apples

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! I am just curious...my chickens don't eat apples. Anyone else? They get lots of treats and scraps and seem to enjoy all of them except apples!

 

[sunnyvera]

To get my girls to try a new food, I cut it up in very small pieces and include with other treats they are used to. They are finicky, but this seems to help. My birds would not touch green beans, yes I even cooked them first, but if I chop them up they eat them. Go figure. They see "green" and get all excited. I even chop raw carrots and they gobble them up. I am sure after they taste a little piece of apple, they will get the hint how yummy they are. Success to you!!

 

[caspernc]

Mine hate bananas! I mean really give me the stink eye if my hands even smell like a banana. I like bananas but have to wash my hands after I eat one. They try anything I give, after making sure its not going to kill them or blow up, but bananas are on the list of things that make them go brrrrrrrrrr. Out of 31 I just knew one would like bananas.

 

[TajMahalChickens]

Mine used to eat everything. Now that they have had a wider range of food, they have decided that bread, baked potatoes, and rice are the best, and they aren't required to eat anything else. Spoiled Brats!!!

Mine chickens seem to like the texture of softer things, so maybe baking them for a little bit might help. If you 'crack' them open to reveal the seed, my birds must like the looks of the seeds, to they go nuts for the seeds, then catch to flavor of the apple, and they starting eating it. I think that apple seeds aren't good for chickens though, but the few can't hurt.

 

[CCourson05]

My silkies won't eat anything except bugs and commercial feed. They won't eat any kind of treat. I just give them what they want and go on about the rest of the flock.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

My girls all seem to love apples.


In fact, I had one girl quarantined inside the house late last week, after she was pecked really bad by the other birds. During her time inside, I gave her a whole -- though peeled -- apple to eat, to keep her entertained. (I did go in there and retrieve the core when she was about finished with the apple, so she couldn't eat the seed, which contains a bit of cyanide.)


She seemed really grateful for the diversion.

 

[me2pl]

strawberries, strawberries, strawberries. . . they LOVE strawberries. one of our wyandottes got juice on its face at night, and the next morning we FREAKED out! it took a careful inspection of the flock, we realized that it was not blood!

 

[Noymira]

Good post! I was wondering that about crap apples. We have a couple crab apple trees near the coop, one right next to where our run will be. Are crab apples ok for them?

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Sure. Again, might want to cut them up at first so as not to scare them. Heck, I had to get mine used to BOSS. Now they pick them out of anything else first. Mine looked at apple peels the first time as if they were a predator, but they love them now. Chickens are pretty funny about new things, including a new food or a change in the coop.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Sometimes foods with a harder outside surface need to be cut in half at first, to get them started. Sprinkling the soft inside with another food they already like or pressing seeds they like into it will often get them started, too. I use that a lot with new foods or birds of all species that haven't yet learned to eat a variety of foods. After they learn that it's something good to eat and they like it, then they're often willing to peck through the outside layer to get at the inside.

It never hurts to eat some of what you're giving them the first time, too. That shows them it's good to eat, as well as being safe to eat. That's how the timid chickens learn from the bold chickens in the flock. The more they get used to eating a variety of foods and learn to trust you, the more willing they become to try new foods. Sometimes. If you're lucky.

Bananas are an interesting food at my house. I don't usually give bananas to my chickens. Normally my husband and I eat them, as well as my parrot and the dogs. I don't like them too green, they have a time when the flavor is perfectly delicious, then they start to get a little too ripe. I hate it when they are even a day after the perfect ripeness. The funny thing is, so do my parrot and dogs! They all eat them enthusiastically when they're at the perfectly ripe stage. The parrot will toss a slice of over ripe banana on the floor of his cage. My dogs will spit it out onto my floor! They're spaniels and they eat almost everything! I've decided that's what banana bread is for...