I thought chickens loved pumpkins?

[alaskachick]

I read that many of you were feeding your chickens pumpkins... so I went to town and bought 30 lbs of pumkins. I took one and broke in half and waited for them to run up and start scarfing it down. All 14 of them took a smell or taste and then turned away in disgust. They never took another look at the pumkin. A few days later I removed it from the chicken yard and threw it away in my compost pile. What up with that?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I haven't tried feeding fresh pumpkin to my chickens, but I do feed pumpkin seeds every day.

Chickens are all different- personalities, food tastes, and likes and dislikes. Now you can tell everyone the next time there is a thread on feeding pumpkins that yours don't like them!

 

[elizabethlongwood]

I guess chickens have their own preferences. We gave our hens their first taste of pumpkin guts today when we carved our jack-o-lanterns, and they really seemed to like it. I have found though, that they are a little apprehensive with a new food when it's offered the first time, then they gobble it up the next time I give it to them. Maybe yours will like it next time?

 

[kjhowe77]

I gave mine pumpkin guts yesterday and they loved them.

 

[jerseygirl1]

Did you try baking it in the oven first to soften it up? Mine won't eat raw pumpkin, it's too hard, so I cut itopen and clean it out, then bake it at 350 for about a half a an hour. They will then pick at it all day down to the skin. The things we do for our chickens.....................

 

[speckledhen]

Mine will not eat raw, but they love it baked. They also adore baked butternut squash.

 

[mboreham1]

same here, not raw, baked, they get the "left overs" after a pie making extraveganza!

 

[dirtsaver]

Most of our girls love raw pumpkin. We do cut it into smaller pieces about 4-6 inches square. The eat it like they do watermelon...right down to the rind!

Larry

 

[bburn]

My chickens love it. They eat it down to a very thin rind. However, the Lone Roosters new girls that are in quarantine are pretty sure I am trying to kill them with some of the treats. They won't touch BOSS.....however the dried corn I boiled to soften....everyone loved it.

Maybe someday their tasted will change.

 

[gritsar]

My adult birds don't like pumpkin either. They'll scarf up the seeds if I scoop them out for them, but leave the guts and meat alone.