Approved by Dr. Lorna Whittemore
If you raise chickens, whether at home or on a farm, you know that the majority of their diet consists of chicken feed or what they can forage. But it’s nice every once in a while to give your chickens a treat. A host of foods can count as treats for chickens, but have you ever considered giving your feathered friends some raspberries?
Can chickens eat raspberries? They can! In fact, they are generally big fans of the fruit. However, chickens should only eat them in moderation, as this fruit shouldn’t be a staple of their daily diets. Below you’ll learn about the nutritional benefits of raspberries for your chickens and more!
The Nutritional Benefits of Raspberries
Raspberries are low in calories but have quite a bit of fiber and offer many nutritional benefits for your chickens. Here are a few of them:
- Fiber helps to stabilize blood sugar
- Antioxidants, such as vitamin C, help fight off free radicals that do damage to cells
- Magnesium helps ward off osteoporosis (particularly in young chickens)
- Potassium helps support egg production and laying
- Calcium helps eggshells to be strong and provides support for a laying hen’s digestive and circulatory systems
As you can see, there’s plenty of good to be said about raspberries and their potential to improve your chickens’ health!
A Chicken’s Regular Diet
If raspberries offer so many benefits to your chicken’s health, why should you only feed them to your feathered flock in moderation? Because the majority of a chicken’s diet should be a commercial feed that has been specially formulated to meet all its nutritional needs. This is the healthiest way to feed your chicken to guarantee good health and laying. You’ll also need to ensure your chickens are getting some grit in their diet, so they can better digest their food.
Chickens are omnivores and enjoy variety, though, and there are plenty of things you can give your chickens to spice things up on occasion. These include:
- Seeds
- Fruit
- Veggies
- Mealworms
And if your chickens are foragers, they’ll find plenty to eat on their own, such as small animals like frogs, grass, and insects. All of these will complement their regular diet.
How to Feed Raspberries to Your Chickens
When it comes to giving raspberries to your chickens, how should you do so? Should raspberries be fresh, or is frozen suitable? Do they need to be sliced up? The good news is either fresh or frozen raspberries will do the trick. But you should try to buy organic raspberries to avoid any pesticides that could otherwise be lingering on the fruit, as these could make your chickens ill. You might even want to give growing your own raspberries a go!
And as far as slicing goes, you might want to slice the raspberries in half the first time you feed them to your chickens. This will allow your chickens to get used to the texture in a peck-sized portion. After that, though, no slicing should be needed!
Conclusion
Chickens absolutely can eat raspberries and they’ll probably love them! However, our feathered friends shouldn’t have raspberries too often, only as treats. Though raspberries offer a wealth of nutritional benefits for chickens, flocks need to stick to a diet of mainly feed. But making raspberries an occasional treat will definitely make your chickens happy!