"Animal Protein" free chick starter

FWIW, I agree with you @MeepBeep regarding the relative nutrition of various animal bits. Those animals that hunt larger prey than they can swallow whole tend to go for the more nutritious organs like the liver, heart, etc. before they tear into the muscles. This tends to be true in human cultures that aren't as squeamish as ours as well. And insect protein is valued more in other cultures as well.
 
But if we're talking about chickens consuming balanced nutrition, they should be eating the entire animal, not just the garbage cuts. If you and I ate nothing but organ meat our health would suffer too.
If we ate nothing but meat our health would suffer! Thing is we don't the chicken feed isn't just organ meat. It's a combination of animal and plant products which balances it out. Humans don't need to eat meat, and if we only ate organ meat and plants we'd be just as fine or possibly better off than if we only ate muscle meat and plants.

I agree with you about some though, like hair or hide or something that won't have anything worth while in it really. I'm not sure how much of that sort of thing makes it into the feed, which is why I dislike their vague "animal by-products" naming in ingredients lists. The ambiguity is so frustrating... So I definitely see why some people prefer to avoid them.
 
I agree with you about some though, like hair or hide or something that won't have anything worth while in it really.


To be realistic there is more money to be made selling the fur/hides for leather than pet food, thus the amount of hair/hide in animal feed is very low to nil as it does not add anything to the nutritional profile of the feed, and thus if the goal of adding animal protein is to bring the protein content of the feed to some level higher level adding hair/hide is actually detrimental to that goal as it simply adds volume aka a true fluff filler... But, again it's a cost thing, if you want cheap filler corn for example is a much more economical value for the feed company to use as it actually does add vitamins, protein and other nutrients so you actually get something for your money beyond just added weight... There is of course the processed tanning leather waste, 'leather meal' that can be added to feed, but that is different beast entirely and still has little feed value to most animals and can also contain toxic substances, thus most is sold as fertilizer not feed additive...

As for other less desirable stuff like connective tissues, organs,internal 'skins' like intestines and stomach lining that stuff actually does add 'good' nutritional value...

Cow Intestine is about 76% protein (dry matter adjusted) and is ripe in B-12 and has a lot of other vitamins and minerals
Cow lungs are about 79% protein (dry matter adjusted) and high in niacin, B-12, vitamin C and other minerals
Cow Spleen is about 80% protein (dry matter adjusted) and also high in vitamins and minerals

And even the demon Mechanically Separated Meat is still 37% protein with it's own compliment of vitamins and minerals

Compare that to a Prime cut of beef tenderloin trimmed to 1/8" fat at about 45% protein (dry matter adjusted)

This is why a feed company uses the 'cheaper' less desirable meat products in animal feed as they are actually higher in protein then prime cuts of muscle meat in many cases, still pack a good vitamin and mineral profile all the while they can be had for less, it's win-win for the feed company...
 
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This is why a feed company uses the 'cheaper' less desirable meat products in animal feed as they are actually higher in protein then prime cuts of muscle meat in many cases, still pack a good vitamin and mineral profile all the while they can be had for less, it's win-win for the feed company...
That's great to hear! I haven't really ever been super worried when I saw by-products or meal ingredients, but it's awesome to know that feed companies would rather use nutritious parts even if it's for their own reasons! :)
 

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