a lot of layer crumbles contain animal/fish proteins too. but a chicken on a vegetarian diet more than likely would not be healthy. i guess that place has to cull the chickens if they eat an egg?
Well, actually, I laugh at "free range" and "vegetarian" in the same advertisement. So when those free range hens happen upon some bugs in the grass, they just look at it and say to themselves " Oh no I can't eat that delicious bug, I'm supposed to be a vegetarian." Yeah right! The only real vegetarian birds are the poor girls looked in some barn or cage that doesn't see the light of day.
I totally agree. I think the idea of "vegetarian" chicken feed is a little sad and not very realistic. If vegetarian protein sources are used for chicken feed, other adjustments have to be made to balance the nutrition. And there is no way to completely control what a chicken eats, even in confinement.
I was reading elsewhere that the whole "vegetarian" chicken feed thing is because the bedding from commercial poultry farms is recycled as feed for other livestock. Chickens waste feed by beaking it from the feeder onto the floor, and some feed is not fully digested before it becomes poo, so what goes into the chicken feed that eventually becomes part of the bedding and then becomes feed for other animals has to be considered just as if it was feed manufactured specifically for cattle (for example) instead of chickens. There are regulations about feeding meat products to cattle (for example). So ... "vegetarian" chicken feed.
I think the idea of "vegetarian" chicken feed for backyard chickens is a trickle-down phenomenon. It is more efficient for the big feed companies if they don't have to differentiate between what they distribute in bulk to industrial farmers and what they package into the cute little bags customers buy a few pounds at a time. It is also convenient that the soy protein most commonly used in commercial chicken feed is the cheapest form of protein. Soy farming is highly subsidized. So chicken feed manufacturers advertise "vegetarian" as a value-added feature of their feed when it is actually a profit-driven convenience for themselves. It's called Marketing.
I sell eggs and some of my potential customers have told me they are "very strict" about being vegetarian to the point that they are "very concerned" about what my chickens eat. I tell them the feed I currently give my chickens is "vegetarian," but the chickens range outside and eat anything and everything they please, including small animals.
There is a lot of media space dedicated to educating people about corn and soy in the food chain. Corn and soy are two of the most GMOed crops, which is another hot topic in the media. Non-GMO soy tends to not be sustainably grown, which is another focus of the media. Probably some of the people concerned about chickens eating meat are also concerned about chickens eating corn and soy -- which is why there are now chicken feeds formulated without corn and soy and marketed heavily as "no corn, no soy." It is easy to get painted into corners by this issue.
I've also read that it is okay to say your chickens are "vegetarian" even if their feed contains fish meal as the regulations for "vegetarian" chicken feed only restrict land-based animal protein sources. I have not verified this information by hunting down an official regulation, but it came from a source I trust.
