Can you feed your Chickens Meat?

[hooktontravel]

I've been tossing in the dead mice from our traps -- the house is unbelievably infested this year! so far i haven't seen the chickens actually eat any of them (they're only from June, so maybe they're still too young?) the duckling, though? she's a month younger and i saw her trying to bill down a whole mouse. I expected the chickens with pointy beaks to tear the mouse in pieces... poor Homer just had to try to swallow it down in once piece. --I didn't wait around to see if she'd be successful. I can't imagine how full her crop would be with a whole mouse in it, even if it was small, so I checked back to make sure she hadn't choked or over gorged or something. I don't know if she gave up or was successful -- I couldn't see the mouse anywhere and she was still quacking it up!

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I've been tossing in the dead mice from our traps -- the house is unbelievably infested this year! so far i haven't seen the chickens actually eat any of them (they're only from June, so maybe they're still too young?) the duckling, though? she's a month younger and i saw her trying to bill down a whole mouse. I expected the chickens with pointy beaks to tear the mouse in pieces... poor Homer just had to try to swallow it down in once piece. --I didn't wait around to see if she'd be successful. I can't imagine how full her crop would be with a whole mouse in it, even if it was small, so I checked back to make sure she hadn't choked or over gorged or something. I don't know if she gave up or was successful -- I couldn't see the mouse anywhere and she was still quacking it up!

Your post made think of the photos in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/994286/duck-ate-a-rat.

 

[julianna47]

Cannabalism is more of a social issue than a biological one. It's a problem for us not them, in other words

 

[chriseagan]

I know chickens are omnivores, and eat bugs, worms ect. can you feed them scraps from meat, I book I read said yes 1 said NO, never feed them meat...........so whats up with that, chickens in a wild environment are opportunistic, and will eat almost anything, including dead animals mice, moles, frogs, anything that gets close enough to grab..... so why aren't they suppose to have meat? or was the book mistaken? My feeling is they can eat meat any kind though I think cooked would be better. but I have seen them clean a carcass from a butchered deer down to just bone. What do you all think? Kim

I've seen my girls rip apart lizards, mice and rats and eat them like top sirloin with no problem , so I'd say a little cooked meat wouldn't hurt