Is Feeding Chickens Scraps from the Kitchen Safe?
Can Chickens Eat Tomatoes? Can Chickens Eat Watermelon? Can Chickens Eat Popcorn?
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Feeding chickens scraps from the kitchen is a great way to give them healthy treats and make sure your leftovers don’t go to waste. Next time you clean out your refrigerator, scrape the dinner plates or bring home leftovers from dinner out, why not set some aside for your flock? They’ll love you for it!
Lots of folks wonder about what to feed chickens for treats. A general rule of thumb is if it’s good for you, it’s good for them, remembering to leave out anything that’s fried, sugary, salty, alcoholic or moldy.
First, let’s talk about chicken treats in general. Just like humans, chickens enjoy variety and their diets can gain depth through nutritious treats. Treats can also serve as a boredom buster during times of confinement and as an attention-grabbing device when you’d like your flock to focus on something else; like when you’re introducing new members. Keep in mind 90 to 10 as a good percentage for commercial feed vs. treats in a healthy chicken diet.
What Can Chickens Eat?
Fruits and vegetables are a healthy addition to a chicken’s diet. You may wonder can chickens eat cucumbers? The short answer is yes. Also, can chickens eat pumpkins? Yes. Pumpkins and their seeds are packed full of nutrients and can have de-worming properties. So when fall comes around, be sure to grab a few extras for your flock. And, by all means, save the pumpkin guts when you’re carving jack-o-lanterns.
Common kitchen staples that can be eaten and enjoyed by your flock:
| Apples |
|---|
| Apricots |
| Bananas (Not the peels) |
| Beets (Plus greens) |
| Blackberries |
| Blueberries |
| Bread (Try to offer healthy bread to give your chickens the biggest bang for their buck) |
| Broccoli |
| Brussels Sprouts |
| Cabbage |
| Cantaloupe |
| Carrots (Plus greens) |
| Cereal (Avoid sugary cereals) |
| Cherries |
| Collard Greens |
| Corn (Chickens especially love corn on the cob) |
| Cranberries |
| Cucumbers |
| Eggs (Hard boiled eggs are yummy, warm scrambled eggs are perfect on a cold morning) |
| Fish |
| Garlic |
| Grains |
| Grapes |
| Honeydew Melons |
| Kale |
| Lettuce |
| Meat (You can also give your flock the bones and they will pick them clean) |
| Nuts (Avoid salted, seasoned and sugared nuts) |
| Oats |
| Parsnips |
| Pasta |
| Peaches |
| Pears |
| Peas |
| Plums |
| Pomegranate |
| Popcorn |
| Pumpkins |
| Radishes (Plus greens) |
| Raisins |
| Rice |
| Seafood |
| Seeds |
| Spinach (Feed sparingly, too much can interfere with calcium absorption) |
| Sprouted Seeds |
| Squash |
| Sweet Potatoes |
| Tomatoes (Do not feed green tomatoes, leaves or vines) |
| Turnips |
| Watermelon |
| Zucchini |
When feeding chickens scraps, dairy products are a common kitchen staple that raises questions. Dairy products can be fed to a backyard flock. However, dairy products in large amounts can cause diarrhea. So make sure to feed cheese, cottage cheese, milk and yogurt in moderation. If you live near a dairy farm, whey can be fed to chickens. Whey is the liquid that’s expelled during the cheesemaking process. It’s full of protein and nutrients. But again, it should be kept to a minimum.
How to Feed Treats
My chickens free range and know to come when I walk into the yard with treats. But there are creative ways to make it fun when feeding chickens scraps from the kitchen. A whole cabbage can be hung from the ceiling of a coop; just high enough so the chickens can reach it but have to work at it a little. This provides hours of entertainment as the chickens jump and peck to get the cabbage. There are also treat balls you can buy at the farm supply store. They can easily be opened, filled with smaller treats and hung in the coop and run. Chickens can have suet during the colder months to help keep them warm. You can purchase pre-made suet cakes or make your own suet cakes using ingredients from the list above like oats, seeds and nuts and maybe adding in some dried mealworms for extra protein. You can purchase same suet feeders as you would use for wild birds and hang them around the coop and run. (Just make sure not to share chicken suet feeders with the wild birds. This can spread disease.)
Feeding chickens scraps from the kitchen can be fun for both you and your flock. It’s a great way to interact with your birds and make sure their diet is well-rounded. Pay attention as you’re feeding chickens scraps, soon you’ll find they have favorites and you can be sure to provide them more often. Always be on the lookout for treat opportunities for your flock. I know I like to fill up my bag of popcorn (minus the butter) from the movie theater and bring it home for my birds. I stretch my dollar a little further that way and they get a fun treat.
Do you like feeding chickens scraps from the kitchen? What are some favorites for your birds? Let us know in the comments below.
I have hung a head of cauliflower in one of the coops. The chickens pecked it until it was gone.
My chicken yard basically doubles as my compost pile. Same rules, no dairy or meat, or very little. All kitchen scraps go into a bucket that every couple of days is dumped into the pen. The girls eat whatever the want and till the rest into the soil. Our soil here is already pretty sandy, so it all becomes soil amendment along with the scattered poop, of course. Whenever we want composted soil I go and dig the top several inches of the surface, screen it into the wheelbarrow, and basically have good garden dirt/compost. The birds keep the surface tilled pretty deep over the whole of the pen, so the whole thing is sort of spongy underfoot, like walking through a plowed field. This is in Central Texas, so the pen is almost entirely shaded. The overhanging trees also seem to deter hawks, since they can’t dive-bomb.
I do have a separate compost bin for things I don’t want to give them, but that’s not a lot.
My 8 girls get their pellets and fresh water fresh herbs from the garden basil sage mint oregano and lemon thyme when they come out in the morning then snack around 11 fresh parsley red cabbage Romain lettuce cucumbers tomatoes (not always the same ) then about 2 they get either watermelon cantaloupe corn on the cob SPOILED ROTTEN BIRDS THEY ARE JUST ABOUT TO START LAYING EGGS CANT WAIT
My chicks ate collates that hadSevin dust on them. Will they be okay?