Can chickens eat lettuce?
Yes, chickens can eat lettuce in small amounts. The RSPCA and RSPCA Australia suggest lettuce as a treat, for example a whole head hung up for your hens to peck at. Poultry specialist James Hermes (Oregon State) notes on Ask Extension that greens like lettuce have little nutrition for chickens, so a little is fine.
How to serve it: a whole head to hang up, or a few leaves
Good to know: Extension.org lists regularly adding lettuce among common feeding mistakes, since it adds little nutrition. Penn State Extension names packaged mixed greens among foods commonly contaminated with Listeria.
Kitchen scraps: The rules depend on where you live. US extension services allow small amounts of table scraps, no more than 10 percent of the daily diet (Oklahoma State). In the UK, it’s illegal to feed kitchen scraps to chickens, even pet hens (RSPCA, APHA). In the EU, Germany’s agriculture ministry (BMLEH) says kitchen and food waste must not be fed to laying hens.
Sources
- RSPCA NextGen – How to look after chickens
- RSPCA Australia – How can I use environmental enrichment for my chickens?
- BLV (Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office) – Animal welfare information 10.4: keeping chickens as a hobby (in German)
- Ask Extension #139784 – Chicken health (answer by James Hermes, 2013)
- Oregon State University Extension – Keep the eggs coming with the right chicken care
- Poultry Extension (extension.org) – Feeding Chickens for Egg Production in Small and Backyard Flocks
- Penn State Extension – Listeriosis and the Dangers That May Lurk Among the Flock
- Oklahoma State University Extension – Backyard Flock Production (AFS-8202)
- RSPCA – Keeping chickens as pets: how to care for backyard hens
- APHA (GOV.UK) – APHA warns not to feed kitchen scraps to farm animals because of disease risk (2017)
- BMLEH (German Federal Ministry of Agriculture) – Animal feed: frequently asked questions (kitchen and food waste, in German)
Last checked: November 2026