Can Chickens Eat Mango? Benefits & Risks

Mango is one the juiciest, sweetest, and safest fruit for chickens. Your chickens will love eating this fruit. Besides being sweet for chickens, mangoes can benefit your flock in many ways. For instance, these fruits are rich in dietary fiber and healthy carbohydrates. A single mango parks copper, vitamins, folate, and minerals.

Benefits of Mango for Chickens

Mangoes have tons of health benefits to offer your chickens, and thus you should spice up your flock’s diet with these delicious fruits. These are some nutritional benefits of mangoes for chickens, which will encourage you to include these fruits in your chickens’ regular diet.

– Mangoes Can Help Support Healthy Hearts in Chickens

Mangoes are rich in potassium and magnesium. These two crucial minerals are beneficial for heart health, not only for humans but also for chickens. Your birds will get a steadier pulse after consuming mangoes regularly.

The valuable trace minerals in mangoes will also help lower blood pressure in your chickens. Studies also show that mangoes have a beneficial antioxidant known as mangiferin, which counters the effects of inflammation on a chicken’s heart cells, ultimately improving its health.

– Mangoes Can Improve Your Chickens’ Digestion

Digestive health is crucial for chickens, especially chicken raisers who want their birds to produce high-quality meat and eggs. A chicken with digestion problems won’t produce quality meat and eggs. Feeding your chickens mangoes can help improve their digestion.

Mangoes contain a vital digestive enzyme called amylase, making it easier for chickens to digest and absorb food. Moreover, these fruits are rich in water and dietary fiber. Therefore, mangoes will keep your birds hydrated and less likely to suffer constipation, which is crucial for good digestion in chickens.

– Mangoes Can Help Boost your Chicken’s Immunity

Chickens are delicate birds that are vulnerable to many diseases. Providing your chickens with vitamin-rich foods can help boost their immunity, ultimately helping them counteract many poultry diseases. Mangoes are rich in crucial vitamins, including vitamins C and A.

These two essential vitamins play a role in boosting a chicken’s immune system and combating infections. The high vitamin C content in mangoes will also help a chicken’s body produce plenty of white blood cells, which are responsible for boosting immunity.

– Mangoes Are Rich in Beneficial Antioxidants

Mangoes are a plentiful source of antioxidants, which help in protecting a chicken’s cells from the adverse effects of free radicals. Such negative effects of free radicals can increase the risk of death in chickens.

Mangoes have beneficial antioxidants that counter these effects, including polyphenols, which effectively combat free radicals and keep your birds healthier for longer.

How to Feed Mango to Chickens?

When feeding your flock any food, it’s prudent to understand how to introduce the food to your birds. You don’t need plenty of preparation while feeding mango to your chicken.

You only need to select a few ripe mangoes since ripe mangoes are easy for chickens to eat. Furthermore, ripe mangoes are delicious for chickens as they are for humans. Here are two ways to feed mango to your chickens.

• Cut the ripe mango into tiny pieces. Put the mango pieces in a clean plate or feeding bowl for your birds to eat.
• You can cut large pieces of ripe mango and toss them in the chicken pen for the birds to peck at the pieces throughout the day. However, the disadvantage of using this method to feed mango to your chickens is that the smaller chickens won’t be able to peck the larger pieces of mango like their adult counterparts. Moreover, larger birds may bully their junior counterparts over the mango and end up overeating the fruit.

Can Chickens Eat Mango Skin?

While ripe and juicy mango is absolutely edible and healthy for chickens, the safety and edibility of the mango skin are a matter of debate. Some chicken keepers feel that mango skins are safe for their birds, and thus they shouldn’t waste them.

However, it would be best if you thought about a couple of things before feeding mango skin to your birds. Among the things to keep in mind before feeding mango skin to your chickens include:

• Mango skins don’t taste good-Mango skins have an unpleasant taste, unlike the fleshy and juicy part of the mango. Your chickens might not like the mango skin even if you cut it into smaller pieces.
• Mango skins may be full of pesticide-Mango skin can carry plenty of pesticides, especially the skins from inorganic mangoes. Pesticide exposure can harm your chickens’ organs, so mango skin shouldn’t be the best thing to feed your chickens.
• Some chickens are allergic to mango skin– The problem with feeding mango skin to your chickens is that it has a compound known as urushiol. This compound can lead to allergic reactions in some chickens, so be careful while feeding mango skin to your birds.

Can Chickens Eat Mango Seed?

Some fruits and vegetables have toxic seeds or pits. Nonetheless, mango seeds are safe for chickens, although seeds from ripe mangoes are too hard for chickens. Unripe mango seeds are edible for chickens since they are easy for the birds to peck and digest. Because seeds from ripe mangoes are too hard, your chickens could have problems digesting these seeds.

If you want to feed mango seed to your chickens, ensure you cut the seed into tiny chunks. Alternatively, peel an unripe mango and leave it for the birds to consume. The chickens will peck the unripe mango together with the seed and leave the part of the seed they don’t want.

Feed Your Chickens a Balanced Diet

Mangoes are certainly delicious and healthy for chickens. As beneficial as these fruits are for your birds, they can’t meet all the dietary needs your birds need. Therefore, feed your birds a balanced diet with multiple nutrients. For instance, ensure you provide your birds with a diet full of protein, calcium, and other nutrients even as you feed mango to your flock.

Conclusion

Mango is a tasty and juicy fruit for chickens. These fruits’ multiple nutritional benefits make them worthy of providing to your flock. However, ensure your flock consumes a balanced diet because mango alone won’t meet their dietary requirements.

Most importantly, give mango to your flock in moderation because too many mangoes aren’t safe for your flock.