My chickens don't eat fresh vegetables

[cesargtapia]

I've tried to give a lot of different fresh vegetables to my chickens (lettuce, cabbage, peppers, apples, tomatoes...). They peck it out of curiosity, but then they ignore it completely.

I'm not worried at all, because they have good quality chicken feed, which they love, and they spend their day foraging my garden eating grass and bugs, but I'm very curious why they are not interested at all in anything else.

 

[Perris]

vegetables are not a part of their natural diet. Try them with some meat, fish or dairy products instead.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm very curious why they are not interested at all in anything else.

Because they are living animals and you don't get guarantees with living animals.

I offer mine all the stuff you mentioned and more from my garden and orchard. Some they devour immediately, some they ignore, at least for a while. Each year can be different when the garden produce is available. If I continue to offer it they often learn to eat it. If I offer broccoli and cabbage leaves at the same time one year they may eat the broccoli and ignore the cabbage. The next year they may eat the cabbage first.

I'll tell a story. One year while processing corn from the garden for harvest I collected a plastic yogurt cup full or corn ear worms. I dumped those near a group of 10-week-old chicks. Those chicks very cautiously started moving toward that pile. Step by step, inch by inch, they got closer. Then a worm wiggled!!! Run Away! Run Away! But not too far. Soon they were cautiously making their way toward that pile. Step by step, inch by inch, they got closer. Then a worm wiggled!!! Run Away! Run Away! But not too far.

This went on four or five times before a bold young cockerel nabbed a worm. That entire pile was gone in 30 seconds. That's what it took for them to understand they liked them.

So just continue to offer that stuff. Either they will learn to eat it or they won't.

 

[cesargtapia]

Because they are living animals and you don't get guarantees with living animals.

I know, I know. As I said, I'm not worried or trying to force them to eat, they're very well fed. I'm just curious about it.

Today I offered them a slice of cheese, as @Perris suggested. This time they were a little bit more interested, and even ate a couple of small bits. But apparently they prefer my boot laces and my arm hair, and after a couple of minutes of gently pecking me instead of the cheese, they said "booook!" and went back to happily investigate under the dry leaves.