Can Chickens EAT Mango?

Chickens can eat a variety of foods including nuts, grains and fruits. For them to live a healthy life, they require a well-balanced diet that will meet all the body requirements they need. So, can chickens eat mango?

These birds are not choosy and will eat almost anything that is edible to them. When raising chickens, most kitchen scraps that would have ended in the compost are good treats for chickens.

In this article, I am going to cover everything you need to know between chickens and mango. This will help you know whether this is the right fruit for chickens to eat or not.

Let’s roll!

Can chickens eat mango?

Yes! Mangoes are one of the fruits that chickens can eat as treats. They are sweet, healthy and will help supplement their diets with extra nutrients.

It is true chickens can eat mango. The fruit is full of vitamins and a host of other essential minerals that will help in the development of their bodies. Feeding the fresh part of the mango fruit and also the mango peels is recommended.

However, these fruits should be considered to be treats but not the main diet. They should only account for 10% of the food given to your birds. Ducks, turkeys, geese and other poultry can also be fed mangoes as they are nutritious to them too.

How to feed mangoes to chickens

When feeding chickens with mangoes, you have to consider the following factors:

• Always slice the fruit into smaller pieces that are easy for the birds to swallow. Small chicken breeds like bantam chickens cannot swallow big pieces of the fruit due to the size of their mouths. Such pieces can easily choke the birds and kill them.
• If you want to give the fruit to the birds whole, remember to hang it with a string suspended from the chicken coop roof. This way, chickens will peck it and it will not get dirt and dust unlike when you hurl chopped pieces on the ground.
• Mangoes are treats and should not account for their 100% diet. They should be given sparingly and in moderation only meant to supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals. It is advisable to feed the fruit to your flock once or twice a week.
• Mangoes can be fed to chickens whole or either chopped and mixed with other treats like strawberries and chickens feeds. Additionally, they can be frozen and fed on a hot summer day to help your birds cool their fluffy bodies.

What are the health benefits of feeding mangoes

The reason mangoes are fed to chickens is because they have various health benefits to chickens. These sugary fruits are known to contain various vitamins and minerals that are very vital for the health and development of your birds.

Here are some of the reasons that make us feed these fruits to our flock of chickens:

Mangoes help in digestion

These fruits are very succulent containing a lot of water in them. This water is much needed in the bodies of chickens as it helps in food digestion and also prevents dehydration. Mangoes are very rich in fibre. This is another important component as it prevents constipation hence playing a key role in the egestion of unwanted food materials from the body.

They are a good source of sugar

Although uncontrolled amount of sugars can lead to several health problems to chickens, they are converted into energy and later stored in the body as fat.

These fats are very important as they act as insulators protecting the body from the effect of cold. They also protect the muscles against the impact of shocks and vibrations. Because they are energy reserves, they are metabolized during times of starvation and converted to energy.

Mangoes have minerals and vitamins

A single mango fruit has several vitamins and minerals in it that are very important for healthy development of chickens. These are the minerals a single fruit will add to your friendliest chickens.

• Proteins 1.4 grams
• Carbs 24.7 grams
•  Fat 0.6 grams
• Vitamin A 10% RDI
• Dietary fiber 2.6 grams
• Vitamin C 67% of the Reference Daily Intake(RDI)
• Folate18% RDI
• Vitamin B6 11.6% RDI
• Calories 99
• Vitamin E 9.7% RDI
• Copper 20% RDI
• Vitamin K 6% RDI
• Niacin 7% RDI
• Potassium 6% RDI
• Vitamin B5 6.5 RDI
• Riboflavin 5% RDI
• Manganese 4.5% RDI
• Thiamine 4% RDI
• Magnesium 4% RDI

This data is according to the USDA.

All these minerals play different roles in the body of chickens by keeping their immune systems strong with their tissues functioning normally as required.

How many mangoes should chickens eat?

Although mangoes are good fruits for chickens, they should be fed in moderation. They are treats and not their main course thus, feed them sparingly.

The general rule of thumb states that all treats fed to chickens should not exceed 10% of their total diet. Treats do not have all the nutrients these birds need in their bodies and can lead to malnutrition if fed in large quantities.

Additionally, avoid those store bought mangoes and other fruits treats you are not sure where they were grown. They may be laden with toxic pesticides used in most farms and can lead to death or serious I’ll health.

Wash fruits and vegetable s thoroughly with plenty of clean water before feeding them to chickens. This way, you will remove any dirt or dust present which can be a recipe for stomach upsets or possible food poisoning.

Never feed rotten or bad mangoes to your chicken breeds. What you cannot eat don’t fees it to your flock. Bad foods can cause death or disease when swallowed.

Avoid feeding mangoes to baby chicks. These little critters require a well formulated diet of starter feeds until they are fully feathered and out of the chick brooder. In addition to that, their digestive systems are not fully developed to digest treats and sugary foods.

Are mango peels and seeds good for chickens?

Mango peels are good and can be fed to chickens. However, chop them into smaller pieces that are easy to swallow. Some people say that mango peels are bitter for chickens but I never found any proof to support this.

The seeds of ripe mangoes are very tough and have a hard kernel. You will have to open the mango seed kernel first to expose the soft white seed. This seed is edible by chickens but chop it into smaller bits because it is large and can choke them to death.

Unripe mangoes are not good for chickens as they are bitter. But their seeds lack the hard kernel and it is often soft for chickens to peck on it and eat.

What Makes a Chickens diet?

Chickens require a well-balanced diet that has all the required nutrients and minerals in the right proportions. The best example of such a feed is chicken pellets and crumbles sold in most feed stores.

These pellets are specially formulated for chickens and are well balanced. When supplementing their diet with mangoes, bear in mind that this is not their main diet and should only be given in small quantities as treats.

Cracked corn, whole grains like sorghum, millet, rice and wheat are some of the best examples of foods that can be fed to chicken as feeds and not treats.

Some people often feed chicken scrap and junk foods to their birds. Junk foods and certain kitchen scraps are very unhealthy to feed to your birds because they contain little or no nutritional value in them. Some good examples are chips, popcorn and marshmallows. They will make your chickens became overweight, obese and are probe to joint, back and liver problems.

At a young age, chickens require a diet that is rich in proteins at the rate of 24% for healthy growth. However, their protein demands go down as they grow requiring more starch for energy and also other vitamins and minerals in the right proportions.

When birds reach the laying stage, give them a diet that is rich in calcium to help in the egg shell formation. All chickens from the age of 3 weeks onwards require to be provided with grit as it helps in digestion of food in the gizzard. Plenty of clean drinking water is also a basic requirement for the birds to keep their bodies well hydrated.

Giving your chickens a chance to free range gives them a chance to supplement their diet with warms, tasty bugs and small plants they get on the backyard. Free ranging is a cheap chicken rearing method because it helps bring down the cost of feeding these birds.

Final thoughts

Mangoes are some of the fruits that can be fed to chickens. Other fruits such as grapes, peaches and apples can be fed to your birds too but only in moderation.

But caution is important when giving this sugar rich treat to your birds as too much of something is not good. If chickens becomes used to these sweet foods they may end up disliking other foods that are not sweet.

Feeding fruits in the right proportions to your birds is good as they supplement their diets with some additional minerals that are very important to their health and well being.

So, can chickens eat mango? Yes in small amounts as a treat. Share your thoughts on the comment section.

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