Can Chickens Eat Tomatoes?
Safe Yes, chickens can eat ripe tomatoes, but never the leaves, stems or green fruit, which carry the nightshade toxin solanine.
How many tomatoes can chickens have?
Treats of every kind put together should stay under about 10 percent of what a hen eats in a day. An adult laying hen eats roughly 113 g of complete feed, so that comes out around 11 g per bird per day. That is a planning figure rather than a measured limit, and it is the budget for everything the flock gets besides its feed, not an extra allowance for tomatoes on its own. Six hens share about 66 g a day. Enter your own flock size:
Per bird per day11 g (0.4 oz), about 0.5 cherry tomatoes
Whole flock per day66 g (2.3 oz)
Which parts are safe
Fine to feed
- Ripe red, yellow or orange fruit
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cooked tomato with no salt or onion
- Seeds and skins
Keep out of the run
- Leaves and stems
- Vines and prunings
- Green, unripe tomatoes
- Tomato sauce or ketchup (salt, sugar, onion)
How to serve it
Feed ripe fruit whole or halved. Keep the flock out of the tomato bed, and put prunings and pulled plants on the compost, not in the run. Over-ripe and split tomatoes are ideal, mouldy ones are not.
Fruit yes, plant no
Tomatoes are a nightshade, and like potatoes they make glycoalkaloids, mainly solanine and tomatine, in the green parts of the plant. The leaves, stems and unripe fruit carry enough to cause digestive upset, weakness and worse if a bird eats a lot. Ripe fruit has almost none, which is why the ripe tomato is on the safe list and the plant is not.
The practical risk is not that you would feed leaves on purpose. It is a flock free-ranging through the vegetable garden, or a keeper tossing pulled tomato plants into the run in autumn. Fence the bed and compost the plants and the problem goes away.
How ripe is ripe
Fully coloured fruit, red or yellow or orange depending on the variety, is fine. A tomato still showing green shoulders is on its way and better left another day. Green tomatoes picked at the end of the season for chutney are not for the flock; the solanine level in green fruit is meaningfully higher than in ripe.
Cooked, tinned and sauced
Cooked tomato is fine as long as it is plain. The problem with tinned tomatoes, pasta sauce and ketchup is what comes with them: salt, sugar and often onion or garlic. Plain tinned tomatoes drained of their juice are acceptable in small amounts; anything that tastes seasoned to you should not go in the run.
Split and over-ripe tomatoes from the garden are the best use of the fruit. They are too soft for the kitchen, hens love them, and a tomato that has just started to go mushy is fine. One with a fuzzy mould patch is not; cut it away or compost the whole fruit.
Tomatoes: nutrition per 100 g
| Nutrient | Per 100 g, raw |
|---|---|
| Calories | 18 kcal |
| Protein | 0.9 g |
| Water | 95% |
| Sugars | 2.6 g |
For comparison, layer feed is about 16 percent protein and is formulated to be the whole diet. Whatever tomatoes adds, the feed still has to do the work: see the chicken feed calculator for how much a flock eats and the water calculator for how much it drinks.
How we calculate it
Planning estimate, not a measured threshold. The published guideline is that treats, scratch and scraps together stay under 10% of the daily diet; applying that to an adult laying hen's roughly 113 g of feed gives about 11 g per bird per day for all treats combined. Item counts divide that by an estimated 17 g per cherry tomato and round DOWN, so a shown portion never exceeds the allowance.
Based on:
- Nutrition per 100 g, raw (USDA FoodData Central)
- Tomato plant: toxic principle solanine; the ripe fruit is not considered toxic (ASPCA Animal Poison Control)
- Scratch, grains and kitchen scraps should be provided at no more than 10 percent of the daily diet (Oklahoma State University Extension)
- Excess table scraps and greens reduce egg production; keep supplements to a small share of the diet (Poultry Extension)
- A laying hen eats about a quarter pound of feed a day; avoid high levels of human food or scraps (Penn State Extension)
Figures are typical guidelines for planning. Your birds, breed, climate, and feed will vary.
Frequently asked questions
Can chickens eat tomato leaves or plants?
No. Leaves, stems and vines contain solanine and tomatine and should be kept out of the run, including pulled plants at the end of the season.
Can chickens eat green tomatoes?
Best not. Unripe fruit carries far more solanine than ripe fruit. Wait until the tomato has fully coloured.
How many tomatoes can a chicken eat?
About 11 g per bird per day, which is half a cherry tomato or a thin wedge of a large one, for a hen eating 113 g of feed.