Can Chickens Eat Potatoes (Raw or Sweet)

The potato is a root vegetable that have been domesticated for thousands of years. Even when the potatoes are cooked, they contain nutrients that are very important, that can benefit human health in many ways. Ever wondered can chickens eat potatoes whether sweet or raw?.

Well, hopefully, we are going to give you all of the answers that you need on this page!

Can Chickens Eat Potatoes?

Yes, chickens can eat potatoes and they will be able to eat the potato part. They can eat this cooked or raw. However, there are a few precautions that you will want to take beforehand.

For starters; you will want to remove any green parts that appear on the potato. These are going to be poisonous to your chicken. Just cut them out. As long as there isn’t any green left behind, then you should be fine.

If you are growing the potato plants yourself, then you should not serve any other part of the plant to your chickens. This is important. The potato is a plant in the nightshade family.

Can Chickens Eat Sweet Potatoes?

Yes, chickens can eat sweet potatoes. Actually, there is not a big difference between sweet and white potatoes.

A study from the US Department of Agriculture shows that a sweet potato contains a little bit less calories, proteins and fiber than a white potato, but it has far more sugar and fat in it.

This wouldn’t make any difference to your chickens, they will love the sweet potatoes.

Can Chickens Eat Raw Potatoes?

Yes, chickens can eat raw potatoes, but as said earlier, make sure that you remove any green parts from the raw potatoes.

If you feed the leaves to your chickens or the stem to your chickens, then it will poison them. The same thing would happen if you ate any plant other than the potato!

How Can You Feed Potatoes to your Birds?

You can serve the potatoes to your chickens either cooked or raw. We tend to suggest that you serve the chickens the potatoes cooked.

This way you can just give them your leftovers. While the chickens will be more than happy to eat full potatoes, you will probably want to cube them up. It makes it easier for them to peck away. It also reduces the risk of them overindulging on the potatoes.

We recommend that you put the potatoes in a separate bowl to the other feed. You may want to mix them up with some other vegetables too. Putting in the separate bowl will make the clean-up process a whole lot easier. You should never leave the potatoes in the chicken coop for more than a day.

If you leave it in there too long, then there is a high risk that bacteria will start to grow on the potatoes. This could lead to poisoning your chickens which can, ultimately, lead to severe sickness.

How Many Potatoes Can You Give Your Chickens?

Potatoes can be nutritious, but we probably wouldn’t go overboard with the number of potatoes that you are giving your chickens. This is because. while they are nutritious, they are not going to contain everything that a chicken needs to grow. For starters; there isn’t any protein, which means that your chickens will find it incredibly difficult to lay quality eggs.

Potatoes are mostly carbohydrates. This means that if your chicken overindulges, then they will be filled up on food. They won’t want to touch anything else. There will literally be no space inside of your chicken to take in more food. This means that they are going to be getting the wrong nutrition, and this could cause long term issues.

We wouldn’t feed your chickens potatoes more than once or twice per week. You should make sure that you cube up the potatoes. You can also mix the potatoes up with other vegetables. This way your chickens are not going to be given the potatoes ‘straight’, and it may encourage them to get a bit more nutrition into their diet.

See also: Can Chickens Eat Mushrooms?