdads which they love.
Sounds to me, I’d better get mealworms for the girls!
Ramon noodles and gummy worms are a great hoot to watch them fight over and chase each other! Weeds are great too! They get a flock block now and then!
My girls go wild over the mealworms. They hear the jug shake and they come running, flying almost galloping. They are so funny!
They also get the run of the garden when the season is almost over. They eat tomatoes, green beans, corn, okra, and melons. They will eat the tomatoes right off the vine!
I share a glass of sweet red wine with my silkie hens; If I take a sip, they have to have one! They love anything sweet including grapes, papaya, mango, passion fruit, blue berries, cookies, fig newtons, granola bars…basically anything sweet is a treat for them. Protein wise kippered herring is a favorite.
When my favorite banty started acting poorly one morning, I rushed her to an avian vet. It turned out to be, he thought, an impacted or sour crop. He asked if I ever fed her anything besides layer feed, and I told him that the day before she had had mealworms, pear, alfalfa, sunflower kernels…
He told me I shouldn’t feed my girls anything other than formulated feed and explained that it is balanced to give them just the right amount of nutrition.
Luckily my best girl got well after an overnight stay, but I had learned a valuable lesson-$300 later.
A natural-born soft-touch, I can’t resist treating my girls to something special–especially when they’ve learned to beg (my little banty has a special “treat tweet”, as I call it). But I’ve learned to take it easy and to realize they have limits, even though they might want to “bite off more than they can chew”.
My chicks love the mealworms, watermelon, cantaloupe and anything else I bring them in a bucket. I just about trip over them when they see me coming with a bucket. They also love tomatoes that I have caught them trying to pick tomatoes themselves out of our garden if I am not fast enough.
Watermelon, grapes and frozen blueberries seem to stir up a frenzy on hot summer days.
I prefer to let my chickens run free on our property every day. I give them a nutritious meal daily of fresh scraps and feed… Every time I let them out they go right to my Hosta and eat them. Our place has a lot of them too. I tried putting up a low netting to protect them but they still destroy them. We have the perfect setting to allow them to roam and there is really no predators. Do you have any ideas about how I can stopp them and get back to letting them raom free daily?
Mine love spent grains (leftover from brewing beer). Next is cantaloupe. And then anything else they can get their beaks on.
I have a broody hen, that I boost off the nest twice a day to get nourishment, will come running if I plop a tablespoon of cottage cheese outside for her. I found my other hens do not like it everyday, but as a once a week treat. They are not fond of it getting on their beaks and wipe it off, but it is the first time I have seen the broody hen react to any food. Love the mealworm idea, which is good for the wildbirds around, especially in winter.
My chickens love the mealworms… I repurposed a creamer bottle to store them in so that I can just sprinkle them on the ground. When they see the bottle, they come running!
My girls love mealworms…but they seem to like BOS almost as much!
my hens LOVE the mealworms! If I want to get them to come back into the run all I have to do is shake the jar and they come running!!!
My chickens would love for me to win this giveaway for a treat. They love any type of melon, pears, apples, carrots and go crazy for left of spaghetti noodles.
My chickens love meal worms also! Fresh and dried. They are so spoiled that they run when I say anything at like come here or hey or even sneez. My house is now like Alferd Hitchcocks the birds. I even have some that will run after my car if I am not careful. They also get a lot of green wast from my local natural food store. That and my neighbors like to bring them greens on their walks by my house.
My girls LOVE meal worms and we are all out!!
My chickens have LOVED mealworms from the start. They go crazy. I started with freeze dried ones (The Happy Hen were the first I purchased :)) and now raise my own!!!
The love so many things — they are especially fond of scrambled eggs (with some flax seed mixed in), watermelon, all of the vegetable pulp left over my juicing each day, grapes, cukes, zucchini….pretty much anything I throw to them. They trust me so I do my best to make sure their treats are healthy for them so we get great eggs (still waiting on the first to begin laying)!
I’ve never bought treats for my hens & roosters yet. We are pretty new to chickens, and am excited about learning lots! I think they would love the meal worms by reading everyone else’s comments!
My chicks are just a month old so the haven’t had too many treats so far, but they like love tomato seeds and zucchini…all extras from the garden.
My girls haven’t had treats yet. Miss Peggy did want Cheetos the other day when she seen us eating some. They love it when we move a barrel, blocks, or rocks out of their way so that they can enjoy all the worms and bugs they find. I would love to try them on the Mealworms though. Obviously, they are good treats; so, I’d love to let my precious girls try them.
My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the meal worms!!!!!!!!
My little chicks haven’t tried many treats yet, but the love the Mealworm Frenzy!!