Feeding cherries

I feed my birds pitted cherries. I'd be worried about the pits.

  • Cherries, Apricots, Plums, Peaches: Cyanide
    Don't freak out if you accidentally swallow a cherry pit—they're rarely poisonous when eaten whole—but whatever you do, don't eat a broken pit. Because aside from tasting really bitter and generally being impossible to chew, the stones of certain stone fruits, like cherries, apricots, plums and peaches, contain cyanogenic compounds—science talk for "stuff that your body can turn into cyanide." So, how many cherry pits is a lethal amount of cherry pits? After some quick Googling, we found that hydrogen cyanide is lethal at about 1.52 milligrams per kilogram, meaning that it takes little more than 0.1 grams (a dime weighs about one gram) of the toxin to dispatch a 150-pound human. A single cherry yields roughly 0.17 grams of lethal cyanide per gram of seed, so depending on the size of the kernel, ingesting just one or two freshly crushed pits can lead to death. (Credit: sk8geek / Flickr, MissMessie / Flickr, kudumomo / Flickr)

 
I feed my birds pitted cherries. I'd be worried about the pits.

  • Cherries, Apricots, Plums, Peaches: Cyanide
    Don't freak out if you accidentally swallow a cherry pit—they're rarely poisonous when eaten whole—but whatever you do, don't eat a broken pit. Because aside from tasting really bitter and generally being impossible to chew, the stones of certain stone fruits, like cherries, apricots, plums and peaches, contain cyanogenic compounds—science talk for "stuff that your body can turn into cyanide." So, how many cherry pits is a lethal amount of cherry pits? After some quick Googling, we found that hydrogen cyanide is lethal at about 1.52 milligrams per kilogram, meaning that it takes little more than 0.1 grams (a dime weighs about one gram) of the toxin to dispatch a 150-pound human. A single cherry yields roughly 0.17 grams of lethal cyanide per gram of seed, so depending on the size of the kernel, ingesting just one or two freshly crushed pits can lead to death. (Credit: sk8geek / Flickr, MissMessie / Flickr, kudumomo / Flickr)
My birds rush to gobble the cherry pits when I spit them out. None of my poultry have ever exhibited any ill effects from eating cherry pits.

Like all treats, moderation should always be used.
 
True but bantams are small and given that cherry pits do contain small amounts of cyanide I wouldn't want to take the chance with my bantams.

Better safe than sorry. I guess the My flock, my rules saying applies here. If the OP feels secure feeding their birds cherry pits, apple seeds, whatever, then they should proceed. But IMHO a cherry pit is much larger than an apple seed and bantams are smaller in body weight and size meaning they may respond differently to toxins.

Another quote:

Cherry, peach, and apricot pits, on the other hand, also contain amygdalin, a form of cyanide. Peach and apricot have it in potentially harmful amounts. Of course, few people intentionally swallow or chew them.
Read more at https://pickyourown.org/apple-seeds-cyanide-arsenic.php#O5FXCs6GXxZKWy5r.99

I occasionally toss an apple to my bantams and let them enjoy but I wouldn't let them devour a lot of apple seeds or any fruit seed or pit as many are toxic. I also ran across an article concerning peach pit poisoning in dogs.

Like I said. Why take the chance?:confused: An occasional treat is good but I wouldn't feed them a large amount.
 

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