Can Chickens Eat Orange Peel and other Citrus Fruit?
We all love feeding our pet chickens with all the yummy scraps from the kitchen.
As far as I can tell, the chickens love receiving all the yummy treats also! In fact they come running as soon as I appear in the backyard, because they generally associate my appearance with the delivery of more food, or even better, with the arrival of a bucket of kitchen scraps, which they simply adore.
So when we throw a bunch of unwanted scraps into the chicken coop, or around the chicken run area, the chickens will generally trust that anything we throw in there will be good to eat.
But is this always the case? Not necessarily, so we need to be a little bit careful about what gets allocated to the chicken scraps, and what things should just go straight into the bin, or maybe into the compost bin instead.
So the question is: Can chickens eat orange?
Or more broadly, should we ask a range of questions about what is healthy for chickens to eat, such as: Can chicken eat citrus fruit? Is it safe for chickens to eat oranges? Can chickens eat orange peel?
We definitely pay a lot of attention to the things we feed our pets. Chickens can also enter this category, since they are seen more and more as reliable pets, able to think and to prove that they are social animals.
Can Chickens Eat Oranges or is citrus bad for chickens health?
The answer to this question is a little complicated, in that chickens can eat oranges, and sometimes they love it! But a word of caution.
Some advice suggests that excessive Vitamin C or citric acid may be responsible for chickens to excessively preen or even pull out feathers, and there have been some observations of this behavior happening to extreme levels, which is obviously not good for the chicken. Other reports have suggested that citrus fruits interfere with the amount of calcium that is absorbed in the chickens diet. Low levels of calcium can affect the egg shell thickness, and may be responsible for chickens laying eggs with thin egg shells. This is also not a good thing, as the eggs tend to get smashed and broken before we can come along to collect them.
Some breeds of chicken may be more sensitive to citrus than others, but there is no hard and fast rule.
Chickens can eat oranges!
I know for a fact that many of my chickens love fruit scraps of any variety, and they certainly love to pick through the scraps for any hidden treats. So in this case, it may be okay for chickens to eat a small amount of oranges, but as long as there is a variety of other food and scraps, then there is no problem. And try not to feed oranges to chickens every day!
I have even heard of people that grow their own orange trees, and the chickens have been know to eat fallen fruit whenever they get the chance, and there have been no adverse affects on the chickens. However they will tend not to eat the skin of the orange, and that prompts a different question.
Can Chickens Eat Orange Peels?
There used to be a school of thought that citric acid was harmful to the chicken natural bacteria in the crop and in the gut. This thought was borne out by the fact that chickens will often avoid orange peel and citrus skins in general. However, some chickens may come to eat orange peel, and it has become accepted that this may actually be good for them.
The citric acid contained in orange peel may have a beneficial effect on the bacterial in the chickens digestive system, both in terms of aiding digestion, and removing harmful bacteria. There is a benefit for the whole flock of chickens, because when the nasty bacteria is removed from each chicken, there is less chance of being reinfected from the faeces of another chicken. So in actual fact, feeding orange peel to your chickens can improve the health of not only one chicken, but the whole flock also.
Chop chicken scraps into small pieces
The only problem with feeding orange peel to chickens is that they have no teeth, so therefore they cannot bite off small pieces to swallow. So you really only have two choices. Either you chop up or mulch the orange peels into small enough pieces for the chickens to peck and swallow. On the other hand, you can throw larger pieces of orange and citrus peel into the chicken coop for the chickens to continually peck at and to give them something to do during the long hours of the day. Even if they don’t get to eat the whole skin, they will certainly have a lot of fun trying to eat it! You might have to remove all of the uneaten scraps at the end of the day to avoid the scraps going rotten.
What Foods Can Chickens not eat ?
Even though most people are surprised to discover that chickens can eat oranges, there are still many food scraps that chickens should not eat. And this might surprise you also!
Chickens can not eat Avocado
Firstly, we need to explain that not all parts of the avocado are harmful for chickens to eat . Technically, the fleshy part of the avocado can be fed to chickens, but in reality, we humans tend to eat this part, and it is only the scraps that are left over. This is what we need to be wary of feeding to our chickens. Chickens should not eat the avocado seeds and peels, as they can cause serious side effects in birds. Even eating the leaves can cause problems for pet chickens, as the avocado leaves are toxic to animals. So the message is avoid feeding avocado scraps to chickens!
Dried products such as rice and beans can be bad for chickens
Dried products can cause problems for chickens because after eating they can swell and cause problems in the digestion process. It is ok to feed beans and rice to chickens, as long as they are cooked first, and then they are perfectly harmless, and in fact can be a healthy part of the chicken diet.
Chickens can not eat green Potatoes
Surprisingly for some, there are parts of the potato which can be harmful for chickens. Normal potatoes are fine, and in fact chickens will find potato peels to be a special treat as they eat them with no trouble, and even digest the food easily and quickly, which makes it an excellent source of nutrients and energy. However, beware of green potato peels, as these contain a toxin which can kill chickens. Sometimes they are aware of this danger, and will avoid eating the dangerous scraps, but some chickens are not aware of the danger, and may be poisoned with nasty outcomes.
Pesticides are harmful to chickens
Another word of warning if you deal with food scraps that have been treated with chemicals or pesticides. These chemicals are not good for chickens to eat, and may cause all sorts of nasty side effects. Needless to say, if you want to look after your pet chickens, make sure that their food is washed, or preferably free of any nasty chemicals, and then you will have healthy happy chickens for many years to come!
