So, can chickens eat mango? Well, this is one question you’re likely to ask yourself if you have a flock of chickens and some mangoes to spare in your backyard. Now, the good news is, chickens can eat mango. However, you should feed them ripe mangoes as they’re soft and easy to swallow and digest.
Also, mangoes should be fed in moderation as they contain high proportions of sugar that can cause health risks. The best thing about mangoes is that they contain a high nutritional profile that offers myriad health benefits to your chickens.
With that said, this short guide will discuss the nutritional benefits of feeding your chooks with mangoes.
The Best Nutritional Benefits for Chickens Eating Mangoes
Now, mangoes are nutritious and are excellent sources of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Provided they’re given in small amounts, mangoes can help to strengthen and boost your chicken’s weak immune system. In this section, we’re going to list the nutritional content of a cup (165g) of sliced mangoes before discussing the nutritional benefits in detail.
| Name | Amount |
| Calories | 99 |
| Carbs | 24.7g |
| Copper | 20% of Reference Daily Intake (RDI) |
| Dietary Fiber | 2.6g |
| Fat | 0.6g |
| Follate | 18% of RDI |
| Magneseum | 4% of RDI |
| Manganese | 4.5% of RDI |
| Niacin | 7% of RDI |
| Potassium | 6% of RDI |
| Protein | 1.4g |
| Riboflavin | 5% of RDI |
| Thiamine | 4% of RDI |
| Vitamin A | 10% of RDI |
| Vitamin B5 | 6.5% of RDI |
| Vitamin B6 | 11.6% of RDI |
| Vitamin C | 67% of RDI |
| Vitamin E | 9.7% of RDI |
| Vitamin K | 6% of RDI |
1. Boosts Immunity
Now, the first benefit of feeding your chickens with fresh mangoes is boosting their immunity. If you have raised chickens for a long time, then you know they’re sensitive animals. So, to help them last longer, you need to energize them by supplementing their food with treats that boost their immune system.
A good example is fresh mangoes. Mangoes contain a diverse range of Vitamins such as Vitamin A, B5 & 6, C, E, and K. These vitamins allow the cells to regenerate and produce more white cells for fighting diseases.
2. Improves Digestive Health
Now, chickens don’t have teeth as humans do. Therefore, they depend on a very sensitive digestive process to digest food. Mangoes contain dietary fibers, water, and digestive enzymes called amylases. These digestive enzymes aid in digestion by breaking down complex carbohydrates into digestible sugars
Water helps to keep your chickens hydrated while dietary fibers aid in digestion by preventing cases of constipation and diarrhea.
3. Supports Healthy Heart
If you’re raising hybrid egg-laying hens, then you need to keep a close eye on their heart’s health. The same applies to roosters, which are susceptible to sudden death syndromes.
So, to promote a healthy heart, you need to feed your chickens fresh mangoes to take advantage of magnesium and potassium. These two elements are essential in that they help to boost the relaxation of the blood vessels, lower blood pressure and promote steady pulses.
Besides, mangoes have been found to contain a key antioxidant called mangiferin. This antioxidant is believed to counter the inflammation of heart cells, balance cholesterol, and lower fatty acid levels.
4. Contains High Antioxidants
Mangoes are an excellent source of antioxidants. The main type of antioxidants here are polyphenols, which are in high quantities. Mostly present in fresh juicy mangoes, polyphenols help to protect body cells against radical damage, which accelerates cell aging and death.
Have Any Health Issues With Feeding Chicken Mangoes?
As you can see, mangoes offer immense nutritional benefits to your chickens. But, are mangoes 100% safe for chickens to eat? Now, despite having high nutrients, which are beneficial to a chicken’s body, mangoes contain too much sugar that doesn’t benefit a chicken’s body.
Excess of this sugar can spike a chicken’s blood glucose, the same way it does to humans. This can make your chicken overweight or obese. Once your chicken is overweight, it can develop a fatty liver, which can be prone to illness.
An obese chicken can also suffer from heat exhaustion as excess fat can make it difficult to regulate body temperature. Lastly, obesity can make it hard for a chicken to lay eggs as it will feel distressed.
To avoid this, your chickens should receive just 10% of a mango or fruit diet with the other 90% being a pure feed diet.
Can Chickens Eat Mango Peels?
Yes, they can. Considering they’re natural scavengers, chickens can peck at almost anything. But, are mango peels safe for chickens to eat? Also, do they offer any health benefits to chickens? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself before throwing those mango peels to your chickens to eat.
Starting the benefit, mango peels are high in fiber and contain the most nutrients and antioxidants than the fruit itself. But, despite this fact, why do experts flag mango peels as risky?
- Contains Pesticides: Most mangoes grown using inorganic means have traces of pesticides on the skin. When you give your chickens mango peels, they ingest the toxic chemicals leading to health problems in some of their vital organs.
- Choking Hazards: Now, mango peels are thick and hard as compared to the fruit itself. Therefore, feeding your chickens with peels can make it hard for them to swallow leading to choking accidents. These peels are also hard to digest. So, if you must feed your chickens with mango skin, then you have to chop them into small tiny pieces.
- Allergy: In case you didn’t know, mango peels contain trace amounts of a compound called urushiol. This compound can cause allergic reactions and skin irritation in some chickens. However, this only occurs when the chickens are fed with excess mango peels.
Can Chickens Eat Mango Seeds?
Yes, they can. Chickens can eat mango pits or seeds very well. However, you need to give them pits from unripe mangoes. Such pits are considered soft and easy to break using their beaks. They also don’t cause any choking hazards provided they’re chopped into small pieces.
This is different from ripe mango seeds, which are considered tough to break. But, other than just eating the seeds as a supplement, mango seeds can help to relieve cases of diarrhea in your flock. In fact, powdered mango seeds are used to cure diarrhea in humans.
How to Feed Mangoes to Chickens?
Now that you’re confident your chickens can eat mangoes, the next thing is to understand how to feed them with the mangoes.
First, you should feed your chickens juicy ripe mangoes. The reason for this is that ripe mangoes are soft and easy to swallow and digest. This is different from unripe mangoes, which are too hard to swallow and digest. Also, unripe mangoes are too sour for chickens to eat.
In the case of chicks, you should chop the ripe mangoes into tiny digestible bits or pieces. The same applies to adult chickens. However, adult chickens can also be fed large pieces of mangoes as they can peck and swallow them as small pieces.
Mangoes contain excess sugar that’s dangerous for the health of your chickens. When feeding them, you should not exceed 10% of mangoes in their daily intake.
In the case of hot summer weather, you can consider feeding your chickens frozen mangoes to help cool them down. Here, you can feed them large pieces of frozen mangoes, which they can eat throughout the day.
Lastly, don’t throw pieces of fresh mangoes directly on the ground as it will make them dirty and contaminated. Instead, place the pieces of mango in a clean bowl. This is very important as dirty mangoes can cause disease.
How Often to Feed Mango to Chickens?
Now, mangoes, and other fruits such as apples, melons, and berries should be given to your chickens in low quantities as they’re considered treats. Although a little sugar will boost energy levels, excess sugar can cause obesity, which is not good for your chickens’ health.
Since mangoes contain very high sugar content, feeding your chickens a few mangoes once or twice a week will be sufficient. In most cases, you should feed your chickens at least one mango for every 10 chickens.
Importance of a Balanced Diet for Chickens
Although chickens enjoy eating mangoes, you can’t just assume that mangoes alone can meet all their dietary needs. Therefore, your chooks need a balanced diet that consists of carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water.
The first thing you need to feed your chickens with is quality poultry feed. Most of these commercial feeds are formulated to offer your chickens adequate nutrition. But, other than the feed, some extra treats won’t hurt as they will enhance their diet with an extra nutritional boost.
Starting with fruits, your chickens will require fruits to get sufficient amounts of vitamins. These vitamins, which include vitamins A, D, E, and K, are fat soluble and great for bone formation, reproductive health, and proper blood clotting.
Next, we have grains such as corn, wheat, sorghum, millet, burley, etc. These grains contain proteins and digestible carbohydrates that promote the growth of strong feathers and play a key role in the intestinal health of your chickens.
Feeding your chickens with oyster shells, limestone, and meat & bone meal is essential if you want to supplement your chickens’ diet with portions of minerals. Remember, minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus are essential for electrolyte balance, proper skeletal formation, and the formation of strong eggshells in laying hens.
Finally, chickens need access to cool clean water at all times. Remember, chickens don’t have teeth meaning they rely on their tongues to push feed for easy swallowing. Since they have a complex digestive system, they need plenty of water, about twice what they eat. Water makes digestion more efficient and it helps to cool off chicken bodies during hot weather.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, mangoes are sweet and delicious fruits that offer myriad nutritional benefits to your chickens. But, although your chickens will enjoy eating them, mangoes contain excess sugar content that can hurt the health of your chickens.
Therefore, mangoes should be classed as treats and should be offered occasionally rather than regularly. In fact, they should make up just 10% of your chickens’ daily diet.
Otherwise, always make sure that you clean the mangoes thoroughly before peeling them. Also, ensure that you slice them into tiny pieces to avoid choking accidents.
Hello, I am John Reid. I have been raising chickens for the last 15 years. I have got my experience from my father. My father is the owner of a large chicken farm. This is our family business that has been continuing for over 35 years. I am very interested in backyard chickens and I know how to take care of them. You can learn more About Us here. Happy Reading!!
