Will not eat veggies

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! It's nice to meet you!

 

[Fuchsia]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

 

[Boppo]

Glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC. What a kind neighbor you have! I hope you are eating some of those veggies yourselves! Folks have given you all kinds of comforting and helpful info about the weirdness of chickens - mine are picky about some things, too, and others, they glom onto right away, or after several times.

I tend to leave it all in the pen - I figure it's compost if they don't eat it and they'll eat the composting bugs, then. Of course, I am only giving them veggies or small amounts of fruit - no meat or fat, and just occasional seeds or mealworms.

 

[nanufree]

Glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC. What a kind neighbor you have! I hope you are eating some of those veggies yourselves! Folks have given you all kinds of comforting and helpful info about the weirdness of chickens - mine are picky about some things, too, and others, they glom onto right away, or after several times.

I tend to leave it all in the pen - I figure it's compost if they don't eat it and they'll eat the composting bugs, then. Of course, I am only giving them veggies or small amounts of fruit - no meat or fat, and just occasional seeds or mealworms.

I'm glad to become a member of BackYard Chickens and happy to meet you. Yes, we do have super neighbors. He is an awesome gardener and very generous. I so appreciate all the comments and suggestions I have received. I worry the chickens will become ill by eating molding and rotting food.

 

[Boppo]

Here is just one blog post about chickens and compost. You are good to be careful of your chickens.

 

[WingsysRoost]

I'm glad to become a member of BackYard Chickens and happy to meet you. Yes, we do have super neighbors. He is an awesome gardener and very generous. I so appreciate all the comments and suggestions I have received. I worry the chickens will become ill by eating molding and rotting food.

You are correct to be concerned about them potentially having access to moldy or rotting foods. If it helps, I always toss my scraps in an open part of the run or outside so they can get to them while free ranging. This way, I am able to check the scraps as I walk by and remove anything moldy. I find that mold rarely happens for mine. They might sit for a few days but if they have enough access to air, I find they dry out rather than going rotten. By that point, the chickens have usually taken anything that they want and the leftover scraps will compost.

Your neighbor sounds wonderful!

 

[pinkpickledeggs]

My cheeky girls won't touch pumpkin but go rabid for squash. I don't understand it. They don't care much for leafy greens either except for collard greens - but not brussels sprouts. They like what they like!

 

[Iluveggers]

My birds did the same at first. I then took some veggies and chopped them tiny in my food processor. I give them wet mash (food and water mixed) every morning. That day I added the chopped veggies in their mash. I think this gave them the acquired taste they needed. I did it a few more days. Now they eat almost any veggie scraps I give them (not chopped). Especially if I hang it at head level, sometimes if leafy greens are on the coop floor they ignore it, but if I hang it up they go crazy.