Chickens love to eat apples! The sweet, crunchy fruit makes a tasty and nutritious treat. But apple seeds contain a small amount of cyanide, which can be toxic to chickens if consumed in large quantities. So how many apple seeds will it take to kill a chicken? Let’s take a closer look.
Can Chickens Eat Apples?
Absolutely! Apples are a great snack for chickens. The fleshy part of the apple provides important nutrients like vitamin C vitamin A potassium and calcium. It’s also a good source of water.
Chickens enjoy pecking at whole apples. You can also chop or slice apples into smaller pieces to make them easier for the chickens to eat. Just be sure to remove any sticks, stems or seeds first.
It’s fine to give chickens apple peels as well. The skin contains valuable fiber and phytonutrients.
Are Apple Seeds Poisonous to Chickens?
Apple seeds do contain a small amount of amygdalin, which can break down into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the chicken’s digestive system.
Cyanide is toxic to chickens and humans. But the amount found in an individual apple seed is very small.
According to the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, the cyanide in about 200 apple seeds is enough to kill a 100 lb. adult human.
So for a 5 lb chicken, it would take around 40 apple seeds to receive the same toxic dose.
However, apple seeds also pass through a chicken’s digestive system relatively quickly. This reduces the amount of cyanide that is actually absorbed.
How Many Apple Seeds Will Kill a Chicken?
It takes a very large number of apple seeds to poison a chicken.
Most sources estimate that it would require somewhere between 100-400 apple seeds, chewed well and consumed at one time, to cause death in a chicken.
Exactly how many depends on the size and health of the individual bird. Smaller bantam chickens or younger birds may succumb to toxicity from fewer seeds.
For comparison, a medium apple contains around 5-8 seeds. So a chicken would need to eat around 15-80 whole apples in one sitting to reach the lethal range!
Reducing the Risks
While it takes a lot of apple seeds to kill a chicken, it’s still smart to follow some basic precautions:
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Cut apples into chunks rather than feeding whole apples. This prevents chickens from swallowing large amounts of seeds.
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Avoid allowing chickens to raid rotting, fermenting apples on the ground. The seeds in decomposing fallen fruit can produce higher cyanide levels.
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Remove the apple core and discard it or chop/puree the seeds finely before feeding back to the flock. The shell helps protect the seed from breaking down in the digestive tract.
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Don’t make a large part of your flock’s diet from seed-heavy produce like apples. Variety is important.
With just a little care, there’s no reason chickens can’t safely enjoy apples and apple peels as an occasional treat! The small amount of cyanide in the seeds is rarely an issue.
Signs of Apple Seed Poisoning
It’s extremely unlikely your flock will ever experience apple seed poisoning. But it’s good to know the symptoms just in case:
- Sudden weakness and lethargy
- Loss of appetite
- Difficulty breathing
- Cyanosis – bluish discoloration of the skin and membranes
- Ataxia – loss of muscular coordination
- Twitching, tremors or seizures
Seek veterinary help immediately if your chicken shows these signs after eating apple seeds. Prompt treatment can help counteract the effects.
The Bottom Line
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Whole apples make a nutritious, fiber-rich snack that chickens relish.
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Apple seeds contain a tiny amount of cyanide, but not enough to harm chickens when eaten occasionally.
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It would take an extremely large amount of apple seeds (100-400) to potentially cause death.
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Still, it’s smart to remove seeds or core apples before feeding and avoid overdoing it.
So feel free to share apple treats! Just take basic precautions and your chickens can safely enjoy this garden favorite.
The claim: Apple seeds contain cyanide, and eating 20 apple cores will kill an adult
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But one viral claim suggests that eating too many apples might send you to the doctor – or worse, the morgue.
“Apple seeds contain cyanide,” a post by Facebook page “Facts that will blow your mind” reads. “Eating 20 apple cores will kill an adult, while eating less can result in paralysis, coma and brain damage.”
The post was shared more than 5,000 times, though commenters were quick to question the post’s veracity.
“I always eat my apples with the seeds, nothing has ever happened to me. I used to eat close to 5 apples a day…” one commenter wrote.
“I had a cousin, an old country doctor, who recommended eating an apple day, including the core and the seeds. He died just prior to turning 100,” another wrote.
The Facebook page “Facts that will blow your mind” did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment.
Apple seeds do contain cyanide, but not enough to kill
Apple seeds contain a cyanide- and sugar-based compound called amygdalin. The seeds have a strong outer layer that is resistant to digestive juices. But if you chew the seeds, human (or animal) enzymes come in contact with the amygdalin, cutting off the sugar part of the molecule, The Guardian reported. What’s left of the compound can then decompose, producing hydrogen cyanide.
Cyanide itself is a rapidly acting, potentially deadly chemical that kills by preventing cells in the body from using oxygen, according to the CDC. The chemical is a favorite silent killer of mystery novelists like Agatha Christie, but has also been used egregiously in real life, perhaps most infamously as the gas in Holocaust gas chambers.
Exposure to a large amount can lead to symptoms including convulsions, slow heart rate and respiratory failure leading to death, and exposure to a small amount might cause dizziness, nausea and weakness, among other things, the CDC says.
In humans, cyanide toxicity is experienced at doses of around 0.5-3.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, The Guardian reported.
The average apple usually contains between five to eight seeds. Apple seeds contain approximately 1-4 milligrams of amygdalin, a 2014 study found, but not all of that translates into cyanide.
Plus, the human body can process hydrogen cyanide in small doses, so eating a few seeds is not dangerous. In fact, it would take “anywhere from 150 to several thousand crushed seeds” to cause cyanide poisoning, according to Britannica.
Fact check: Drinking water while eating does not lead to digestive issues
How many Apple Seeds Will Kill You?
FAQ
Will apple seeds kill chickens?
How many apple seeds will hurt a dog?
Apple seeds contain trace amounts of cyanide, which is poisonous and deadly to people and dogs (not to mention, they taste… bad). Don’t panic, a medium-sized dog would have to eat around 1000 apple seeds to get to a deadly dose, so your dog isn’t in immediate danger of cyanide poisoning if they gobble up a few seeds.
How much apple can chickens eat?
It’s not dangerous for chickens to eat a whole apple, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Apples contain seeds that contain cyanide in small amounts, which could be harmful if eaten in large quantities. However, one apple shared among your four chickens should not pose a serious risk.
Can my bird eat apple seeds?
The seeds of apples and the pits of cherries, peaches, plums, pears, apricots and nectarines are all unsafe to give to your birds. They contain varying levels of a cyanide compound that can cause death.