If you’re raising chickens you likely spoil these animals quite a bit, and that’s ok (to an extent), chickens love being spoilt and we humans love spoiling them.

If it’s warm outside, you may want to keep your birds cool by offering them some fruit, rockmelon being one of them. So, can chickens eat rockmelon? This article looks into it. 

Chickens can definitely eat rockmelon, this fruit delivers a variety of vitamins and minerals into the bird’s body including vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, folate, and calcium.

Can chickens eat rockmelon?

Chickens love fruit, fruits help maintain good chicken health.

The recommended diet that chickens should be eating includes fruits, vegetables and grains. Fruits have the benefit of being sweet and delicious to birds while supplying much-needed vitamins and minerals to the bird’s body.

Rockmelon, or cantaloupe, is one of them.

Nutrients in rockmelon that will benefit chickens:

This fruit delivers a number of vitamins and minerals into a bird’s body including vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, fibre, potassium and calcium.

These nutrients improve the bird’s health in a variety of ways, they improve digestion, maintain a normal and healthy balance of electrolytes in the bird’s body, they also help with the production of strong eggshells

Moderation when feeding:

Although chickens can eat rockmelon, this food should not be overfed to the bird, it should also not be the only fruit that the bird eats.

A bird’s diet should consist of 90% grains and 10% fruits and vegetables. This will give them all the nutrients they need for good health.

Giving the bird only rockmelon will cause the bird to fill up on this food and not have room for anything else. If this happens consistently, the bird can develop malnutrition.

In addition, overfeeding these birds rockmelon can cause the bird to develop diarrhea 

Do chickens eat all parts of the rockmelon? 

Yes, chickens eat all parts of the rockmelon. Giving chickens rockmelon is very sustainable as these birds eat all parts of the fruit namely the flesh, the seeds and the rind.

Chickens find the flesh to be soft, juicy and very easy to eat, the seeds are swallowed whole and the tough rind is also eaten by chickens.

How to serve rockmelon to chickens 

Chickens aren’t too picky about how they are served, simply cutting the fruit in halves, quarters or eights, and leaving the fruit in the coop, will be good for the birds. You can also cut the fruit up into tiny pieces and add this to the bird’s usual feed 

If you want to make eating this food entertaining, you can have the bird search for it in boxes or tubes. This allows them to forage for the food and get some exercise while doing so.

You can also cut the fruit up into different shapes and sizes to make the eating experience more fun 

If your bird is a picky eater, you may have to serve this food to them repeatedly, the bird will become accustomed to it eventually and will try the food.

You can also make a fuss over how delicious the food is as you eat it in front of them and serve it to them, this will help to pique their curiosity. 

What to avoid when serving rockmelon to chickens

Avoid feeding chickens rockmelon that has started to rot or has mould on it. Many birds will keep away from rotting foods and chickens are usually able to figure out what is good for them and what is not, but they may simply eat the food out of desperation.

If the bird eats mould or rot, it can get food poisoning, rather discard the fruit if this is the case 

Conclusion

In conclusion, yes chickens eat rockmelons, or cantaloupes, this fruit is bursting with flavour and is juicy. The fruit also delivers a number of vitamins and minerals to whatever eats it.

You can make eating this fruit very exciting for the bird by hiding pieces of it in the coop and letting the birds forage, foraging is a great form of exercise for the bird. 

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 turkey feed?, Can chickens eat turkey?, Can chickens eat runner beans?, Can chickens eat tiger lilies?