tomato plants

[thebanthams]

I read in a magazine that tomato plants are toxic to chickens! They love to eat them and in the past I have given them the plants. I never seen any chickens get sick ! Also what kind of other things are not good for them ?

 

[southerndesert]

The toxin does not immediately affect your birds but can build up in their system and cause digestive problems among others, but the fruit is fine. There is a ton of info available online with a search.

 

[Illia]

Any nightshade is dangerous to eat the foliage of but the fruit of most edibly available foods is fine. (tomatillos, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, ground cherries, eggplants, pepino melons, naranjillas)

 

[thebanthams]

My chickens dont like potatoes, unless they are mashed potatoes. very spoiled rotten chickies !!

 

[annep]

Ok..didn't know this..Since our tomatoes are done for the year, I've taken down the fence and just let them roam through...Surely, there's a ton of bugs in there for them, and they eat the small green tomatoes, not sure about the leaves...hhmmm...

 

[packmomma]

I'm about ready to take down my fence too. Each year the chickens roam around. They dont eat my tomato plants but will eat the fruit, bugs, and build little dirt nests underneath.

 

[pgpoultry]

When I put my tomato plants I found them stripped down to the main stalk within a half hour.

My rogues were all fine, but I did not have tomatoes.

 

[DawnCols]

I ran across a very interesting article in the New York Times about tomato leaves. It's written by a food writer who did some pretty serious research and found that tomato leaves are not as toxic as people believe them to be. He says he ate sauce made with tomato leaves and fried tomato leaves. I was relieved, because my chickens definitely eat tomato leaves.

Pretty interesting stuff. Here's the link to the article