raw meat?

[BlackBart]

I don't think any domestic animal should eat rotten meat.
My chickens eat raw worms and bugs. My Sumatrans ate a dead mouse that the cats caught but it wasn't rotten.
Chickens can be carnivorous if they get the opportunity.
I think they would have to be pretty hungry to eat putrid meat, but I could see chickens eating maggots.

 

[rufus]

Chickens will peck at and eat anything they want to. Their standards are not very high; they even peck at their own poop. I don't think there is anything like a kinder, gentler, purely vegetarian chicken.

Rufus

 

[srsmith69]

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You tell him txchickie. Well put.

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chickens love maggots. They must have been hanging around some putrid meat to develop a taste for them, don't you think??

 

[NYREDS]

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I'm not sure willingly is the word you wanted. Would woefully have worked better in that sentence? Buy hey, what do I know I'm "not right & willingly ignorant".

 

[mypicklebird]

There is a very real danger in feeding or allowing your chickens to eat certain insects- namely MAGGOTS. Don't let them eat them if you notice your chickens poking around something dead, and don't feed them intentionally if you find them around. Maggots are a known and relatively common reason for chickens and ducks to get botulism (limber neck). The bacteria clostridia grows in dead flesh, and the toxin produced by the bacteria can get concentrated in the maggots. A few maggots can kill if the have enough of the toxin in them. It is a big problem sometimes in ducks & waterbirds- they love maggots, and if a duck dies from botulism & clostridia infection- more maggots show up, further concentrate the bacterial toxins, and it kills more ducks- vicious cycle....

 

[Akane]

Mice and other critters rarely actually carry disease. It is only human paranoia from times when human hygiene has been poor and rodents were allowed to flourish without predators that has led to a fear of rodents. I purposely toss live caught mice to my animals all the time. Plenty of farm cats live on mice. My dog will catch and eat wild rabbits. We've only had to deworm occasionally. Livestock that graze on grass are more likely to get parasites than omnivorous and carnivorous animals that eat small prey and I've never seen a cat or other animal catch anything else from eating rodents. There are plenty of deworming schedules out there for every species of grazing livestock but it seems the more carnivorous the animal you are dealing with the less strict or advocated deworming is. If parasites from prey were such a concern then the higher you go in the food chain the more strict the need for dewormers should be instead of less.

I wanted to tell everyone that in a copy of backyard poulty there was mention that feeding raw meat and maggotty meat to chickens can result in dead chickens. I'm at the library but the point is that feeding such as this can be dangerous.

Why? If you do not give a reason why then your argument holds little weight seeing as plenty of people have fed raw meat with no side effects and chickens as well as other animals on a farm were likely raised successfully for many years and human generations on the leftovers from butchering livestock or game. So why did the chickens you are talking about die? If we don't know why how do we know what is truly dangerous and what isn't? Of course the longer the meat sits the more it spoils and the more chance something goes wrong when it's eaten. Did the chickens that died eat meat that had sat for days? A week? 2 weeks? That would be entirely different from feeding fresh and especially previously frozen meat. Maybe the chickens didn't even die of the meat. Do we know for sure they didn't eat something else the same day as the meat? If we don't know for sure why an animal dies then we are guessing and we may be entirely wrong. Frequently people have guessed at a correlation between something only to have it disproven when someone does a proper study or runs a few tests. So I require reasons why and proof before I believe too many things. I have seen plenty of proof that feeding fresh raw meat to omnivorous or carnivorous animals is perfectly safe and plenty of proof that chickens are omnivorous and will eat prey and raw meat on their own just like our more carnivorous animals such as cats. Because of that I see no danger. If we are talking about not so fresh meat then you have something to argue but I doubt many on this forum would feed truly rotten meat to their animals.​

 

[Warthog]

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Well here's another person "not right & willingly ignorant". Next time I see one of my chicks with a frog dangling from it's mouth and being chased by eleven other all wanting a slice of the action, I will be sure to ask them to read your post, and tell them I am not right & willingly ignorant, I am sure they will

 

[ckbythesea]

Wow, I have no desire to feed my 4 backyard chickens raw meat, but if I would eat it cooked, they could eat it. So if I was confident they would not get parasites or nasty bacteria, well ok (if I had to). And if they find frogs or mice on their own, not much I can do except keep my yard from getting too overgrown!

Hey can chickens get Mad Cow Disease? That would be a bummer!

 

[rancher hicks]

I use mouse traps and dump them in the trash. If my cats eat mice and I know they do they don't lay eggs nor do I eat their meat. As for mice in my coop I've yet to see any. As for frogs one of my birds got a dead frog my wife hit with the lawnmower but I don't make it a practice of feeding them dead things.
As for nature, humans are alot more educated (at least some are) and have learned what your birds eat (diseases and what not) you eat.
Which is just one more reason to have a closed flock. No sense in replying as I am no longer interested in ..........................having this conversation.

 

[technodoll]

No sense in replying as I am no longer interested in ..........................having this conversation.

Then why did you start it in the first place, since your mind is obviously closed to input that contradicts your beliefs?

Pointless.