Can chickens eat pumpkins?
Yes, chickens can eat pumpkins in small amounts. Woodgreen says chickens can eat fresh pumpkin: break it open and leave it in their run. It warns not to feed leftovers from carved pumpkins or pumpkin prepared in a kitchen, since feeding kitchen scraps is illegal in the UK. The RSPCA lists squash as a healthy treat.
How to serve it: fresh and whole, broken open
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
- Woodgreen Pets Charity – What Animals Can and Cannot Eat Pumpkin
- RSPCA NextGen – How to look after chickens
- 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