I can't get my chickens to eat fruits and veggies...

[ChickensAreSweet]

These are my first chickens and argh...I feel like I'm dealing with petulant toddlers here!

I have two-month old pullets and no matter what I try, I cannot get them to eat anything other than grain, meal worms and crickets.

I've tried mashing, hanging, tearing...kale, lettuce, apples, watermelon. They won't even eat the chicken treats I buy at the feed store. Yogurt? No way... Beans? Fat chance. I've even tried actual potted plants. Still no dice.

I want them to have a well-rounded diet (I'm really looking forward to delicious eggs, high in omega-3s), but they just don't see these other things as food. I've tried (very lightly) withholding their feed, but the good stuff still sits, undisturbed, in the corner of their coop/run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I haven't read through the other people's responses, but I have found that teenage chickens don't care for most treats I try to give them. But when they get older they LOVE them.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

These are my first chickens and argh...I feel like I'm dealing with petulant toddlers here!

I have two-month old pullets and no matter what I try, I cannot get them to eat anything other than grain, meal worms and crickets.

I've tried mashing, hanging, tearing...kale, lettuce, apples, watermelon. They won't even eat the chicken treats I buy at the feed store. Yogurt? No way... Beans? Fat chance. I've even tried actual potted plants. Still no dice.

I want them to have a well-rounded diet (I'm really looking forward to delicious eggs, high in omega-3s), but they just don't see these other things as food. I've tried (very lightly) withholding their feed, but the good stuff still sits, undisturbed, in the corner of their coop/run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

At first I thought you weren't providing starter feed at all but I imagine from what you've posted further that the foods in the first post were what you were trying to get them to eat in addition to chick feed.
Chickens are wary of any new thing and they don't have well developed taste buds.
People are always anxious to offer people type food.
Poultry nutrition research has been ongoing for over 100 years and chick starter contains all the nutrients and in the appropriate ratios that chicks are known to need including fats, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and metabolizable energy.
Chicks have very high protein requirements and very small digestive tracts. If that space is taken up with low protein things like fruits and vegetables it can affect growth and development.
So the best, easiest and cheapest way to give them a well rounded diet is to eliminate all those treats.
Best advice is to feed nothing but a high protein starter/grower (18-22%) till they start foraging.

Another thing to consider is that chickens don't have hands or teeth so many of the things you may want to feed the chickens will ignore unless you dice them so they can fit through the esophagus.

Have you been providing chick grit (#1 size)?

Wow - I just thought about this... There really isn't such a thing as a "wild" chicken, is there? They probably wouldn't be able to survive for very long in the wild...

There are feral chickens all over, mostly in the tropics on Caribbean islands, Central America and Asia. I imagine in Africa as well.

Grit isn't needed if all you feed is a chick starter (mash or crumble).

I used to think that since the grains are already ground. Still, even if starter is the only feed, grit serves to strengthen the gizzard and even ground grains can serve up more nutrients if further ground in the gizzard.
Just on a whim once, I gave seven 3 week old chicks a quart feeder of #1 grit. They consumed almost all of it in a day. Upon further research, I found it develops the gizzard regardless of what's fed.
I now keep appropriate sized grit available for all ages of birds.
I sprinkle it on the chicks fermented feed for the first couple days then sprinkle it on the bottom of the brooder then in a separate container. It's amazing how they clean it up.

 

[lovemy6hens]

Still, even if starter is the only feed, grit serves to strengthen the gizzard and even ground grains can serve up more nutrients if further ground in the gizzard.
Just on a whim once, I gave seven 3 week old chicks a quart feeder of #1 grit. They consumed almost all of it in a day. Upon further research, I found it develops the gizzard regardless of what's fed.

Interesting! Makes perfect sense.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

Tastes change. Think about how many foods you eat now that you may have never eaten as a kid?

When my girls were real young they went nuts for little pieces of garden worms, now that they are full grown they could care less about garden worms. Mine loved yogurt from the first day I brought them home.

You can always try and "trick" them into eating other foods. For instance, many birds seem to like when their crumbles/pellets have been wetted, so try giving them a small amount of their normal food that has water added to it. If they like this then after a few days sneak in some plain yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, etc into the moistened food. Pretty soon I bet you can just set out a bowl of what ever you were adding to their moist food and they'll eat it straight. You can probably get them introduced to vegetables the same way, just chop them up very small and add them to their moist food ration.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Does the grit strengthen the gizzard or dose it just bulk it up.
Having bulk and strength is one thing but like all muscles you can have bulk with or with out strength just the same you can have a more defined muscle that is less bulky that has lots of strength. A good example of this would be comparing a "Cornish cross" with a Gamefowl. The Cornish cross is a bulky bird with large leg muscles and a large heart where the Gamefowl has smaller more defined legs muscles and heart but the strength of the Gamefowls legs and heart is much greater than that of the "Cornish cross".

A larger gizzard doesn't always mean that it is a stronger gizzard, it just means that it had a larger product to grind up.

 

[Chris09]

Tastes change. Think about how many foods you eat now that you may have never eaten as a kid?

When my girls were real young they went nuts for little pieces of garden worms, now that they are full grown they could care less about garden worms. Mine loved yogurt from the first day I brought them home.

You can always try and "trick" them into eating other foods. For instance, many birds seem to like when their crumbles/pellets have been wetted, so try giving them a small amount of their normal food that has water added to it. If they like this then after a few days sneak in some plain yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, etc into the moistened food. Pretty soon I bet you can just set out a bowl of what ever you were adding to their moist food and they'll eat it straight. You can probably get them introduced to vegetables the same way, just chop them up very small and add them to their moist food ration.

Chickens have very few taste buds, so taste really plays no role in what they eat.
Chickens do however somewhat eat to fill there needs. By you masking or sneaking in treats your only making them eat treats that there body doesn't need.

 

[collingwood]

Mine really like the solid stuff leftover from juice! Just add a cup of water and they'll love it!

 

[Paula 53]

These are my first chickens and argh...I feel like I'm dealing with petulant toddlers here!

I have two-month old pullets and no matter what I try, I cannot get them to eat anything other than grain, meal worms and crickets.

I've tried mashing, hanging, tearing...kale, lettuce, apples, watermelon. They won't even eat the chicken treats I buy at the feed store. Yogurt? No way... Beans? Fat chance. I've even tried actual potted plants. Still no dice.

I want them to have a well-rounded diet (I'm really looking forward to delicious eggs, high in omega-3s), but they just don't see these other things as food. I've tried (very lightly) withholding their feed, but the good stuff still sits, undisturbed, in the corner of their coop/run.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have 2 month old chicks think they are pullets they will eat fruit but won’t touch vegetables