Most chicken owners already know what adventurous eaters their beloved birds are. From fruits and seeds to bugs and seemingly everything in between, there is precious little that chickens won’t chow down on. In fact, chickens can safely eat things that some people will struggle with. How about the roiling heat of a jalapeno pepper? Can chickens eat jalapenos?
Yes, chickens can safely eat jalapeno peppers, but no other part of the plant that they grow on. Chickens do not perceive the heat of the pepper the same way that people do, and will enjoy eating them. Jalapenos are also jam-packed with important vitamins and minerals that will help chickens stay healthy.
You might be sweating already just thinking about eating a whole, raw jalapeno, but your chickens won’t have that problem.
Jalapenos are a healthy snack or treat for your chickens and can serve as a well-rounded part of their diet so long as you are cautious to not overfeed them and to keep them from getting at other parts of the plant, which are toxic.
We will tell you everything you need to know about feeding jalapenos to your chickens in the rest of this article.
Nutritional Profile of Jalapenos
Jalapenos are usually thought of as a great way to spice up a given dish, but these tiny, low-calorie peppers have a wide array of vitamins, including a phenomenal amount of vitamin C, and an abundance of vitamins B6, E, and K. Vitamin A, B3, and folate are also present in good amounts.
| 100g Jalapenos | Amount |
|---|---|
| Calories | 29 kcal |
| Total Fat | 0.37g |
| Cholesterol | 0mg |
| Sodium | 3mg |
| Total Carbohydrates | 6.5g |
| – Dietary fiber | 2.8g |
| – Sugars | 4.12g |
| Protein | 0.91g |
| Vitamin C | 119mg |
| Calcium | 12mg |
| Iron | 0.25mg |
Considering minerals, jalapenos seem to fall somewhat short compared to the vitamin payload, but nonetheless can prove quite healthy for your birds. Potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, and calcium are all present in small amounts.
Health Benefits of Feeding Jalapenos to Chickens
Jalapenos are an exciting snack for your birds, but definitely not junk food. These peppers can actually contribute to the health of your chickens in a few ways.
The vitamins and minerals will help keep your birds’ immune system functioning properly, ward off sickness and disease, and promote healthy bones, cellular regeneration, and feather quality. We know for sure that A, D and E will help their immune function.
Another perk: the capsaicin itself in them has been shown to have some benefits, particularly in the birds’ immune function, and antioxidant activity. This other study saw improvements in the birds’ liver function, digestive enzymes,. But both papers I just linked to used capsaicin as a feed additive, they didn’t feed them chopped jalapeños.
Can Chickens Eat Raw Jalapenos?
Yes, veggies start to lose some nutritional benefits when they are cooked as some heat-sensitive vitamins are degraded during cooking. So long as they’re eating just the flesh of the pepper and everything within, they won’t have any problems. Make sure you see the cautionary segment below talking about the rest of the plant, though.
Can Chickens Eat Jalapeno Seeds?
Yes, chickens may eat the jalapeno seeds that are the source of much of its heat for human beings. Chickens are insensitive to capsciacin, they don’t feel the heat that mammals do.
Can Chickens Have Jalapeno Skins?
Absolutely. There is nothing in the skin of the jalapeno that is harmful for the birds. Do keep in mind that tougher peppers and smaller or old, infirm birds might struggle to puncture the skin or they might just not prefer it. In any case, you can peel your jalapenos or leave the skins on.
Aren’t Jalapenos Too Spicy for Chickens?
This is something of a surprise to many chicken owners. Most of us have had an unfortunate run-in with a spicy pepper or some other spicy food that is entirely too potent for our delicate palates. The scorching heat and eye-watering pain is something of a defense mechanism for these peppers against mammalian predators, and functions by protecting them from the interest of mammals, like us!
The compound responsible for the simulated but entirely real feeling heat is called capsaicin. Capsaicin is the same ingredient found in pepper spray that gives the stuff its name. The greater the concentration of capsaicin, the more intense the burn and the worse the pain for any mammal that ingests it.
This is the fun part. Although chickens have the same TRPV1 receptor that we do, it is much less sensitive to capsciacin. Simply put, they don’t feel most if any of the “heat” that we do when we eat spicy peppers. At any rate, you don’t have to worry about your chickens ingesting too much hot stuff for this reason – especially if you feed it as a treat.
Caution: Other Parts of the Plant are Toxic to Chickens
The chickens are mostly immune to the effects of capsaicin, they are definitely not immune to the toxic compounds that are present in all parts of the jalapeno plant itself.
Aside from the flesh, skin, and seeds of the pepper, other parts contain solanine, a compound poisonous to chickens and other animals. This includes the stem of the pepper, leaves, and possibly other parts of the plant.
Never, ever serve any other parts to your birds, And pay particular attention when preparing peppers for them that you remove all parts of the stem from the pepper itself.
Can Chickens Eat Cooked Jalapenos?
Yes, jalapenos may be served cooked to your chickens. As mentioned above, this will deplete the nutritional profile a little bit. Gentle cooking may soften up peppers while preserving most of the vitamins and all of minerals, so you can cook them if you want.
Don’t Feed Your Chickens Jalapenos Cooked with Any Harmful Ingredients
If you are serving your chickens cooked jalapenos, or leftover jalapenos from your dinner table, you must not give them any that were prepared with harmful ingredients. Salt, sugar, oils and very fatty or caloric foods like bacon, cream cheese, sour cream and the like will have negative health effects for your birds or at best promote serious weight gain.
How Often Can Chickens Have Jalapenos?
Your chickens can have jalapenos fairly often as part of a well-rounded diet. They are definitely good for them, no doubt about it, but your birds should be subsisting primarily upon chicken feed and not fresh produce no matter how good it is.
Generally, you want around 10% of your flock’s total calorie intake coming from supplementary foods while the remaining 90% is in the form of a nutritionally complete chicken feed that is appropriate to their stage of life. Overdoing it on treats can lead to malnutrition and other unwanted health effects.
Preparing Jalapenos for Your Flock
It’s easy to prepare jalapenos for your flock. The best way to serve them, as mentioned previously, is raw. First things first, make sure you remove the stem completely as you don’t want your birds eating that.
Next, you can cut the pepper in half before chopping it into chunks, or dice it into small, bite-sized pieces that your chickens can swallow whole. These pieces can be placed in a dish, given to them with their other food, or scattered around the run to give them something to hunt for.
Also, again as mentioned you don’t need to worry about the seeds as your chickens can eat them with no problems.
Can Baby Chicks Have Jalapenos?
Jalapeños can supplement the diets of baby chicks, but you’ll want to wait for them to get a little bit older before serving it to them, around 18 weeks, before you spoil them with treats. Why? Because these young birds grow quickly, but their digestive systems need to develop a little bit before they are ready for many kinds of fresh produce.
Interestingly enough, there is one study done on baby chicks, but again, they received concentrated capsaicin, not whole pepper. They saw a reduced Salmonella Enteritidis organ invasion, which is great news, and could point to the fact that our peppers, too, can have an effect.
When they do get old enough, make sure you chop up the jalapenos finally if you want them to have bite-size tidbits, or choose the softest peppers before splitting them open and seeding them so the chicks can take tiny bites of the flesh.
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Tom has lived and worked on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and beyond. He is passionate about helping people prepare for tough times by embracing lifestyles of self-sufficiency.
How interesting! We never have given our chickens jalapeno peppers because we thought they were too hot. Now we know better and will try it out. Ours do eat the pepper plants, although they only get one at a time, and only during the summer. They strip them down to nothing but the stem! We’ve had no ill effects from doing this, but after reading your article, I think we’ll switch and give them the pepper instead of the plant. Thank you!