If you have kept chickens, you know how these birds love to put their beaks on just about anything under the sun. These omnivores love to relish on dry feed, worms, grit, and fresh veggies and fruits. However, some plants of the nightshade family are dangerous for your chicken.
So, can chickens eat celery? Yes, chickens can eat celery. You can provide them celery in the form of treats. This veggie comes with a variety of essential benefits and can help improve your chickens’ health. They are full of essential vitamins, minerals, and calcium in addition to quality fiber content. Besides, they also provide antioxidants to nourish your chickens.
What are the nutritional benefits of celery for chickens?
Just like humans need a balanced diet to remain happy, productive, and healthy, so do your chickens. When it comes to feeding chickens, always remember this rule – if it is healthy for humans, it is great for chickens too! Celery is one such nutritional vegetable that is laden with health benefits.
Chickens do not always pose difficulty while feeding; they happily devour the meal you provide them. However, overwhelming your chickens with too much celery is not a good idea.
You should include celery moderately to your chicken’s diet as they come with exceptional nutritional value. Here are some of them.
Vitamins
Vitamins are an important requirement for the healthy functioning of the body. Having even a small amount of vitamins daily does the job. So, if you want to feed your chickens a vitamin-rich diet, be sure to include celery stalks in their meal.
Celery has a bounty of vitamins in it. It is rich in Vitamin A, B, C, and K. You’ll be surprised to know that just a stalk of celery can provide up to 25% of Vitamin K. It also has a 5% presence of Vitamin A. These vitamins help increase the immunity of your chickens and helps to maintain healthy growth.
Not to forget, celery is also a good source of Riboflavin that helps produce antibodies and help fight diseases.
Minerals
Green stalks of celery also come with a lot of necessary minerals. Some minerals found in celery are potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, and manganese. These minerals are present in adequate quantities.
Like other nutrients, minerals also add to the overall health of your chicken. By adding celery in their food in moderate quantities, you can provide your chickens with a balanced-diet that is needed for their active and healthy life.
Calcium
Celery is a great way to provide calcium to your chickens. Stalks of celery come with a lot of calcium in them.
Calcium plays a big part in the health of your chickens and their eggs. It is an essential nutrient that helps in building healthy and strong bones of your chicken.
Adding calcium-rich greens like celery in your chicken’s diet helps them produce eggs that have a strong eggshell.
Antioxidants
Celery is one of the best veggies that come laden with antioxidants. It is known to contain more than 12 kinds of antioxidants in just one stalk. Antioxidants are helpful for your chickens as they protect their blood vessels and cells.
Adding little celery stalk pieces to your chicken’s diet will help them maintain their organs from any oxidative damage.
Fiber
Greens like celery also offer special benefits for your chicken’s stomach. It contains generous amounts of both soluble as well as insoluble fibers. It helps your chicken to maintain a healthy digestive tract and a healthy gut.
A cup of celery stick has about 5 grams of fiber. If you want to ensure that your chicken’s bowel moments are regular, you can provide them celery! Fibrous celery keeps their digestion be on track and makes them regular!
What is the right way of feeding celery?
Given the nutritional benefits of celery, you might be tempted to start feeding your chicken celery in the next breath. However, there are certain things that you need to be mindful of before you incorporate celery in their diet.
You need to ensure that you feed celery to your chickens in a correct manner that will help them instead of overwhelming them. Also, keep certain tips in mind before you start feeding celery to your chickens. Here are some of them.
Serve it fresh
The most vital factor to consider before offering your chickens celery is that it needs to be fresh. It is not a wise idea to give your chicken anything, especially leafy greens that are not in its prime.
You should make sure that the celery you provide them is fresh and not moldy. It can cause more harm to your chicken’s health than good. Therefore, provide only the freshest of celery bits to your chicken.
Dice it up
If you have chickens at home, then you know that they don’t have teeth. Celery being a firm and stingy vegetable, cannot be easily chewed by them.
Instead of providing them an entire stalk, you need to dice it up into smaller pieces. This will make it easier for chickens to peck at them.
You need to be careful in providing only tiny pieces of celery; otherwise, it can cause digestive issues for your chicken.
Mix it with feed
After you’ve finished finely dicing the celery, you should proceed to mix it in your chicken’s regular feed. It will ensure that your chickens don’t turn away from tasting the celery, which might be bland for them to eat.
Mixing it with their regular feed will help them reap celery benefits while not being too picky about trying them.
Moderation is the key
You might be eager to give your chickens nutritionally-rich vegetables like celery. If you need to do, make sure it’s in moderation. Excess of anything will do more harm than give benefits. This can also be extended in terms of feeding your chickens.
Your chickens might adore pecking on celery bits and pieces but don’t go overboard while feeding them. They tend to take their liking for celery a little too far by refusing to eat their regular feed.
A good way to ensure a balanced diet for your chickens is to go by the 90-10 rule. In this rule, try to provide a diet with 90% of the regular feed while adding in the remaining 10% in the form of treats like celery.
What are the risks involved in feeding celery?
Celery is one of the best vegetables out there. They are super healthy and full of nutrients. However, they can turn out to be hazardous to your chicken’s health if not fed properly.
There are some risks associated with feeding celery to your chickens that can be easily eliminated if taken care of.
Given below are some of the risks that you should be mindful of.
Unclean And Rotten Celery Can Cause Health Issues
Celery, like other vegetables, is also prone to decay. You should never feed unclean celery to your chickens as their stalks can have dirt, debris, other hidden parasites, and pathogens.
Not to mention, feeding rotten and moldy celery can cause your chickens a lot of digestive issues. It can also cause several fatal illnesses to your chickens.
Therefore, provide only the freshest celery to your chickens after thoroughly washing them.
It can get stuck in their crop
Your chickens store their food inside an anatomical part named “Crop.” If your chicken munches on anything bigger than it can digest, it impacts their crop. Celery is a stringy and hard vegetable and can get caught up inside your chicken’s crop.
If not fed in very small pieces, it can hinder your chicken’s digestive process. If a chunk of celery gets stuck in your chicken’s crop, they won’t be able to move food down their digestive tract. It won’t even reach till their proventriculus that further digests their food.
You can risk losing your chicken’s life or causing them a host of health problems if you don’t feed celery in bite-sized pieces.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which part of celery can I feed the chickens?
You can feed any part of the celery to your chicken as they are extremely nutritious. However, you can try to give them bits of the stalk as well as the celery leaves. Its leaves contain the most amounts of calcium, vitamin, and potassium. Not to forget, celery stalks are rich in fibers.
Do I need to mix celery with other vegetables?
Yes, you can mix moderate amounts of celery in other vegetables like carrot, broccoli, etc. Ideally, you should provide a wholesome mix of regular feed and fruits and vegetables to ensure a balanced diet for your chickens.
Summing up
By now, you must have realized the immense health benefits that celery has on your chicken. You can feed celery to your chicken as they tend to take a liking for this treatment and gain multiple nutrients.
Chickens do not usually pose problems when being fed celery, but you can mix it in their feed so that they eat it with ease.
You just need to keep some important pointers in mind, like feeding them in moderation and giving only smaller pieces. This will ensure that your chickens retain their health and also enjoy the benefits of celery!