Fine dining...for the birds!

Hey all, thought this would be an interesting topic. We have what I suspect is a young family, of foxes hanging around. This means absolutly zero free ranging for my birds. They have a fenced yard, still green with grass. My question is this.

What are your birds favourite treets? Know of anything thats no good to feed chickens? Ducks? Turkeys? I beleive I remember reading somewhere on here that Tomato leaves are poisonus to goslings??

I'll start. I had an INVASION of spaghetti squash last year, and I found if I cracked it open it kept the hens busy all day hollowing out the squash. Over ripe cucumbers were also a favorite. Nobody died (Chickens and ducks last year) so I'm assuming they werent poisonus

Tomato leaves are toxic to most things, if I'm not mistaken, as they are of the Nightshade family. Rhubarb leaves would also be toxic (though they make a great spray for roses). I'm not sure if it's the same for chickens, but wilted (not dries or fresh) strawberry leaves are also toxic and can produce nausea, vomiting and diarrhea among other things in humans.

My chickens absolutely go ape over Spinach and will fight to be the first in line. Spinach offerings are the few times I can coax them in to be petted for longer than 2 seconds. Lettuce they enjoy, but they eye it up first and take their time. I have cracked corn I throw down in the morning to get everyone up and at'em as it were, but only a small amount as I've heard that's basically McDonald's for chickens. They also love worms and I'm figuring on buying some mealy grubs to throw down sometime.

Above all else though, spinach is an immense favorite. I'm excited to see what others suggest.

Sweetened is right, the plant parts of all vegetables in the nightshade family are poisonous. The fruits that we eat are usually good to feed to them though. Raw potatoes do have smaller levels of the same chemical in the plants, so in large amounts they are poisonous, but cooked potatoes make an excellent winter energy boost.

Large amounts of onions aren't poisonous but they can make your eggs oniony if you go overboard.

Maybe you should just get rid of the foxes though?

Nightshade family are not good things for chickens. There are many things in the nightshade, potatoes and peppers come to mind. Mine don't like peppers nor potato skins, they are smart, smiling, I guess. My chickens are so into the greens of the great outdoors that they turn their noses up to most things I throw in there, bugs me, cause they don't like the stuff I throw in, well, except of course the hen scratch and bread . Wonder why they like bread so much. They get that in teeny, tiny amounts, cause I think it is just not the best. They surely did love the squash shells that I had scooped out and gave to them to clean up. It would be tempting to grow a mass amount of spaghetti squash for them (and well, butternut too), just for the chickens, cause that sure was a favourite. It was funny to see the empty shells left over, with nothing, and I mean nothing left but the skin. Got a massive compost pile from the horse paddock clean out out the back....would be a good place to set seed and let go. It is about 10 feet tall, so the horses wouldn't get hold of the vines and eat them. Not to say that they would, but they might. The vines could trail for like feet and feet and feet and feet. I could climb up the pile and get the product in the end . I am a good climber, still, after all these years. But that is where I had planned to plant Mirycreek's pumpkin seeds, but I think they should go on a shorter hill. We'll see what happens, seeds are very cheap in that train of thought of what comes forth from the vine. Hmmm...seems I didn't offer too much here. Back to that. I think that chickens will eat almost anything and can't think of too much that is not good for them, really. If it is not good for them, I don't think they would eat it. Well, they are kind of dumb in some respects. Some time ago I lost a rooster to mouse bait poisoning. I had it in a bag and the mice chewed through the bag and the product dropped to the floor. It was green. I didn't see it, it was behind a door. A rooster saw it, ate it, and despite all my efforts, he died, sigh....so maybe they will eat things that are just not good for them. Please, if you use mouse or rat bait, ensure that it is in something that the birds can't get to. I never woooda thunk that the mice would have chewed through the plastic, through the cloth bag that was hanging and then spilled bait contents that I had totally forgot I had. Did I mention that I absolutely will NEVER, EVER have mouse bait anywhere that can be accessible to human or other....no place here for it...a lesson learned in the saddest and hardest way . Good topic, bring on the comments, and have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

A big fat juicy tomato does it for mine every time. I pity the frogs and mice that get torn in pieces too. Dig up some earthworms. Or, simply put some grains in a blender and add skim milk.

Dandelion greens, they are crazy for them and right now I have a FEW in the yard, they get some morning and night.
( I have 22 chicks left from my eggs that hatched in March! )

Heh, Country, if I had my way the foxes would be verry much elsewhere. Problem being we suspect they live across the highway, on land which doesnt belong to us, and we live in a "Hamlet" with four other families, so bringing out the trusty rifle is out of the question. We've set the live trap, but all we've managed to catch are the outside cats (who were not impressed!).

Mine love tomatoes, pumpkin (or squash), dandilions are a favourite too. The thing they really LOVE is watermelon! They go crazy for it!

Stay away from avacado, very bad for them. I think onions are very hard on their livers as well as making the eggs taste icky.

Foxes are really tough to catch. Almost impossible to do in a cage trap. The only time we were able to catch them we used leg hold traps. They must be really conceled and something just out of reach hanging above them seems to make the smarties forget about their feet long enough that they step in the traps.


I know many don't like these traps, but we where losing a lot of birds in Australia. The place in overrun with foxes and a mother was using us to train her kits to hunt.....

Google it, I was surprised how much I found out about trapping them when we were having trouble.