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Feeding Your Chickens Table Scraps (NEW)
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Chickens enjoy eating table scraps, and most leftovers from your table are fine to feed your chickens as a supplement to their normal diet once they reach about 15 weeks of age. Raw or cooked vegetables are good, with some exceptions noted below. Cooked meat is also okay, as long as it is cut into sufficiently small pieces. Rice or other grain is also fine. Here are a few other ideas:
- apples
- berries
- breads
- broccoli
- carrots (cooked or shredded)
- corn
- cucumbers
- lettuce or other greens
- melon (cantaloupe or watermelon rinds)
- oatmeal
- peas
- pumpkins
- squash
- rice
A few things that you should not feed your chickens are:
- salt – avoid excessive amounts of it.
- citrus or citrus peel – opinions vary on this.
- processed foods – chickens are going to fare better off of a home cooked meal than a leftover pizza or a TV dinner.
- raw potato peels
- strong tasting foods, such as garlic or onions
- avocado pits
- spoiled or rotten foods
- soft drinks
- coffee or coffee grinds
- chocolate (contains theobromine, which may be toxic to birds)
- foods that you would normally not put on a compost pile, such as those which are greasy or high in fat
If you have other questions about feeding table scraps to your chickens and they aren’t answered here, leave us a comment below.
For more information on feeds and feeding of chickens, see Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow.
Thanks so much everyone! The garden is producing more cukes than I can use in salads or pickles and hoped it was okay to give to the girls. So appreciate your advise.
We have had a problem with them pecking at each other’s tail ends. Tried all the mite etc remedies but that doesn’t seem to be the problem. Any thoughts? They look so sad with their naked bottoms. Okay for the 100 degrees now but when winter comes…yikes! The are Buff Orpingtons (excuse spelling please) Thanks again.
I also have 2 little ducks, can they have the same scraps as the chickens?
I am a first timer, and I love my girls and 2 boys. I have Barred Rocks RI-REDS, Buffs and Wyanodottes, so cute and funny!! All the info is a great help to me, glad I found this website!! Mine are about 12 weeks, all 13 of them, still in the spare room, but I think they are ready to go into their new home outdoors…Any advice… Glad to get!!
I have 40 six month old chickens. Can I feed them raw hamburger meat?
We don’t recommend feeding chickens, of any age, raw meat as it can lead to cannibalism.
What about sweet potatoes??
Sweet potatoes are fine to feed to your chickens. Note that sweet potatoes are in the plant family Convolvulaceae and are not related to (Irish) potatoes, which are in the plant family Solanaceae.
I have fed my girls leftover sauerkraut. They loved it, but I was wondering if items with vinegar are ok for them?
Bonnie, sauerkraut or items that contain vinegar should be fine to feed your chickens.
I have always been told not to feed chickens any type of bread because it can fill up their crop and they can’t digest it. Would you help me on this.
Thank You
Aloha, feeding your chickens bread shouldn’t harm them. As always with feeding something other than their normal rations, I would only feed bread in moderation.
Why do hens lay their eggs with another hen? I have found eggs from another hen in the same nest. Could it be because I’m taking her eggs so she figures that if I don’t see any in her nest I won’t get her eggs! But she will go lay them in another Hen’s Nest. Oh well, as long as I’m getting eggs they can lay wherever they want!
Hens instinctively lay eggs in nests that already have eggs in them. You can put a few ceramic eggs into the other nest to encourage the hens to lay there also.
The 3 table scrap foods our hens go berserk over are: (1) corn on the cob (boy, do they clean those cobs off!), (2) tomatoes, and (3) cheese (especially if it’s been shredded).
I give my chickens their lay pellets, a little scratch, oyster shells and just about everything from the kitchen (except chicken!). I do give them back their egg shells as well which they seem to devour in-season but they haven’t paid much attention to them over the winter months. Maybe they just didn’t “need” them as they were hardly laying. Any way….. I’m curious about the potato peelings. I didn’t know they shouldn’t have them. I have been including them in the scraps I give. What is the trouble with potato peels?????
Potato skins, and to some extent potatoes, contain small amounts the poison solanin. The amount becomes dangerous to humans when the spud is exposed to sunlight for long. It causes the green color that indicates higj concentration of solanin. I presume it is because of solanin that this blog warns against peels. Keep potatos in the dark, and throw away (not to the chickens) any that have turned green. For more info, Google “Solanin”
We love to watch the chickens eat cooked spaghetti. They are so funny! I think it looks like worms to them and they go nuts over it! Try it! You’ll have a laugh!
Great post! We waste tons of food. I can’t wait to “recycle” in 12 weeks!
My girls LOVE shredded raw carrots, apples, kale, and spinach. Cooked thick-cut oatmeal (served warm on winter mornings, and sometimes with a few chopped up raisins), cooked brown rice, and dried mealworms (from Happy Hen Treats – check out their website) are also favorites. Love to watch my girls play “chicken keep-away” with each other when they’re tossed a whole small apple. Never knew chickens could be such fun little pets – they are delightfully happy little creatures, and each comes with her own special personality! I love my girls!
So nice to see the girls coddled & pampered so. Your backyard is a haven of love in a cruel world.
Because I have 65 hens, I can’t afford such marvelous generosity, but I do give them a few of the black oil sunflower seeds I feed the tweetie birds with. They really gobble them down… oops! cackle them down. Their gizzards grind up the shells perfectly.
So anyone know why avocado pits and potato peels aren’t good for the chickens? I’ve never heard of this before…thanks
Avocados pits and skins (and the leaves and bark) can contain persin, a fungicidal toxin that can be fatal to birds (including chickens) and other animals. For more information, see: Persin on Wikipedia.
You should put chocolate on the list. Anything with chocolate is toxic to most animals, including chickens, just like avocados.
Thank you for the suggestion. We updated the list with information about chocolate. Let us know if you have any additional references on toxicity to chickens or birds in general.
Raw potato peels are not good for them, potatoes are never to be eaten raw (that goes for humans too). Potatoes belong to a certain group of plants (I don’t recall the name right now) [Note from editor: the plant family is Nightshades (Solanaceae)], that can only be eaten cooked or in certain cases not eaten at all.
I give my chickens the peels from cooked potatoes, they go gaga over them.
See above, re solanin, on spud skins.
I live near a business that makes ‘floral’ arrangements out of fresh fruit, they discard all the melon rinds and bruised fruit. My chickens have been feasting all summer on canteloupe and watermelon rinds, and piles of kale – what a bonus~!
We also collect from the same company here locally. They love that their scraps are going to good use. We pick up once a week, and that is plenty for our 24 chickens. I make sure to always pick up when I say I will because they have to use fridge space to keep the boxes. It is frustrating for a business owner to save something and it not get picked up…so if anyone else is doing this…please be ever so thankful and pickup when you say you will. You will build great relationships this way.
I planted a garden mostly for my free range chickens this year. Very funny to find what their preferences are. The cantaloupe and cucumbers disappeared quickly, but they don’t mess with the Zucchini much. They are corn crazy, obviously, and have acquired a taste for lemon cucumbers. A chicken at a full run is a hilarious sight…neck stretched out and legs just flying. What a joy they are. And then a bounty of beautiful eggs to boot!
I had no idea I could feed table scraps. Thanks for listing these.
My chooks love leftover yogurt and cottage cheese that’s a bit past its prime.
They will do “stupid pet tricks” when I bring in the tasteless ornamental strawberries our previous tenant had planted: I hold one out at arm’s length and the ladies fly up to catch it. Most entertaining, and probably good exercise for them.
Now when we eat out I ask for a “chicken bag” rather than what we used to call a “doggie bag,” so I can bring home the salmon skin, uneaten bread, etc. rather than have the restaurant throw it out. The chickens go particularly ga-ga over shrimp shells.
I have been told head lettuce contains caffeine and should not be given laying hens. It will slow or even stop their laying. Any other kind of lettuce is fine.
I’ve never heard of that. One thing about lettuce: never give them iceberg lettuce, because it has almost no nutritional value. It consists mostly of water and gives them diarrhea.
This goes for people as well. Why do you think the iceberg is the cheapest of all lettuces?
After a Family Gathering there were lots of leftovers, but the one liked most was the Potato Salad. A small box in the mornings was the start to our chicken’s day. They disappeared very quickly.
I think this list of prohibited foods must be for confined chickens. Our compost pile has plenty of coffee grounds, avocado pits, citrus peel and potato peels, and that is the chickens first stop of the day. I would agree that none of these interest the chickens. I suppose if avocado pits are being eaten, the author’s chickens are much larger than our chickens.
Avocado is highly toxic to most animals, any part of it, including the flesh. So your chickens don’t have to eat a pit to get sick. This list is by no means meant only for confined chickens.
Your chickens probably don’t eat raw potato peels, coffee grounds and the like, because it’s not what they like to eat, as long as there’s other tasty stuff in the compost.
My compost is shorted since adopting chickens, but the mixture in the bedding from coop sprinkled on my sweet corn patch, wow!
We have 7 hens and 2 baby roosters. They all love it when I bring them my leftovers, and I save the scraps from when I prep fruit. They LOVE strawberries & tomatoes :)
My chickens love whole cabbages, tomatoes and my canned tomatoes in the winter, pumpkins, and so many other of my organic vegetables. Their favorite seems to be kale and arugula. We feed them as many japanese beetles as we can and also the nasty potato bugs. My favorite chickens are my salmon faverolles.
Why 15 weeks? My birds are about 14 weeks and I have been giving them scraps for a while, as well as mealworms and crickets, but only as treats, not as their primary diet.
I feed everything we do not eat. I wondered is it ok to introduce a rooster from a different flock.
My chickens go crazy for watermelon rinds! And I’ll often leave ’em a little watermelon, too! They just love watermelon…
I love giving the chickens the watermelon rind. They turn it into a paper thin shell in an amazingly short time!!!!
We have made an arrangement with the local green grocer who saves all his slightly off fruits and veggies. They are all in great shape but just not good enough to stay on the shelves. It has made my chickens very happy vegetarians. Even though their feeder is full they happily go through all the melon, tomatoes, raw veggies (particularly corn on the cob!) and berries that I can give them. Oddly, they are not very interested in strawberries. These girls come running when I show up with a basket of goodies. The big master Cochin Rooster is a little standoffish but even he dives into the canteloupe.
Our chickens LOVE watermelons, cantaloupes, and tomatoes. They can’t get enough of them! They are fun to watch when you give them a watermelon!
I noticed that you said to feed rice and oatmeal. I had been told not to feed the instant since it swell up inside of the bird and cause problems, is this true? Or should it already be cooked?
I always cook the rice before feeding it to the chickens. Let it cool also. They love rice, and also spaghetti noodles, cooked of course.
Why no citrus? Is there something in it that isn’t good for the chickens? Normally when we offer something to the chickens they don’t like, they’ll let us know by leaving it there. Never had a problem with some oranges in the mix. Thanks.
I’ve also heard that chickens ‘won’t eat oranges’, but mine will! Please do tell if there’s some reason they shouldn’t be eating them!
I killed a bunch of my new flock with grapefruit. Wish I read this before hand. Another lesson in the school of life for me. Citrus is toxic to chickens. They’ll be ok with just a little bit, but it is not good for them. Who knows how bad just little bit makes them feel.
My chicks devoured the clementines I put in their coop. I feel bad now finding out that wasn’t safe.
Our chickens love cabbage heads and clover!
Wondering how many ounces of laying pellets a chicken should be given a day if they are free range most of the time.
My chicks love spaghetti. I think that they think the pasta is worms.
I was told feeding them grass and alfalfa hay is good for them. Is this true?
My chickens “graze” throughout our entire garden area, loving green grass, slugs, seeds, bugs, and even some soil! They are a hoot! I do throw them some veggies and fruits, but I didn’t know, until now, to not include citrus fruits in the mix! Thanks!
What are the best table scraps to feed or not feed ducks?
Quackers! just kidding, sorry, I couldn’t help myself.