Feeding chickens mice?

[poultry bro]

Hello everybody i have a question i know ive seen people throw mice from a mouse trap or a mouse theyre cat killed to the chickens but what if you raised mice for your chickens consumption? I am going to start raising domestic mice for my gopher snake to make it cheaper and i was wondering if anybody feeds extra pinkies to chickens as extra protein do people actually do this is my question and is it safe and or healthy?

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I imagine it is safer then feeding them mice from the wild. You will probably need to kill the mice before throwing them with the chickens.
Back several generations it used to be the farmboys job to trap something (squirrel, opossum) to feed the chickens some meat once a week during the winter months. I personally feed mine cow organ meat. I can see no reason not to feed your birds mice.

 

[azjustin]

Ours chased a mouse into a corner where it eventually died from dehydration, no pecking. However, a one month old somehow broke out of it's very secure coop within the coop, and all that was left was a spine and two legs.

Chickens are omnivores, more on the carnivorous side. Raised mice wouldn't hurt, just make sure it gets eaten and doesn't rot in the run. A little bit of sport might help them along if there is no interest at first.

 

[poultry bro]

Im not so worried that they wouldent get eaten i have a couple hundred birds and if one didnt eat it im sure the others would i also think my other species like muscovy ducks would love them or even my emu haha

 

[poultry bro]

i have also heard that its a problem to feed certain reptiles mice because its not theyre normal diet like frogs because digesting bones can be difficult im not sure how it would effect chickens because they do it in the wild so im not qiet sure

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Chickens will leave the bones, they will just pick off the meat. Your right they do this in the wild.

 

[Sea2Ski]

I personally have seen one of my hens chase down a young, medium-sized mouse, catch it, carry it over to a rock, "tenderize it" for about 5 minutes and eat it whole. I was shocked, but it did happen. Same with frogs and even a small garter snake (5-6 inches long).

 

[Zamanthia]

Our girls caught a field mouse just this week... we have not found any remains. Sylvie seemed very proud of herself!

I would think if you have extra mice, it would be an ok supplement/treat. I like to give our girls a can of sardines when the weather is particularly cold or rainy. They have also demolished a bag of salad shrimp that was too freezer burned for humans. I am learning they will eat just about anything!