Vegan diet for chickens - is it unhealthy?

[Henhouse Harlot]

Veganism is a wonderful thing for consenting humans, and herbivores...not chickens. This is awful, that poor hen!!
A laying hen of that particular breeding, is a man-made creature, and she requires a great deal of protein, certain minerals and vitamins as well. She cannot be healthy on just greenery. What @Battlepants said is truth. She requires socialization as well, to be happy
I'm so sorry about this situation, I'm not quite sure what I would do in your place.

One thing though, I wouldn't waste your time trying to convince this person they're actually abusing that hen. It sounds like they've made up their mind. People will believe a lie sometimes, simply because admitting that you've messed up is so much harder. So they'll stubbornly insist they're not wrong.

 

[Henhouse Harlot]

Heck, some of mine peck at me when I'm awake.

Same!

 

[OfWolvesAndHen]

There is no way I can read this whole thing and probably shouldn't comment. But that never stopped me yet so.
I believe the question of vegetaranism is scientific and the answer is NO, chickens are omnivores.
I believe the question of Veganism is a Ideological one and the friend is a Wack-a-Doodle.
To purposely deny a omnivore a partialy meat protine diet is as cruel as feeding a human baby a fat-free diet. When you replace Science with Ideology you get Lysenkoism. (Google and read it. The concept will come in handy.) Love y'all. Out

I also cannot read every comment but I've seen in several comments now, people referring to this person as my friend. This is just a silly nitpick, but "friend" is a very strong word... I too am aboard the "wack-a-doodle" train. LOL

 

[OfWolvesAndHen]

Heck, some of mine peck at me when I'm awake.

Chiming in with bleeding gums and a welt on my eyelid after my cockrel invited himself onto my shoulder. LMAO

 

[Silkiesaz]

Someone I know has a "rescue" cornish/leghorn cross that they stole off a slaughter truck at 6 weeks. She's now 2 years old and poor girl doesn't look healthy at all. She is fed exclusively greens and (previously) her own eggs. She recieves no commercial feed or supplementation. She is fed 3 small cat bowls of mixed greens per day, and when she was still laying that would also include one boiled egg with shell.

Her feathers are dull and scrappy, she's bony and underweight, still has down feathers on her tail, has an almost yellow pallored face, and did not lay her first egg until nearly 2 years old. She would take up to ten hours to lay and would act extremely painful and agitated during the process, before her owner gave hormone implants to stop laying. Citing "speciesism", the owner will not see a vet.

The owner insists that fully vegan diets are healthiest for chickens, but I largely suspect this bird's poor health and failure to thrive is due to how she's being fed. She lives indoors so she gets no forage. Is it possible her poor health is just because of poor genetics (she was a broiler heading to slaughter, after all)? Are vegan diets sustainable for chickens? And if not, how can I convince them otherwise?

Now I am sure some animals could thrive happily on a vegan diet but not chickies. This makes me really sad. That poor chicken must be lonely.

 

[Hayden Goseek]

I also cannot read every comment but I've seen in several comments now, people referring to this person as my friend. This is just a silly nitpick, but "friend" is a very strong word... I too am aboard the "wack-a-doodle" train. LOL

Point taken. On rereading your original post I stand corrected.
If there is any way to turn it around on her it may be to accuse Her of speciesism. How does she get the right to foist her Ideology on a chicken. Was it given a choice? (This probably won't sway her but it may be fun.)
Actually by taking over the care of livestock she is (we are) engaging in Animal Husbandry. We have to act in their best interest, in return they trust us to care for them. It is a sort of social contract. Much more complicated than I can express here, but as Saint-Exupere said in "The Little Prince" "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." Someone else added, "And if you can't handle forever, then don't start, just don't."

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Chiming in with bleeding gums and a welt on my eyelid after my cockrel invited himself onto my shoulder. LMAO

I would invite him into a stew pot.

 

[OfWolvesAndHen]

I would invite him into a stew pot.

It might have to come to that someday when he gets bigger (and is in his new home), but he's my buddy even if he's a brat! It's hard not to forgive him once he cuddles on my shoulder and rests.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Someone I know has a "rescue" cornish/leghorn cross that they stole off a slaughter truck at 6 weeks. She's now 2 years old and poor girl doesn't look healthy at all. She is fed exclusively greens and (previously) her own eggs. She recieves no commercial feed or supplementation. She is fed 3 small cat bowls of mixed greens per day, and when she was still laying that would also include one boiled egg with shell.

Her feathers are dull and scrappy, she's bony and underweight, still has down feathers on her tail, has an almost yellow pallored face, and did not lay her first egg until nearly 2 years old. She would take up to ten hours to lay and would act extremely painful and agitated during the process, before her owner gave hormone implants to stop laying. Citing "speciesism", the owner will not see a vet.

The owner insists that fully vegan diets are healthiest for chickens, but I largely suspect this bird's poor health and failure to thrive is due to how she's being fed. She lives indoors so she gets no forage. Is it possible her poor health is just because of poor genetics (she was a broiler heading to slaughter, after all)? Are vegan diets sustainable for chickens? And if not, how can I convince them otherwise?

Cornish x tend to have scruffy feathers and are not known to be good egg layers. However, the lack of proper chicken feed could definitely be affecting her as well.

 

[Suzz]

Another off topic reply (can’t help it either).
You’re intentions are well, but you’re theory stinks imho. I pity the cows that produce an enormous amount of milk and have such enormous utters that they come nearly to the ground. The breeding program in my country made milk monsters.

View attachment 3154254
These cows are so unnatural that they can’t live solemnly on grasses anymore but need special power food to produce so much milk. If you create a monster with enormous utters there is no way you can give her a really pleasant and long life.

This is what commercial farmers do with all producing animals. They make monsters. Chickens originally were laying about 12 - 20 eggs a year. A century ago that increased to 120 . And now they lay an egg every day. And the farmers are still ‘improving’ . Proud that their chickens lay over 360 eggs a year.
This comes with a price. Just ask people who bought rescues from a commercial farmer.

Completely unrelated but I couldn’t help but notice my cats resemblance to this poor cow but she is not producing anything useful like milk its called a primordial pouchView attachment 3159420