Raw Fish for Baby Chicks?

[Willowspirit]

Baby chicks being raised by a momma hen in a free range situation would've eaten a lot more than fish. Yes, you can feed them bits of fish, kitchen scraps, etc. The caveat is to do it in moderation.

Edit to add: "Sand" is not grit. Get them some chick grit.

I understand your initial concept, but where do mama hens get proper chick grit to go with the other crud they're eating? I think you have the rest of their lives to vary from a good solid basis in chick crumble.

 

[gtaus]

I would cook the meat/entrails before feeding it for the same reasons we humans cook (or CAREFULLY inspect) any meat products we eat: Increased digestability and to destroy parasites & their eggs. Chickens can eat most things humans eat. Humans rarely eat raw entrails.

I can't see myself cooking entrails for the chickens. I would just rather bury them in the garden at that point. I'm not out to make my life harder to feed my chickens. I just thought they would like raw fish. I agree that humans rarely eat raw entrails, but we don't eat grit either.

Also, I’m not sure that chicks with a mama hen would be likely to be feeding on entrails—not that they’d refuse them, but more because it’s not generally the sort of thing one finds lying around all over the place.

I live on a lake and we always have dead fish floating up on the shore banks. Eagles and hawks routinely eat the carcasses. There is nothing left when they are done. I guess I always assumed they ate the whole fish, including the entrails. I thought chickens would be similar in what they could eat.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I imagine that chicks raised by chickens get grit by following mama through the run and pecking at everything. Dirt has various sizes of sand, gravel, rocks, etc.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I haven't fed raw fish, but I did feed my adult flock some breaded fish fillets once and they had the most awful-smelling poop afterward. Needless to say, fish was off the menu thereafter.

 

[chickens really]

I would worry more about worm transfer from the raw fish.

 

[Shadrach]

Having watched mother hens encouraging their chicks to rip into the odd dead mouse or lizard here while free ranging I would find it difficult to get overly concerned about a bit of raw fish.
Yup, it may well put their stomachs out of sorts, but lots of things the chickens here eat do that.
Fish is a complete protein having all the essential amino acids and some commercially available feeds are fish based. I don't think the fish that goes into the commercial feeds is going to be prime cod fillets.
I feed fish here to every chicken that will eat it, whatever their age, once or twice a week.
If mum with chicks tells the chicks its okay then the chicks eat some too.
Try a very small amount.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Lol, well I'm going to offer a different perspective yet, just to further muddy the waters. I think I would toss the entrails into their pen and watch to see what happens. After a bit I would remove whatever they did not eat.

We used to toss all our kitchen scraps out to our hens. Over time we noticed there were things they did not eat, so now we separate into "chicken" and "non-chicken" scrap bowls. They won't eat onions, potato peels, cucumber peels, and a lot of the same stuff we don't eat. That stuff just lured varmints so we dispose of it differently now.

Your chicks may decide for themselves what's good and what isn't. God gave them instincts. Just my opinion.

 

[gtaus]

I haven't fed raw fish, but I did feed my adult flock some breaded fish fillets once and they had the most awful-smelling poop afterward. Needless to say, fish was off the menu thereafter.

Maybe it was the breading???

 

[gtaus]

.. I think I would toss the entrails into their pen and watch to see what happens. After a bit I would remove whatever they did not eat....

I think that is some good advice with any perishable food that could rot and attract predators.

 

[gtaus]

...Fish is a complete protein having all the essential amino acids and some commercially available feeds are fish based. I don't think the fish that goes into the commercial feeds is going to be prime cod fillets.
I feed fish here to every chicken that will eat it, whatever their age, once or twice a week.
...Try a very small amount.

Well, I do know that the fish remains I would be giving the chickens would be fresh meat and from healthy fish right from our lake out front. Probably better than some of the fish stuff found in commercial mixes. Thanks.