Orange?

Can chickens eat oranges or tangerines??

I don't think they're supposed to have any citrus at all.

Yup, according to the Treats Chart , it's a no-no but there's nothing saying why.

Anyone know why they can't eat citrus fruits?

Would they eat it? I think I was told that orange seeds can cause the egg yolks to turn green, or some other color, but haven't tried it yet.

From what I've read they're allowed citrus, they just don't like it.


Honestly I don't see what is in it that would harm them. I think it's just a preference for most.

I have no idea. Anyone know definitively if it's good or bad and why?

One of my roos pecked at an orange that i was eating a while ago and sneezed.

I believe there is an "old wives tale" that poultry will stop laying if fed citrus.

Sometimes it takes several times before a bird will eat a new food.

Imp

The "Treats Chart" is really uninformative and has a lot of false information posted in it and should either be taken down or corrected..
Now back to the OP's question, "Can chickens eat oranges or tangerines?" There is no problem with chickens eating citrus.

When researching why citrus is bad for chickens I found nothing (not one thing) what I did find is that some commercial poultry feed contain byproduct or waste material from citrus juice extraction.

From Poultry Science ---

•Evaluation of Waste Activated Sludge (Citrus) as a Poultry Feed Ingredient
2. Quality and Flavor of Broilers, Egg Yolk Color and Egg Flavor1
S. A. Angalet2, Jack L. Fry3, B. L. Damron and R. H. Harms
Department of Poultry Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611

Cobb color-sexed broilers were fed diets containing either 0.0, 2.5, 5.0 or 10.0 percent citrus sludge. Three replications of ten males and ten females each were randomly selected from each treatment at the end of the eight-week feeding period. No significant (P< 0.05) differences among levels of citrus sludge were found in carcass weight, percent cooking loss, shear force or sensory evaluation.

Eggs collected from Babcock B-300 hens fed diets prepared with citrus sludge at levels of 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 20.0% were examined for differences in yolk color and development of off-flavors. Color differences (P < 0.05) were observed by reflectance colorimetery and the taste panel. The hue of the yolks increased (was more orange) as the dietary citrus sludge levels were increased. No significant flavor differences were detected by the taste panel for either the yolk or albumen

citrus sludge - byproduct /waste material from citrus juice extraction.

Chris

I've always heard that citrus will weaken their egg shells if they eat it...and I've never seen a chicken actually willingly eat it either as they dont seem to care for it.