Vegetarian chickens...What?!

[dangerouschicken]

yeah, I saw a Craig's List posting (Portland, OR) that was like "Wanted: Vegetarian Chickens" because the guy was a vegan, but he still wanted to eat eggs

if you can believe that. What is with people???? CHICKENS ARE NOT VEGETARIANS BY NATURE! If you want something to be "natural" then why go against nature?

I'm gonna feed my chickens worms right now

 

[Wolf-Kim]

If you had vegetarian chickens, how would you keep them from eating bugs? You would have to keep them in a building that even the flies and gnats couldn't get into and the chickens couldn't even get at each other. I do not think you could guarantee your chickens are truly vegetarian, it would be too hard. They could peck/pluck eachother, eat their eggs, eat bugs, and even eat any animal that snuck into the coop(rat/mouse/snake).

Would a completely vegetarian diet create enough protein to support a chicken and still have it healthy and laying?

I understand the concept of having vegetarian chickens. It is to avoid supporting the commercial meat producers whose animal by-products are used in animal/chicken feed. I am pretty sure the purpose isn't to keep any meat out of the chickens diet, just to keep from supporting those commercial producers. I would think anyway, right?

-Kim

 

[dacjohns]

I think for the most part when the big commercial companies are involved it's all hype.
Organic
Free range
vegetarian

When the little guy is involved the chances are better of it being real or at least sincere.

Although there is a Tyson chicken producer near that has big white birds (probably Cornish X) running around outside the buildings. They are roaming over an acre or two.

 

[greyfields]

I feed my hens and broilers vegetarian feeds, so I can say to my customers with 100% certainty that my chickens were not fed chicken. That's important to a lot of people.

The only way you could make that a label claim, though, is if they are kept in egg batteries (cages). Mine are given vegetarian feed, but I do not claim they are vegetarian. They're obviously foraging and eating insects.

 

[dacjohns]

Just curious and I hope this isn't too far off topic.

What chicken feed out there contains animal products?

 

[d.k]

* Truthfully?? Probably all of them. Doubt there's any feed processor or food plant that hasn't had a mouse or rat or SOMETHING get in the mix somewhere along the line. If you mean as part of the standard formula, IDK.

 

[S0rcy]

Putting "vegetarian" on the box allays some peoples fears of disease that comes from meat based feeding. It is not just pointed toward vegetarians.

 

[warren]

In theory all chickens in Europe are vegetarian.
It is illegal to feed meat to chickens here.
That does not mean that they do not break the law by eating the odd fly they come across.

 

[d.k]

* I always find human's attempts to feed animals industrially and sometimes privately kinda bizarre. Not that we do it-- only that we TEND to do it SO out of kilter with their natural diets. Meat to cows, corn to cats, vegetarian omnivores. . . . . ?!?

 

[DuckLady]

I see cartons that say Vegetarian Fed, which looks like veggie hens, but reading more clearly, it is saying that the humans tending the hens physically give them vegetarian feed, not mentioning what the hens find on their own.