"Animal Protein" free chick starter

[cree57i]

Welcome to BYC!

I prefer a feed with animal protein.

-Kathy

Chickens and chicks are omnivours. Have you ever seen the feeding frenzy over a frog, mouse or even a bug? It is the same principle as when the hen eats oyster shell because she needs calcium. They need and crave animal protein which contains all the amino acids. My vegetarian daughter tried to make her dog a vegetarian. He got sick. Now he gets hamburger and steak cooked by 2 vegetarian humans. Ironic.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Chickens and chicks are omnivours. Have you ever seen the feeding frenzy over a frog, mouse or even a bug? It is the same principle as when the hen eats oyster shell because she needs calcium. They need and crave animal protein which contains all the amino acids. My vegetarian daughter tried to make her dog a vegetarian. He got sick. Now he gets hamburger and steak cooked by 2 vegetarian humans. Ironic.

Yep - several of the high end dog food lines offer "vegetarian" formulas -- I couldn't do much but shake my head the first time I saw it.

 

[Kittcat]

The thing about "mad cow disease" is it can only be a problem if the brain or brainstem of an infected cow is in the feed. It came and spreads from feeding cows those parts of other cows. The risk is incredibly low and just not something I think people should worry about. I understand vegetarians liking a vegetarian feed since the chickens can live pretty happily on it! I think it's a personal preference thing.

 

[ShanandGem]

And of course animal protein is expensive and the parts of the animal making their way into animal feed isn't exactly 'choice cuts'. Lots of filter organs, bone meal, even hair and hide. My birds are catching all the bugs they can handle at the moment and I dish out mealworms very sparingly to the littles who aren't fully outside. I also make them dandelion salad since my lawn is about 30% dandelions. I finely chop the leaves and even the one week old mini chicks love it.
I would love to be able to buy fish meal for my feed but it's not a possibility here.

 

[MeepBeep]

And of course animal protein is expensive and the parts of the animal making their way into animal feed isn't exactly 'choice cuts'.  Lots of filter organs, bone meal, even hair and hide.

It doesn't need to be a 'choice cut' to be high in nutritional value... When a chicken eats bugs they are getting plenty of 'low end cuts' of meat, at least IMO ...

 

[cree57i]

And of course animal protein is expensive and the parts of the animal making their way into animal feed isn't exactly 'choice cuts'. Lots of filter organs, bone meal, even hair and hide. My birds are catching all the bugs they can handle at the moment and I dish out mealworms very sparingly to the littles who aren't fully outside. I also make them dandelion salad since my lawn is about 30% dandelions. I finely chop the leaves and even the one week old mini chicks love it.
I would love to be able to buy fish meal for my feed but it's not a possibility here.

You can order just about anything over the internet. I just found 5# of fish meal for 18.00 on Amazon prime. A little goes a long way. If you mix up too much at a time it can clump and mold. Sometimes co-ops have it too.

 

[MeepBeep]

You can order just about anything over the internet. I just found 5# of fish meal for 18.00 on Amazon prime. A little goes a long way. If you mix up too much at a time it can clump and mold. Sometimes co-ops have it too.

Sure you can, if you are willing to pay the price...

 

[ShanandGem]

It doesn't need to be a 'choice cut' to be high in nutritional value... When a chicken eats bugs they are getting plenty of 'low end cuts' of meat, at least IMO

...

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.

 

[MeepBeep]

It doesn't need to be a 'choice cut' to be high in nutritional value... When a chicken eats bugs they are getting plenty of 'low end cuts' of meat, at least IMO ...

But if we're talking about chickens consuming balanced nutrition, they should be eating the entire animal, not just the garbage cuts. 

It's unrealistic to believe a chicken should be eating an entire animal as their only source of animal protein... Meat alone even the entire animal is not a balanced diet or balanced nutrition for omnivores, it's simply part of a balanced diet not the entire diet... And that part of the balanced diet can come from many sources and is certainly not limited to only choice cuts of muscle meat...

If you and I ate nothing but organ meat our health would suffer too.

As long as that meat was only being used as a portion of your balanced diet I beg to differ that you would suffer from eating the organ meat as honestly some of the organ meat (like heart) is actually superior to many 'choice cuts'... And being an omnivore we can balance out the other nutritional requirements from alternative sources without solely depending on meat for everything...

Even in carnivores that exclusively eat meats the muscle meat aka 'choice cuts' alone does not constitute a complete diet, it's a mix of the choice an other animal parts that create the balanced diet...

The skin, hooves, hair, feather, guts, organs, connective tissue and what not all play their role in balanced diet and should never be considered 2nd fiddle to muscle meat because we like it's presentation better... When it comes to being part of a poultry diet, all their 'animal protein / amino acids' can easily be obtained from the less desirable meat products...

 

[lazy gardener]

So, how bout them Red Sox, huh????