# should i feed my chickens chicken for a snack some times?



## meme (Oct 4, 2010)

Help, should i feed my chickens chicken. We have a lot of left over chicken when we eat it because my sister hates it. I kind of think it is gross to feed them it because there eating there own kind.



                                           thanks
                                               bye


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## savingdogs (Oct 4, 2010)

My chickens love to eat chicken. My hubby and sons find it distasteful. But they devour even most of the bones! Since I only give them cooked chicken, I highly doubt they can recognize what they are eating. 
My chickens get great enjoyment out of eating chicken.


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## Emmetts Dairy (Oct 5, 2010)

meme said:
			
		

> Help, should i feed my chickens chicken. We have a lot of left over chicken when we eat it because my sister hates it. I kind of think it is gross to feed them it because there eating there own kind.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I never feed my chickens...chicken.  It can make some agressive.  Ive always heard it was a bad idea.  But if others do it with no problem???....I dunno     I personally dont do it...

Meat protien..like in dry cat food when in moult is fine...I however give them whey from the cheese making or cheese itself...my guys LOVE cheese.  They do need extra protien in the winter months while in moult sooo I definatley give them more protien snacks but not from chicken meat.  I will buy a bag of cat food and grind it up and put it in there feed.   I also make bread weekly so they always get those left overs and I get agricultural apples from the orchard for them every year at harvest!!  They absolutly devouer them!  So YES you can give them snacks..They cannot eat raw potato peals...so be careful what you throw at them out of the kitchen.


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## patandchickens (Oct 5, 2010)

"Gross" is a human idea, not a chicken one. Chickens are certainly quite willing to eat their own kind under other circumstances, and they they certainly love the cooked version too. 

I have not seen any trace whatsoever, in any of my pens, of it making them "aggressive", either (cooked chicken meat is totally different than raw-and-still-attached-to-living-chicken flesh, I seriously doubt they can make any connection, same as feeding cooked scrambled eggs does not lead to egg-eating)

Chickens do best with some meat protein as they are not biologically meant to be vegetarians; however, there are plenty of ways they can get it, including bugs/snails and/or freezerburned/leftover kitchen scraps of non-chicken meats.

Some people are concerned, in a roundabout speculative way, that there might exist some as-yet-unrecognized-and-unsuspected prion type disease in chickens that they could contract from eating the meat of other poultry. Personally I would chalk it up as "possible but neither probable nor something I am going to go to great lengths to worry about". But if you ARE worried about some hypothetical not-yet-observed prion disease, a la mad cow disease, then that would be a reason for not feeding poultry to poultry.

Don't know of any other good reason not to do it. Mine LOVE it. Even if I give them bones/carcasses after long boiling for soup stock, they can still get some nutrition out of it, and will pick things quite clean.

To each their own,

Pat


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## jodief100 (Oct 5, 2010)

I find it gross but my aunt and grandmother do it all the time.  They have never had a problem and thier chickens are very healthy, good layers.  

I am also one of those paranoid-about-potential-prion disease people so I won't do it.  

I say go ahead if it doesn't gross you out.

Don't feed them onions or garlic unless you want strong, onion/garlic tasting eggs.


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## glenolam (Oct 5, 2010)

I'm with Pat - my chickens get anything and everything.  We never leave restaraunts without first bagging up what was left on the plates - my entire family knows and now everyone saves their scraps for us.

I've never had an issue with my chickens becoming agressive or hurtful towards eachother or anything else, although I have heard the same theory.


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## Calliopia (Oct 5, 2010)

My guys get meat of some kind at least once a week in addition to what ever they scavenge on their own.   And that meat can be pork, chicken, beef, mystery, etc.


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## Beekissed (Oct 5, 2010)

My flock will wait under the killing cones to drink the blood running down the tree from their flockmates.  And they seem to relish every minute of it.  They also chase each other over the scraps of entrails from the processing as well.  

My chickens are not aggressive....no fighting, no feather picking, nothing but harmony and chicken feet on this place.  

They eat what is edible to them and they do not have the capacity to reason that it is from something that used to share the roost right next to them.


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## patandchickens (Oct 6, 2010)

Beekissed said:
			
		

> They eat what is edible to them and they do not have the capacity to reason that it is from something that used to share the roost right next to them.


Frankly they seem to lack that capacity (or inclination) even when it is STILL sharing the roost right next to them, a la what they'll do to a flockmate with a prolapse.

It is a real good thing for people that chickens are not 6 feet tall, is all I can say, because WE would be on THEIR menu 

Pat


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## Emmetts Dairy (Oct 6, 2010)

jodief100 said:
			
		

> I find it gross but my aunt and grandmother do it all the time.  They have never had a problem and thier chickens are very healthy, good layers.
> 
> I am also one of those paranoid-about-potential-prion disease people so I won't do it.


Personal view. But I just feel we should'nt eat our own kind, as noted above prion disease exists.  I am paranoid about it as well...your not alone.  I belive in the food chain.  A natural harmony.

Thankfully we are on the top of that food chain!!!  

Definatly a choice.  I choose not too.   I read it in several books and reference materials...and it made sense to me.   

Theres alot info out there...as always...do what works for you...


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## Hollywood Goats (Oct 6, 2010)

patandchickens said:
			
		

> "Gross" is a human idea, not a chicken one. Chickens are certainly quite willing to eat their own kind under other circumstances, and they they certainly love the cooked version too.
> 
> I have not seen any trace whatsoever, in any of my pens, of it making them "aggressive", either (cooked chicken meat is totally different than raw-and-still-attached-to-living-chicken flesh, I seriously doubt they can make any connection, same as feeding cooked scrambled eggs does not lead to egg-eating)
> 
> ...


I agree, my chickens get cooked chicken and meat and they break the bones and eat those too.

My chickens get meat sauce leftover from dinner several times a week and real meat bit once a week. they are not aggressive or anything so I think that is a myth.


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## Calliopia (Oct 7, 2010)

Oh, the other thing I do is save all pan drippings for them and they get these tossed in with their crumbles.  Chickens are one of the few creatures that can make full use of fat due to their metabolisms.  ... some days I wish I was a chicken.


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## savingdogs (Oct 7, 2010)

Really? I have been afraid to give my chickens anything really fatty (or salty) as I was afraid it would be bad for them. I have not given them pan drippings or bacon fat or anything like that. 
Aren't you worried they will become too fat, or are your chickens especially active, Calliopia? 
I'm new at this chicken thing.

I do know one day I gave my chickens leftover soup which included quite a bit of onions and garlic and was too fatty so we did not care for it, but they loved it. The next day, one of my hens was really ill, acted kind of paralyzed, except having diarrhea, and she stayed that way for about two days. We were just thinking it would be best to mercy-kill her when she spontaneously recovered. Only the one acted that way but we surmised that she must have eaten more of the onions or fatty parts or whatever.

Not being sure what exactly was in the soup that made her sick, I have been afraid to give them onions, garlic or fatty things again. 

It was not, however, chicken soup! I bet mine would LOVE that.


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## freemotion (Oct 7, 2010)

It was not likely the fat.  Egg yolks are made with a lot of fat, so they make good use of fat!  When I render lard and suet, I give them all the leftover bits and they go nuts!  It is very good for them.


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## jodief100 (Oct 7, 2010)

savingdogs said:
			
		

> Not being sure what exactly was in the soup that made her sick, I have been afraid to give them onions, garlic or fatty things again.


I would recomend not feeding garlic or onions at all.  It makes the eggs taste funny.  I don't know what would have caused your hen to get sick.  It may have been something completly unrelated to the soup.


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## Hollywood Goats (Oct 7, 2010)

Mine eat onion tops and skin and the eggs don't taste like onions at all, think about why would they? the chickens saturate the nutrition from their food, poop out the waste(including colors and texture that they couldn't break down) and turn the nutrition into eggs and muscle etc. the flavor, color or texture does not get converted into eggs, which you can tell because if you feed a chicken beets the poop with be purple/pink but the egg never even has a pink tinge.


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## patandchickens (Oct 7, 2010)

Some food components DO pass into the eggs in a detectible way. Two obvious examples are how hens (some, not all -- it is genetically determined) will produce fishy/odd-tasting eggs if fed excessive amounts of fish meal in their ration; and chickens with lots of access to a variety of fresh leafy green foods, e.g. free ranging chickens, produce much darker-orange yolks with different nutritional composition (lower cholesterol, etc)

So while MOST color/taste components of their food do not pass thru to the eggs, SOME do.

I am agnostic about the whole onion/garlic thing, as I would never waste good onions or garlic on the chickens LOL  It may be one of those things like with fish-meal where different chickens process certain chemical compounds differently, I dunno

Pat


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## Hollywood Goats (Oct 7, 2010)

patandchickens said:
			
		

> Some food components DO pass into the eggs in a detectable way. Two obvious examples are how hens (some, not all -- it is genetically determined) will produce fishy/odd-tasting eggs if fed excessive amounts of fish meal in their ration; and chickens with lots of access to a variety of fresh leafy green foods, e.g. free ranging chickens, produce much darker-orange yolks with different nutritional composition (lower cholesterol, etc)
> 
> So while MOST color/taste components of their food do not pass thru to the eggs, SOME do.
> 
> ...


I have never fed fish to my chickens so I don't know anything about that, but with the greens that is the nutrition not the flavor or color (green egg yolks would be pretty).

Although the fish taste being passed on to the yolk does make sense because of the fat levels that are totally absorbed and since the egg has lots of fats it would be used without be processed a lot.


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## Calliopia (Oct 7, 2010)

Nope it doesn't bother them at all.  And it's a good 1/2 - 1 cup of grease/fat at times.   I don't know how to describe my set up. They free range in an enclosure.  It's kind of a chicken aviary.  So they can exercise when they want and be lazy when they want. 

I also save chunks of fat from butchering and give them a block of that to peck at during the winter.  Fat = calories = warmth. 

I don't test my eggs for nutritional content but I've never gotten any strange flavors off of them after feeding the girls a hunk of fat.


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## patandchickens (Oct 8, 2010)

Hollywood Goats said:
			
		

> I have never fed fish to my chickens so I don't know anything about that


It's an issue with some commercial feeds. (For some hens).



> but with the greens that is the nutrition not the flavor or color (green egg yolks would be pretty).


What is the difference??? It's all just a matter of chemical compounds from the food passing into the egg. In the case of the dark orange yolks of free range chickens, it's from the carotenoids that is in the plant tissues and is absorbed into the chicken's system and put into the eggs. (More carotenoids in diet, more go into eggs). 

And it IS in fact the COLOR that is transferring to the egg. That same dark orange color is present in plant tissues, just masked by the larger amount of green chlorophyll, that's why when leaves get sickly or this time of year "turn", they get yellowish-orange (among other colors -- there are other pigments involved too, and it varies among plant species). Pigment from leaves --> pigment in egg. Note of course that this is not true of ALL pigments, but it demonstrates that SOME elements of diet wind up in eggs.

Pat


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## TheSheepGirl (Oct 8, 2010)

I always check the ingredients in my chicken feed carefully. I avoid anything that contains meat byproducts or fish meal. I always look for foods that use soy bean meal for a protien booster.

The darker pigments in the plants is what transfers to the eggs. I guess since green is a mixture of yellow and blue, that there would naturally be some yellow in there.

Chcikens in the wild were most likely an omnivore. they were scavengers that ate anything and everything. 

I always pictured this.

The jungle. A tiger pounces and kills its prey. The tiger is done eating and there are, instead of vultures, a few chickens hanging around and waiting for it to finish. The chickens pick the animal clean after the tiger leaves. 

If something is dead, no matter how far gone it is, chickens will eat it. My chickens even kill and eat mice.

I have not found a single thing my chickens won't eat.


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## meme (Oct 9, 2010)

Thanks for all the help guys I think I will try it.



                                  thanks
                                    bye


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## Heartlandrabbitry (Nov 17, 2010)

glenolam said:
			
		

> I'm with Pat - my chickens get anything and everything.


Same here! My chickens will eat anything... my Rhode Island Red hen loves Doritos and Cheetos


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## meme (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks for all the help guys, I think I will try it.



                                    thanks


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## CrimsonRose (Nov 24, 2010)

yep! mine eat chicken all the time... They are cleaning up the bones of some turkeys I cooked down and canned now as I type! 

As for the feed with soybeans to replace animal protein... I try to avoid that If I can (It's hard since SO many feeds have soybeans in them) But I found out a few years ago that soy is a natural estrogen... I was having hormone issues and couldn't figure out the cause... even after I cut soy from my diet it still continued... because it was in the meat I was eating (animals ate soy feed) in the milk I was drinking and eggs and cheese too! I had no clue soy could do all that! too much estrogen can cause cancer and all kinds of issues... (I'm not trying to start a debate but just wanted to throw that info out there since I didn't know of it myself till a few years ago when I started researching it all) because I thought soy was healthier than ground up pig faces too... (or what ever other mystery meat they put in the feed)


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## jodief100 (Nov 24, 2010)

There have been studies that show chickens grow better on animal protiens than plant protiens.  

Still, I will always say do what works for you and you are happy with.


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## TigerLilly (Nov 24, 2010)

I started my little farm after I had to put one of my dogs down; he was the beneficiary of any leftovers. I worried about 'wasting' leftovers until I read that chickens can/will eat just about anything. My chickens now get the leftovers that the dog used to eat & they love their 'treats.' Even eggs, chicken bones with a little meat left on 'em, just about anything. Havent found much they wont eat!


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## boothcreek (Nov 25, 2010)

We generally don't have much in terms of scraps left over ever, but my chickens help themselfs when I am butchering(weather its meatbirds, lambs or beef) to whatever they can get their beaks on.
In the winter I like to go to our local butchery and get a pound or so of ground up fat and scrap meat(wild game most of the time) and throw in handfuls for extra protein. Since in the winter they lack bugs etc to supply that.


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