anyone else feed road kill?

[Chicken.Lytle]

Quote:
Maybe you don't know what's in your commercially packaged chicken feed, much less cat and dog food. Animals that were euthanized at shelters (we're talking cats and dogs), animals that died at veterinary hospitals or in feed lots or commercial chicken houses...many are trucked over to the rendering plant, where they are melted down and then sprayed onto animal feed for flavoring. Not much better than roadkill.

You are right. Industry collects up all sorts of protein sources (eg. roadkill) for animal feed. My hope is that the slurm gets sanitized during rendering or by the steam as it passes though the extruder.

 

[jennh]

Chicken.Lytle :

Considering that I eat what my hens produce, NO WAY!

X 2

Jen​

 

[wood&feathers]

I'll cast my vote with the scavengers. I am pretty picky about my roadkill (eyes just starting to cloud, gut not ruptured when you open it...), but if it is good enough for me, it is certainly good enough for the dogs and chickens. We have eaten roadkill squirrel, rabbit, deer, turkey and peacock. I picked up the peacock on a cold morning on the Mountain Parkway, just for the feathers, but when I saw that breast meat...

I think the dog resents sharing with the chickens. Her chicken buddy keeps trying to steal the choice bits. She will share squirrel and deer scraps, but NOT rabbit.

 

[Rowtag]

Eh, I am fine with the birds getting whatever meat they want. I haven't ever picked up road kill for them, but they have gotten a rabbit/squirrel that the collie caught. I see no problem with it as long as whatever it was is fresh, mine will tear apart a turkey carcass like crazy (and while that is cooked not everything they get is). There is no telling what they catch when they free range.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

wood&feathers :

I'll cast my vote with the scavengers. I am pretty picky about my roadkill (eyes just starting to cloud, gut not ruptured when you open it...), but if it is good enough for me, it is certainly good enough for the dogs and chickens. We have eaten roadkill squirrel, rabbit, deer, turkey and peacock. I picked up the peacock on a cold morning on the Mountain Parkway, just for the feathers, but when I saw that breast meat...

I think the dog resents sharing with the chickens. Her chicken buddy keeps trying to steal the choice bits. She will share squirrel and deer scraps, but NOT rabbit.

W&F, I would probably do the same if I did not live in an area that sees little traffic. All the local roadkill is nasty. Many of them are skunks.

 

[johny]

I have eaten road kill. Here is the list:
Roasts and steak from several deer.
A mallard.
Several ruffed grouse.
I only do it if, it is my vehicle they hit or I know with certainty that it was fairly fresh.

So why not the chickens.
Well for me, I guess it is because I haven't had the opportunity since I became a Backyard Chicken keeper.

Next time I come across a fresh moose or deer, I'll definitely be cutting some meat off for the chickens and myself, if it still in good shape.

 

[dinahmoe]

well,i must say that i have laughed more at reading this thread tonite than i have all day.ya'll crack me up.

i have never fed roadkill to my chickens becuase i don't think i could get the visual out of my head of them tearing it apart like little dinosaurs.
i have picked up road kill and gave it to my neighbor who has a small alligator in his pond.
as far as diseases go,it is really hard to catch something from one species to another otherwise there would be alot of sick animals and people around.and the OP did say a fresh not rotten 3 day old maggot infested slimey squirrel.
BTW those who have "vegetarian chickens",ever wonder why there is grain around the coop and yard but no mice?...jusy sayin

 

[Rozzie]

I'm a long time vegetarian and if "I" hit and kill a deer or a wild turkey, then by golly, I'm going to bleed that sucker out right there and bring it home.

Whether I eat it or give it to family doesn't matter. I'm not wasting it.

Chances are pretty high that I'll hit one of those deer eventually. I see them along the way to & from work on a nearly daily basis. There are days that in six miles we see deer half a dozen times.

 

[mikki717]

I have personally never eaten roadkill... but I am also fortunate enough to say I have not ever been that hungry, and have been able to provide food for my kids in more conventional ways.

Eggs from a bird, or milk from a cow is a product of the animal's body, not a mixture of what it eats. A cow eats grass, but you get much more than grass slobber juice when you milk it. The food taken in by any animal or bird is first broken down nto a single molecule, sugar, which is then used by the body to fuel its systems. If the roadkill was fresh, I would absolutely use it. I can either feed it to my chickens, or it will be eaten by the coyote that will eat my chickens next week.

I used to live in rural area, and would see 10 squished squirrels a day though, and came up with the idea to pick up the squirrels, cut off the tails, and sell them, tanned, to the folks "down the mountain" to wear on their hats. I can't tell you how much flack I caught from anyone I told about this goldmine of an idea though... and I let the idea go. Dad gummit... 15 years later, some entrepreneur made a bunch of money from squirrel tails.

 

[Rozzie]

Oh, and I have eaten roadkill deer.

We whacked into one growing up. I wasn't a vegetarian then. We didn't normally eat venison, but why waste?

Oh, and in Alaska, there are programs in place to distribute roadkill moose. I believe in some cases it goes to private individuals and in others it goes to charities.
Heck, even good ol' Wikipedia has an article titled "Roadkill cusine."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadkill_cuisine