Can chickens eat...chicken?

[ChristieB]

I know I'd heard not to feed chooks and pigs or any animal that is to be consumed by people meat products but I went to the feed place to get something to fatten my unwanted roosters and they gave me a bag of meat meal lol.

I don't give my chooks meat scraps only because I give that to my dogs but I remember when there was cooked chicken bones in mums scrap bucket they would go mad to get at the marrow

 

[lazy gardener]

I believe that the concern is based on the outbreak of mad cow disease in the UK. Mad cow is caused by a prion, which is smaller than a virus, and is not killed by heat treating. Of course, I could be wrong. Do my chickens eat meat? absolutely. Do they eat chicken? when ever we do! Will I stop feeding them meat scraps? Probably never.

 

[HungryChick]

Let them eat it there cannibals but they don't know it and it's better if they don't

 

[twilightsparkle]

I don't care if they like it or not, its not good in my opinion to raise cannibals. I treat my chickens as if they were my children. Would you let your child become a cannibal? I certainly hope not.

 

[RonP]

I don't care if they like it or not, its not good in my opinion to raise cannibals. I treat my chickens as if they were my children. Would you let your child become a cannibal? I certainly hope not.

How do you stop them from eating rocks, worms, and chicken poo?

 

[twilightsparkle]

I've Never seen my chicken eat their poo ( I don't think mine do) and feeding them grit is important. As for the worms, I don't care worms are not chickens so when chickens eat them its not cannibalism; its the cycle of life chickens are higher on the food than worms and chickens eat worms so, yeah. ( your point?)

 

[RonP]

My point...

We sometimes tend to humanize our birds.

My birds are pets also, but they are not humans, and could never be cannibals as stated.

Cannibalism (from Caníbales, the Spanish name for the Caribs,[1] a West Indies tribe that formerly practiced cannibalism)[2]is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings.

Most omnivores will readily consume flesh of the same species when available.

Chickens are no exception, you will never "teach" them to not eat something they think is good for them.

 

[twilightsparkle]

Well, I can prevent them from eating chicken. As long as there are no dead birds lying around ( which there certinaly would not be) or any birds with major cuts ( I make sure they don't hurt them selves as much as possible) So as long as I have a say in it my birdies are NOT cannibals !

 

[Chris09]

You can TRY to prevent it, you will never really prevent it.
Chickens will be the omnivore that they are, and will eat anything that doesn't eat them first....

 

[AmericanMom]

I don't care if they like it or not, its not good in my opinion to raise cannibals. I treat my chickens as if they were my children. Would you let your child become a cannibal? I certainly hope not.

Best thing in the world for my hens is when we butcher aggressive/unwanted roosters.... They love the livers and testicles

... Hilarious to watch them fight over the scraps

Chickens as children.... That gave me my morning dose of a good belly laugh