Can chickens eat tomatoes?
A small amount of ripe tomato fruit can fit the general category of a supplemental fruit treat, but keep tomato leaves, stems, and other nightshade greenery away from chickens.
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Why this answer
UC ANR specifically advises avoiding tomato and other nightshade leaves; ripe flesh should remain a plain, limited treat.
Serving guidance
Offer a few pieces of fully ripe tomato fruit shared across the flock and remove wet leftovers. Keep all treats supplemental to a complete, life-stage-appropriate ration.
Prepare it this way
- Choose a sound, fully ripe tomato and wash it.
- Remove the stem, leaves, and attached green plant material.
- Cut the ripe fruit into pieces and serve it plain.
Keep the baseline
Complete, life-stage-appropriate feed should remain the nutritional base. Do not offer spoiled, moldy, salty, or seasoned leftovers.
Sources and evidence notes (5)
- Feeding Your Flock University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources — Backyard-flock feeding guidance that treats scraps as supplemental and identifies avocado, raw beans, chocolate, green potato tissue, and tomato or other nightshade leaves as foods to avoid.
- Raising chickens for eggs University of Minnesota Extension — General backyard-chicken diet: a balanced prepared feed should be the foundation; grains, fruits, vegetables, bread, cracked corn, and oats are supplemental foods or treats.
- Management of Backyard Poultry MSD Veterinary Manual — Veterinary overview of backyard-poultry nutrition, including the risks of diluting complete rations with supplemental feed and of using old, improperly stored, or life-stage-inappropriate feed.
- Disease Management University of Maryland Extension — Backyard-flock health guidance stating that moldy feed can produce mycotoxins associated with production losses and flock mortality, and that a well-balanced diet is important.
- Supplying and using animal by-products as farm animal feed GOV.UK and the Animal and Plant Health Agency — Great Britain rules prohibiting household kitchen waste and catering waste as farm-animal feed, including for farm-animal species kept as pets, with separate controls for bakery, dairy, and egg products.