can i give my chicken oranges and mangos

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I've heard that citrus is bad for them & fruit can make them stop laying...I do not feed my birds either...so I cannot say for sure...

 

[vfem]

I was concerned about the acids in citrus, so I just throw left overs in the compost heap.

 

[tiki244]

Mine also like grapefruit, but I have to cut it up into small pieces for them.

 

[curliet]

I keep hearing this, that citrus is bad for them, but no one has ever said why it is, or what it does to them. Can anyone answer this question...What makes Oranges (or citrus) bad for our chickens?

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

I can not substantiate whether citrus is bad for our birds or not, however, I get all the left over/gone by produce from my local grocer, and it contains everything from oranges peaches and ugly fruit to wierd foreign things I cant even ID! My birds snarf it all up, and look at me for more! They also get a free choice of pelleted egg layer. I have never had a problem, yet. They tend to leave behind what they dont like, which isnt much.

In all honesty, I dont know why citrus would be bad for birds, but I also didnt know that raisins are poisonous to dogs! So I will be watching this thread to see if anyone else can give us reason!

 

[redhen]

Quote:
good question! i want to know also...

 

[m00res]

Please speak up if anyone knows, because my girls love citrus! I hope I'm not hurting them.

 

[ivan3]

Haven't run down specific substances, yet. But did find this:

Substances toxic to swine and especially to poultry are present in dried citrus pulp that includes seeds; also, the high fibre content restricts its use in pig and poultry rations. Dried citrus pulp at the level of 10% in chicken diets reduces growth and at about 30% may be toxic. When added to the diets of layers, even at a level of 2.5% dried citrus pulp adversely affects yolk colour. Dried citrus pulp has been used as deep litter for poultry and subsequently as livestock feed (see I21). Citrus pulp has been ammoniated to increase its nitrogen contents but the method seems to offer little advantage over the separate feeding of a source of nonprotein nitrogen.

http://www.fao.org/ag/AGa/AGAP/FRG/AFRIS/Data/7.HTM

 

[dancingbear]

So tossing a few oranges or whatever from time to time probably won't do anything harmful at all. When I have an orange with a bad spot, I cut off the bad spot, slice up the rest and toss it out to the chickens. they love it. I give them all kinds of fruit and veg, they don't usually eat the onions, though. They didn't care for raw turnips, but liked the greens. Sometimes they will eat the green part of scallions. I feed them potato peels. I feed them beans and peas, but only cooked ones. They lay egg and are active and healthy.

I wonder how many of these things we're told are "bad for them", are the results of experiments that involve feeding much larger amounts than most people are likely to have on hand as scraps? I really have never found any food (that chickens liked) to have ill effects on my birds. It probably would be bad to feed them huge amounts of potato peels and oranges, though! It would also be bad to feed them huge amounts of corn and oats, if they didn't have enough other things to balance it.

I've read not to feed them large amounts of salty foods, that they can get salt poisoning. I think that one's probably valid. People and other animals can die from too much salt, too. So I wouldn't give them large amounts of canned veggies that contain salt, salty snacks like chips, but a nibble now and then wouldn't hurt, I'm sure. I wouldn't give them brine from pickle-making or anything similar.

 

[ivan3]

Sorry, had to leave for a minute:

Same link (above).

"Citrus seeds are sometimes collected separately at the canning plants for oil extraction. The resulting oilcake, called citrus seed meal, compares favourably with many sources of vegetable protein. However, it contains limonin, which is toxic to pip and especially to poultry. Citrus seed meal is therefore unsatisfactory for these animals. At 5% inclusion it reduces growth and at 20% causes mortality in growing chickens. It is acceptable to ruminants and is comparable to cottonseed oil cake, having the same percentage of crude protein. There is no restriction on its inclusion in diets for ruminants. The toxic factor can be extracted under laboratory conditions, but the process is too expensive for application on a commercial scale."

After seeing some of the things our girls have eaten over the years (including a few seed from the Wisteria - thought they'd die immediately!) I doubt anything but the seeds might be problem.