Urgent 4 me-please-can I feed chickens boiled rabbit intestines as-is?

[kevinhannan]

I have an opportunity for some rabbit offal - like now! (Surprise offering!)

Can I feed my chickens rabbit boiled intestines with the contents as-is?

The gall bladder has been removed.

Thanks

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

If by boiled, with out the contents then sure! Of course they can, in italy, it is called tripe, (synonomous with yuck!) Chickens love yuck.

 

[kevinhannan]

Many thanks for your reply.

Would the contents be toxic to the chickens?

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

I very much doubt it would be toxic, the partially digested food would actully likely be quite nutritious and I would not be surprised if the chickens loved it.

I hope you don't plan in doing this in the house through... boiled

guts =

 

[kevinhannan]

thanks! yeah, it does get smelly - the windows and doors are wide open!

thanks all for your kind replies!

I will post here to let you know how it goes.

 

[kevinhannan]

OH BOY!

There's smell and there's SMELL.

That was BAD. Imagine boiled poop in the worst-smelling toilet you have ever been in.

I honestly don't know how my DW puts up with me; boiling that was worth a divorce.

I'm guessing after the food has got past the bile duct, the smell is there to stay until it is expelled as faeces.

In future no more intestines; just the chest organs.

 

[shelleen]

OK, forgive me, but why did they have to be boiled?? My brother-in-law feeds his chickens (all) the organs of the chickens he's culling "as is". I think it's kind of gross...but they LOVE it! Never bothers his birds. He was raised on a chicken farm of 1000+ broilers as a kid & they "recycled" as much as possible.

Your wife might deserve some flowers (just sayin')....

 

[kevinhannan]

Hey Shelleen,

No need for forgiveness! I stand by my own actions!

I figured boiling as a precaution against parasites, etc.
If there's a next time, I shall do it raw. I shoulda thought of that anyway!

fwiw; if anyone is thinking of feeding offal; do remove the bile duct - it's no good for any animal.

Thanks to all!

 

[shelleen]

I guess we are fortunate in northern MN to not have to fight with parasites the way a lot of other places do (or we've just dodged the bullet!!), so those things don't immediately come to mind. We have had "one of those mornings" (you know, alarm doesn't go off, hubs is late to teach class at Univ, missed connection/communication with someone else & so on!!)--so I thought I might be missing something.

And yeah, we lived overseas for awhile, so I can imagine somewhat the SMELL!! You are a brave man...