Yes, chickens can eat zucchini - raw or cooked. In fact, they will love eating it AND it is good for them too! Generally speaking, zucchini, fruit, leaves, flowers, and seeds, are all safe for your chickens to eat.
But before you start chucking all that extra zucchini you grew in your garden out to your flock, make sure you know how to feed it to them, the benefits and more.
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Is Zucchini Safe for Chickens?
Yes, zucchini is safe for chickens. In fact, unlike when thinking about if chickens can eat tomatoes, if chickens can eat peaches and if chickens can eat mango - you can feed your chickens the entire zucchini plant.
Growing zucchini is pretty common in gardens and it is prolific. We like to clean our our zucchini plants at the end of the season and toss the whole thing out for our chickens.
It usually takes them a few minutes to get interested, but then they go to town and clean the whole pile up pretty quickly.
Zucchini occasionally contains cucurbitacins. In higher concentrations it will give the fruit or vegetable a bitter taste. In humans this can cause GI upset and other issues, but it is not very common.
How do you feed zucchini to chickens?
- Wash it thoroughly to remove any possible pesticides.
- You can feed it whole and let them peck it it or you can cut it in half, cubes or slices.
- You can feed it raw or cooked.
- Toss it out to your chickens or offer in a feed dish.
Despite having a sweet flavor there is, surprisingly, not too much sugar in zucchini. So, you can feed them a decent amount. Unlike when chickens eat nectarines, when chickens eat cranberries, and when chickens eat raisins, which have a lot of sugar and need to be fed in very small quantities.
If you need more help with taking care of your chickens, check out The Organized Chicken Keeper for a complete system for managing their health through keeping their supplies stocked and coop clean.
Benefits of Feeding Zucchini
Zucchini has a whole slew of nutrients that are important such as fiber, vitamin A, Vitamin C. Additionally, zucchini has a very high water content which helps to keep your chickens hydrated (chickens can eat radishes to help stay hydrate also).
Here are what some of those nutrients mentioned above do to keep your chicken's body running right.
- Vitamin A: immune function, vision and more.
- Vitamin C: helps immune system, heat stress and has anti-inflammatory properties. This is also a high nutrient when feeding chickens strawberries.
- Fiber: increases nutrient utilization, GI function and more.
- Potassium: temperature control; hydration & electrolyte regulation; egg production and shell strength and more.
Additionally, while we could not find any scientific studies or sources saying this is true, there are anecdotal experiences of zucchini being used as a natural dewormer, along with pumpkin seeds and some other gourds. Again, we have not been able to confirm this so keep in mind, if you do consider trying it out, your experience may vary from the experiences of others.
Feeding Chickens Zucchini FAQs
Yes, chickens can eat the whole zucchini plant including flowers, leaves, seeds and fruit.
If you need more help with taking care of your chickens, check out The Organized Chicken Keeper for a complete system for managing their health through keeping their supplies stocked and coop clean.
