Meat for chickens; yes or no??

[U_Stormcrow]

I’ve seen a growing trend of people feeding their chickens meat scraps.

Its not a growing trend, truly. @saysfaa linked a bunch of old recipes from last century, they frequently rely on "meat scraps" (which was then a term of art) in this thread. More modern man briefly adopted one of our numerous dietary fads, which we promptly inflicted upon our chickens, in our ignorance. We are now walking that decision back.

Now the FDA says you can no longer use "meat scraps" (again, its a term of art) in making animal feeds. But you can ABSOLUTELY use "meat" "scraps". You just have to disclose them with modern terms of art that better describes the source. "Porcine blood meal" (pig's blood), "Menhaden Fish meal", "Chicken meal" (yes, you can feed chickens chicken - unlike the "mad cow" example, there are no known prion diseases of chickens), "Crab meal", "insect meal" etc.

What makes them "meal"??? Mostly they are dried to remove water, possibly heat treated, then chopped, poowdered or otherwise homogenized.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Welp, I threw my flock a chicken carcass the other day after I was done slicing all the meat off for myself. They loved pecking the rest of the meat off of it and it's a good protein source. Admittedly it does feel weird feeding chicken to chicken so I don't do it often, but I hate wasting food and I like when I can give them fresh protein sources. Sometimes I give them canned cat food or canned fish. I recently discovered how much they love sardines! Just make sure with canned stuff it's not too salty.

This is not a scientific answer. Just telling you my experience.

Mine get parts of my birds as I butcher (not the kidneys, gall bladder, spleen, rarely the liver - those organs are responsible for filtering waste, and the gall bladder is well, not good eats). I don't want to concentrate waste in my birds by repeatedly feeding prior bird's stored waste.

They also get to clean my goat carcasses when I'm done with them.

I don't waste enough rabbit to leave much for them to eat.

.and I dond feed brains back, houg again, no prion disease to worry about, I just don't feel like cracking skulls. Lazy, I know.

 

[nuthatched]

I had to wrestle a dead Chipmunk from mine yesterday. It's like Keep Away but you don't want to actually touch the ball and tackling is permitted.

 

[Red Mangrove]

My chickens kill and eat rodents, frogs, lizards, fish. Anything small and moving really. They're also eager cannibals. I can't imagine why eating meat from a human would ever be problematic

 

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

My chickens kill and eat rodents, frogs, lizards, fish. Anything small and moving really. They're also eager cannibals. I can't imagine why eating meat from a human would ever be problematic

One of my had escaped her run the other day. In the process of getting her back in, she grabbed a frog. Lol took it back in w her & then the frog was tore apart. Lol them things are crazy!

 

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

Its not a growing trend, truly. @saysfaa linked a bunch of old recipes from last century, they frequently rely on "meat scraps" (which was then a term of art) in this thread. More modern man briefly adopted one of our numerous dietary fads, which we promptly inflicted upon our chickens, in our ignorance. We are now walking that decision back.

Now the FDA says you can no longer use "meat scraps" (again, its a term of art) in making animal feeds. But you can ABSOLUTELY use "meat" "scraps". You just have to disclose them with modern terms of art that better describes the source. "Porcine blood meal" (pig's blood), "Menhaden Fish meal", "Chicken meal" (yes, you can feed chickens chicken - unlike the "mad cow" example, there are no known prion diseases of chickens), "Crab meal", "insect meal" etc.

What makes them "meal"??? Mostly they are dried to remove water, possibly heat treated, then chopped, poowdered or otherwise homogenized.

So basically the FDA said no, and people, again, said ok. Even though that’s worked for us in the past. Lol

Well, as others have stated, not much meat is wasted here. But they occasionally get some, plus the feed I buy has fish meal in it.
In trying to help out some fam members save money by providing eggs. I was told no thanks because we do feed ours meat occasionally.
Hence my questions & further digging.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Mine get parts of my birds as I butcher (not the kidneys, gall bladder, spleen, rarely the liver - those organs are responsible for filtering waste, and the gall bladder is well, not good eats). I don't want to concentrate waste in my birds by repeatedly feeding prior bird's stored waste.

They also get to clean my goat carcasses when I'm done with them.

I don't waste enough rabbit to leave much for them to eat.

.and I dond feed brains back, houg again, no prion disease to worry about, I just don't feel like cracking skulls. Lazy, I know.

Nice! Yeah this chicken I threw to them was one I processed myself. I didn't really toss the girls anything during processing, but I do give them scraps as I cook the meat from the freezer. They are much better than I am at getting every bit off the bone.

Good point about not feeding certain organs though. I'll remember that.

 

[saysfaa]

Isn't the liver the only organ that stores toxins much? The kidneys, skin, lungs, the intestines also clear toxins from the body but I don't think any of them store what they remove.

Oh. And I think meat and fish can be great food sources for chickens. There is quite a lot of research to support this as well as some about what avoid (too much fish can have issues with mercury, just like for people, for example - including in at least some types of ocean fish.) I don't have it handy now.

I don't hesitate to feed my hens any meat I would eat* or quite a lot that I don't eat.

*except some because it has too much salt. I probably shouldn't eat as much of that as I do but I can cut back on it in other parts of my diet and the chickens can't. It wouldn't matter much if it is fed rarely but could if a lot was fed often.

I have some reservations about recommending someone feed "meat scraps" or "fish" because I don't know what they mean by that. Bits of flesh left on a carcass after butchering is quite different from the pile of nearly all fat left after dicing a chuck roast for chili. A can of tuna is quite different from a farm-raised catfish.

 

[Red Mangrove]

I don't hesitate to feed my hens any meat I would eat* or quite a lot that I don't eat.

*except some because it has too much salt. I probably shouldn't eat as much of that as I do but I can cut back on it in other parts of my diet and the chickens can't. It wouldn't matter much if it is fed rarely but could if a lot was fed often.

Salt is very good for you. The Japanese have almost double the daily salt intake as Americans and they have the longest lifespan on Earth. The myth of salt being dangerous is due to a single faulty study done in the 80s

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So basically the FDA said no, and people, again, said ok. Even though that’s worked for us in the past. Lol

In this case, the FDA really said, "how about you be a *little* more specific".

Yeah, I have some issues with some of FDA's decisions, but this one seems rather reasonable all around.