Pictures of Chickens vs Fruit :P

[Ariel301]

I feed my birds citrus fruits almost every day. The goats too, they love chomping down whole grapefruit.

I'm getting 14 eggs or so a day from 20-ish hens, so I think I'm ok. I also feed raw potato peels any time we peel potatoes for something. They eat them, but won't eat sweet potato peels, they leave those for the goats to clean up.

 

[AlienChick]

Don't know why not to feed citrus.

Our "Treat Chart" lists citrus as a "do not feed" item but does not say WHY.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

 

[allpeepedout]

Very cute photos and happy chooks! Looking forward to giving my youngsters fruit from the garden this summer.

On the citrus question, I looked on some other BYC threads about feeding citrus and someone said it can cause feather plucking in some chickens who are sensitive to it, because of a buildup of citric acid, and that this is commonly known in pet birds.

A google search turned up a mention of too much citrus affecting egg flavor and egg shell quality, but no credible scientific references for any of these comments.

 

[chicknmania]

Quote:
WEll, idk, maybe it's just the potato, but if you research it you'll see it's not recommended they eat potatoes. The two hens that died had been
on our compost pile, and they died within a day of each other and fell mysteriously ill with no prior symptoms. And it did appear
they were poisoned by something. Since we quit putting potatoes and skins out there, we havent had anything like that
happen. Sweet potatoes are ok, just not the white ones.

 

[AquaEyes]

I haven't had chickens, but I've read a lot of chicken books, and I don't remember citrus being mentioned as a "no-no." If the thought is that the fruit is too acidic, then tomatoes would also be harmful, and from what I've read here, chickens have no problem with tomatoes. The only time I've heard about avoiding citrus, and other acidic foods, when feeding birds was for softbills and lories, who are prone to hemochromatosis. Chickens are not one of the species that develop this illness from eating "regular" food like softbills and lories can. If people here are saying they've fed citrus with no problems, I'd imagine that the inclusion of citrus on "no-no" lists is probably a result of each list being a copy of a previous one, with no one bothering to go back and verify.

In the cage-bird world, there's something similar with regards to lists of toxic versus nontoxic plants. I've seen some lists that have some plants on the toxic list, only to be listed as nontoxic on other lists. An example is poinsettia, which has appeared as being toxic for years, simply because it was reported as such "somewhere" and that information just got copied and pasted through the years. Poinsettia is NOT toxic, and how it got on the list was because of ONE dubious claim that a child who died "must have eaten a poinsettia leaf" and the myth persisted...since 1919....with not a single repeat of "accidental poinsettia ingestion resulting in death." A child would have to eat several hundred poinsettia leaves to accumulate enough of any chemical to cause possible harm, and that would likely be simply an upset tummy. It was another case of a piece of information being passed down as truth without anyone bothering to verify if it was true.

In this case, the fact that people have been feeding it and experiencing no problems is enough for me to believe that it's safe.

Oh, and btw, those pics are really cute. I wish I could take pics of my Sammy (see bird on my head in my pic) when he's eating a favorite food, but his head doesn't leave his bowl until he's done. That doesn't make for a very entertaining picture.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
WEll, idk, maybe it's just the potato, but if you research it you'll see it's not recommended they eat potatoes. The two hens that died had been
on our compost pile, and they died within a day of each other and fell mysteriously ill with no prior symptoms. And it did appear
they were poisoned by something. Since we quit putting potatoes and skins out there, we havent had anything like that
happen. Sweet potatoes are ok, just not the white ones.

Solanin, the chemical in raw potato peels, is destroyed during cooking. If you want to give them the peels, or at least make them safe in the compost in case they get at them, just boil them first.

 

[Chris09]

That is the problem with that "treat chart" here on BYC, the information my have to do with pet birds but have nothing to do with chickens.
This is what I have found on Citrus Acid and Livestock.
Citric acid is used in animal feeds to form soluble, easily digestible chelates of essential metal nutrients, enhance response to antibiotics, enhance flavor to increase food uptake, to control gastric pH and improve the efficiency of the feed.
This is what I have found on Citrus Acid and poultry
Citric acid can increase feed intake and daily gain, improve feed utilization, and enhance resistance to disease. Such as high-temperature season, in broiler diets to add citric acid, can improve Chicken's feed intake, feed utilization and daily gain; citric acid can promote red blood cell C3b receptor on the synthesis, while the red blood cell C3b receptors exert immune function an important material foundation; Citric acid in the animal body is oxidized into carbon dioxide and bicarbonate, as a blood buffer to maintain the stability of blood PH value; In addition, citric acid is the antioxidant synergist.


Chris

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
The above mentioning of how citric acid is used "to form soluble, easily digestible chelates of essential metal nutrients" is why citrus fruits, and other acidic fruits, shouldn't be fed to species prone to hemochromatosis. This disease is informally known as "iron storage disease." Many softbills and lories are prone to this because these species evolved along with an iron-poor diet, and their metabolism is super-efficient at extracting iron from their diets. Put them on a diet of "regular" food, and their super-efficient iron absorption results in a toxic overload of iron in the liver, and then death. In captivity, these birds are kept on diets that are VERY low in iron (to the point that other species might become anemic on these diets), and citrus is avoided because it makes whatever iron is in the diet more easily absorbed. Chickens are not prone to hemochromatosis, so this citrus danger doesn't apply to them. And the fact that (having read through older posts) many of the "don't feed citrus" warnings came AFTER someone posted something that mentioned they've been feeding citrus with no ill effects further leads me to believe that this "warning" has persisted more because of "copy and paste" than "repeated instances of toxicity." Things don't become more true when more people say them.

 

[ScissorChick]

Thanks, I've actually never even heard of citrus being a 'no-no'. Our birds love it. I read about

the potato peelings. They don't get them. Lucky for me they have no interest in potato

peels.

AquaEyes, Sammy is gorgeous!

I have a hahns who sits in my window seel

all day watching wild birds LOL.

 

[ScissorChick]

Quote:
holy stink eye. She's not messing around, is she?

No. Shes not haha. The bad thing is...I got TWO like that.