Can chickens eat watermelon or not? Is 6any substance in this fruit that can harm your poultry flocks?
A chicken loves to eat everything. Chickens will eat everything which they find tasty. The foods they can put inside their beak, they eat them.
Chickens are omnivores, similar to other animals such as pigs, hedgehogs, and humans. Chickens can eat anything, and their diet usually contains algae, plants, fungi, insects like mealworms, and animals.
Read our list of best chicken treats. In this article, you will read a complete guide on feeding watermelon to chickens.
Can Chickens Eat Watermelon?
Yes, chicken can eat watermelon. Chicken loves fruit, and you will enjoy the view of how chickens are devouring it?
Chicken and other birds need a lot of water during the summer. You may be aware that watermelons contain a lot of water, which serves as a rich source of hydration that helps the chickens cool off and replenish the fluids in their body.
You can either cut them up or give them a half of a watermelon. But you should remember that you should give fresh watermelon to your chicken.
Health Benefits of Watermelon as a Chicken Treat
Watermelon has various health benefits to chickens. It’s better to provide them with this particular treat, especially on summer days. Some benefits are as follows:
Watermelon Help Chickens to Cool Their Body
Chickens can tolerate some variations in temperature and hot weather. Read our guide on keeping chickens cool in summer.
To cool off their bodies, they perform certain activities, such as they open up their wings to trap some air and dust bath to reduce the heat from their bodies.
Watermelon slices will help them keep their body cool, since this contains plenty of water. This will help them reduce their body temperature on hot summer days.
Watermelons Help to Rehydrate Your Chicken
Chickens feel dehydrated, especially in summer. During this period, the chickens lose water in the form of vapor, especially when they are breathing out.
Watermelon contains a large amount of water and essential nutrients, which will help the chicken stay healthy. Feeding watermelons replenishes the water loss in the flocks.
Watermelons as a Treat Uplift Your Chicken’s Mood
Chickens show different moods in different situations—their mood changes, such as they feel sad or happy, that depends upon various factors.
These factors adversely affect the production of eggs. An emotional state is essential for their well-being and productivity.
Feeding them some slices of watermelon will uplift their mood and emotional state. After eating watermelon, your chicken will feel relaxed and stress-free for a long time. Giving watermelon will help ensure adequate egg production during the summer.
Watermelon Keep Chickens Healthy
Watermelons are rich in essential nutrients and fibers, which every fowl needs to stay healthy.
The watermelon has fiber that improves their digestion and also adds bulk to their poop. A healthy digestive system is essential for a chicken’s overall well-being.
Can Chicken Eat Unripe Watermelon?
Watermelons are an excellent treat for your chickens to quench their thirst, especially during summer days when the weather is extremely hot. The water content of watermelon is approximately 92%, which will help the chicken remain hydrated.
Chickens can feed upon unripe watermelon, but you can provide ripe watermelon to them because unripe watermelon contains a low amount of beta-carotene and a low amount of lycopene.
Which Part of Watermelon Can Chicken Eat?
Chickens can eat various parts of the watermelon, and you can add multiple slices of watermelon, such as their rinds, seeds, leaves, vines, and flesh, in their diet.
Watermelon Rind
The rind part of watermelon has various health benefits. It is the outermost and toughest layer of watermelon, which is generally green in color.
Though they are not as tasty as flesh, they have a lot of fiber and a lot of potassium. You can provide watermelon rinds by grinding them. Your birds will love to peck on them.
Watermelon Flesh
It is the most popular, edible, and soft part of the watermelon. It mostly has a pink-red color and usually contains a good amount of water.
Chickens and other animals like goats, horses, and cows are fond of this part of the watermelon. Cut them and give your chickens; you will see how crazy they are for watermelon.
Watermelon Seeds
Watermelon seeds are very rich in vitamins, magnesium, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, copper, proteins, omega-6 fatty acids, potassium, and many other things.
It is best not to throw them away, but to leave them inside the water flesh so that your chicken can feed on them. However, keep in mind that you should not supply this in high amounts, as they are rich in calories.
Watermelon Leaves
It is better to feed watermelon leaves that you have planted on yourself or plucked from your garden. It will be the best idea to serve the chicken with a salad made with watermelon leaves and vines.
How to Give Watermelon to Chickens?
Watermelon is rich in water content, which makes it a wonderful treat, especially for summer days. It is difficult for chickens to stay hydrated on these summer days.
So, they should be feeding this tasty watermelon on these summer days to retain water in their body.
If you plan to serve this tasty treat to your fowls, it’s better to cool it down more by placing it in the refrigerator first. You can then cut them into small chunks. It’s better not to remove the seeds and skin while serving them, as they will munch them.
For playing, you can use the few chicken toys to hang the flesh part of a piece of watermelon so that they will enjoy it more.
You can also serve watermelon to your fowl by making watermelon soup. It will not change the water content in the watermelon, but it’s going to hassle. The chickens will drink and peck all the watermelon soup.
Give them in the form of watermelon salad. You can prepare the salad by mixing any veggies which they like along with watermelon and vines. The vegetables can be shredded carrots and cucumber. Mix them very well and watch them enjoying it.
Remember that don’t go overboard while feeding watermelon to your chicken, as this will fill them up rather quickly. A small or medium-sized watermelon will be ideal for 8-9 chickens. The chickens are going to enjoy feeding it if they feel dehydrated.
Summary
Chickens love treats, and they will enjoy the watermelon treat when you offer it to them. Watermelon doesn’t contain any dangerous and harmful substance that could cause any severe injury or death to your fowl.
Always try to feed them ripe watermelon but in moderate amounts, and try to provide them pesticide-free watermelon.
Never set out to make this staple in their diet; it is just a treat for them. I hope you got your answer to the question: can chicken eat watermelon?
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