Can Chickens Eat Avocado?

The avocado is high in healthy fats and it has powerful health benefits. Do you have some avocado laying around? Wondering whether it is going to be OK to give that avocado to your chickens? Can chickens eat avocado at all? Well, we have all of the answers that you need on this page!

Can Chickens Eat Avocado?

Yes, chickens can eat avocado, they absolutely can. We have rarely encountered a backyard chicken that doesn’t love to sink their beak into a good bit of avocado. It can be quite healthy for them too. Avocado is packed to the brim with ‘healthy fats’, as well as a whole host of other nutrition. Of course, there are a few precautions that you will need to take.

Chickens, for example, will not be able to eat the pit or the skin of the avocado. This is because both of these have a compound called persin in them. In small quantities, your chickens should be fine ingesting a little bit of persin.

However, if too much gets into the chicken’s system, then it can cause all sorts of health issues. This includes death. Of course, do not let this put you off of feeding your chickens avocado. It is actually wise to give them a bit on occasion.

Don’t forget that the bulk of their diet should come from the specific chicken feed that you give them. It is ok to give them vegetables and fruits (including avocado) every now and then, but in no circumstances should those ever be a staple part of a chicken’s diet.

How to Feed Your Chickens Avocado

As we said previously in answer to the question ‘can chickens eat avocado?’ the answer is yes. However, you will need to be preparing it a certain way.

This means that you will need to remove the skin and pit from the avocado. Thankfully, this isn’t something that is going to be that difficult to do. The pit of a ripe avocado should fall out easily.

If not, you can quickly remove it with a spoon. After that, just scoop the rest of the avocado out. You should put in in a separate bowl (we will tell you why in a second). Then you can mash it up a little bit.

You can mix it with a few other vegetables if you wish. In fact, we actively encourage you to mix up the avocado with other vegetables i.e. ones lower in fat. It will help to give your chickens more nutrients, while at the same time ensuring they do not take in too much fat.

Remember, while avocado is healthy, it shouldn’t form a staple part of your chicken’s diet. At most, chickens should be eating avocado around once or twice per week.

Two avocados are more than enough to keep six chickens ticking over, particularly if you mix it with other fruits and vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, mango …).

Too much avocado will give your chickens too much fat, and this causes issues.

Remember we said that you should keep your avocado in a separate bowl? This is because chickens love to make a little bit of a mess when they are eating, as you will no doubt know.

By keeping it in a separate bowl, it will ensure that it is easier to tidy up. The last thing you want is avocado being buried deep in their food bowl. It will rot. Not only will this attract pests, but it is going to be dangerous for your chickens too!

So there you have it, you know if chickens can eat avocado. You might be interested to check other related articles: