Do you feed raw meat to chickens

[sean_wonder]

As I was preparing supper I was setting aside scraps for my chicks (7 weeks old) when I got to skinning and deboning the chicken I wondered if I should cook the raw meat. I don't mind the extra step and I boiled the bones and skins, but I'm wondering if it's necessary.

While chickens will be carnivorous as you allow, at the very least boiling meat is a great idea to reduce the chance of transmitting any potential diseases or possibly inoculating your flock with salmonella from store bought sources. Especially when you're giving them chicken meat.

 

[Zenmonkey]

My logic is maybe a little different?

Louie the canine companion will gladly consume bird feces. The cats eat rodents all the time. The other day I caught one of my ducks nearly choking to death trying to swallow a baby bunny she'd found and killed. When I took it from her to see what it was, the drake snatched it and gulped it. Muscovies, so the drake is much larger.

My logic on it is this. I spend a fair bit of effort trying to reduce the parasite load, which is never going to go to zero. The skillet is right there, it's a quick easy thing to do, and helps keep the parasite load to my preferred side of the balance. Do I really think there's much of anything in the meat I eat? No. But also there's not much effort in cooking it either.

I completely understand the whole:

Yes I do. Why? ... Not once did I see them wheel out a kitchen and fire up the BBQ to cook any of it.

But I'm going to be honest with you. If those birds wheel out a kitchen and fire up the BBQ? I'm grabbing knives and forks and inviting myself along. BBQ coyote wouldn't be my first choice, but if they're doing the cooking, I'll try it!

 

[MyNYfarm]

I don't, because I don't want to start conflict in my coop. cannibalism can hurt chickens, because if the meat isn't cooked through, they could start to see the other birds as food. that said, I do feed them cooked chicken, just not raw.

Not true. I've been feeding all my dogs and cats a 100% whole prey raw diet for over 30 years. Yet the dogs and cats walk freely and happily amongst the animals I raise that will eventually be their food without ever giving thought to harm them. They know that when the animals are alive, they are not to bother them and they may only eat what is given to them. Chickens are no different. They aren't going to taste raw chicken and get the thought "hey, I think my sister will taste just the same" seriously, they don't know that the meat they were given by the human is what is beneath the feathers of their flock.

 

[Zenmonkey]

Yet the dogs and cats walk freely and happily amongst the animals I raise that will eventually be their food without ever giving thought to harm them.

I find this difficult to believe. I'm pretty sure that my cats are just lazy and well fed, and so they're willing to wait for me to die before eating me.

I can tell by the way they look at me. Every once in a while one of them will lick me. I'm certain that it is a reminder to me that they tolerate me only because they anticipate a huge meal in the future.

 

[K0k0shka]

I find this difficult to believe. I'm pretty sure that my cats are just lazy and well fed, and so they're willing to wait for me to die before eating me.

I can tell by the way they look at me. Every once in a while one of them will lick me. I'm certain that it is a reminder to me that they tolerate me only because they anticipate a huge meal in the future.

Both cats and dogs have been found to have eaten their humans after the humans passed away, so... You're not wrong.

 

[fowltemptress]

Always when I have unusable scraps, they love it and it's much less wasteful. They also like to hang around me on slaughter days and eat all the scraps and whatnot, which saves on cleanup. They even drink the blood if I don't save it for the garden. It would seem gruesome if they weren't so dang adorable as they beg for the blood of their kin.

Back when my grandfather was alive he kept his chickens on laying pellets. Every time they started to cannibalize each other he would grab a raw carcass of some sort, like turkey or chicken or rabbit, and set it in the coop for them. The cannibalizing would stop. I keep my birds on a higher protein diet than he did so I don't think I'd have that issue, anyway, but even so, I figure a steady diet of raw scraps from my kitchen and butcher's table to ward off cannibalization behavior before it starts is better than having to treat with raw meat after the fact.

 

[K0k0shka]

They also like to hang around me on slaughter days and eat all the scraps and whatnot, which saves on cleanup.

That's what my grandma did back in the day, and that's what I do with my chickens now, too. I use the bucket of scald water to throw all the scraps into while butchering - the plucked feathers, guts and discarded bits. Then I dump the bucket in the chicken run when I'm done. They eat everything, even the feathers! (wet feathers look more like food than dry fluffy ones).

 

[redinator]

My logic is maybe a little different?

Louie the canine companion will gladly consume bird feces. The cats eat rodents all the time. The other day I caught one of my ducks nearly choking to death trying to swallow a baby bunny she'd found and killed. When I took it from her to see what it was, the drake snatched it and gulped it. Muscovies, so the drake is much larger.

My logic on it is this. I spend a fair bit of effort trying to reduce the parasite load, which is never going to go to zero. The skillet is right there, it's a quick easy thing to do, and helps keep the parasite load to my preferred side of the balance. Do I really think there's much of anything in the meat I eat? No. But also there's not much effort in cooking it either.

I completely understand the whole:


But I'm going to be honest with you. If those birds wheel out a kitchen and fire up the BBQ? I'm grabbing knives and forks and inviting myself along. BBQ coyote wouldn't be my first choice, but if they're doing the cooking, I'll try it!

After reading the comments and advice I'll be going with the 'better safe than sorry' route.

It doesn't take any extra effort to toss meats scarps in a pot and boil them, or an extra pan in the oven to broil them if I'm already cooking dinner.

You make a good point of not really being able to get the parasite load to zero, but no sense in adding to it, if/when it can be helped.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

After reading the comments and advice I'll be going with the 'better safe than sorry' route.

It doesn't take any extra effort to toss meats scarps in a pot and boil them, or an extra pan in the oven to broil them if I'm already cooking dinner.

You make a good point of not really being able to get the parasite load to zero, but no sense in adding to it, if/when it can be helped.

The only thing that stops me from throwing out raw stuff.. or meat scraps for that matter is not wanting to attract predators. Even If your birds eat it all up.. I bet fox and coyote can still smell it on the ground for a long while after.

 

[K0k0shka]

The only thing that stops me from throwing out raw stuff.. or meat scraps for that matter is not wanting to attract predators. Even If your birds eat it all up.. I bet fox and coyote can still smell it on the ground for a long while after.

That wouldn't be a problem if you had a secure setup. Mine is secure and I don't free range, so foxes and coyotes don't worry me in the slightest. On the contrary - I hope they visit more often, to help with the absolute explosion of wild rabbits on my property, which have been destroying everything.