Chickens eat a variety of foods, table scraps included. These animals aren’t too picky about what they eat and will likely eat anything you feed them, whether it’s human food, animal food, or food that both humans and animals can eat.

If you have leftover onion peels from preparing your meals, then you may be considering feeding these peels to your chickens. But is this a good idea? Can chickens eat onion peels? This article looks into it. 

Chickens can eat onion peels, the bird will likely opt for other foods to eat if available, but if onion peels are the only thing on the menu, then the bird will eat them out of desperation. Onions can deliver a variety of vitamins and minerals to your bird, vitamins, and minerals such as vitamin A, E, C, antioxidants, flavonoids, and fiber. All these nutrients will improve the bird’s health in one way or another.

Can chickens eat onion peels?

Chickens can eat onion peels

Table scraps may not be the best food to consistently give your chicken, but giving these birds some leftover foods and kitchen scraps on occasion may not be a bad idea.

Chickens love human food, they become excited when you feed them foods out of their usual routine of specialty feed, fruits, and vegetables.

These three foods are what experts recommended you give your chicken for optimum health, but these animals can also eat other foods on occasion. 

Do chickens like onion peels?

Chickens can eat onion peels but they may not like them very much. Just as with humans, chickens don’t enjoy the sour taste of onion, onion peels are slightly bitter which chickens won’t enjoy either.

Thus, even if you try to hand feed the bird onion peels it will likely not eat them. Then again, if the bird does not have anything else to eat then it will eat the onion peel out of desperation. 

Benefits of chickens eating onion peels:

That being said, if your chicken decides to eat onion peels it will benefit from the variety of vitamins and minerals present in the peels. Onion peels contain vitamin A, E, C, antioxidants, flavonoids, and fiber.

These vitamins and minerals benefit the bird in a variety of ways, they have anti-inflammatory properties, they protect the bird from harmful free radicals, they maintain good digestive health, maintain robust immune systems and maintain healthy eyes and skin. 

However, if your chicken does manage to eat onion peels, you can also be affected. Onions and onion peels cause chickens to lay eggs that have an undesirable taste. If you want your eggs to taste like eggs then it’s best not to serve your chicken’s onion peels. 

Do chickens eat other parts of an onion?

Chickens can eat onion peels and onion flesh. The flesh is easier to eat, when compared to the peel, as the bird can peck at the vegetable.

Although this part is easier to eat, it is still sour and bitter to the bird, again, if the bird has other food options then it likely won’t indulge in eating the onion but if it is desperate, then the bird will eat the onion.

If the bird does manage to eat this part of the onion, it will benefit from the potassium, fiber, vitamin c, and folate in the onion flesh. 

The tops of green onions or scallions should not be given to chickens, eating this part of the vegetable can be unhealthy for the bird.

What to avoid when serving onion peels to chickens?

If you decide to feed your chickens some onion peels, remember to only feed these birds peels in small amounts and on occasion.

Although onion peels contain nutrients, the bulk of a chicken’s diet should consist of grains, (90%) the other 10% of the bird’s diet should consist of a combination of fruits and vegetables. 

In addition, if onions are fed to your bird in too large amounts then the bird can develop hemolytic anemia. This is an ailment that affects the bird’s blood, it can cause the bird to have low energy and weak legs 

Conclusion

In conclusion, yes chickens can eat onions, this food contains a variety of vitamins and minerals that can benefit your bird.

You can choose to serve your chickens onion peels and onion flesh but it is important that you don’t feed them the stalks as these can be unhealthy for the bird. If you don’t want your eggs to have an unsavory taste, it’s best to not feed these birds onions at all. 

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Can chickens eat oats with hulls?, Can chickens eat parrot feed?, Can chickens eat too much oyster shell?, Can chickens eat duck starter?