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

[meme]

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

 

[savingdogs]

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.

 

[Emmetts Dairy]

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

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.

 

[patandchickens]

"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

 

[jodief100]

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.

 

[glenolam]

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.

 

[Calliopia]

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.

 

[Beekissed]

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.

 

[patandchickens]

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

 

[Emmetts Dairy]

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...