Vegetarian chickens?

[FrankHomestead]

The testosterone is making them more "one track mind" and they will put a lot of energy in reproduction and less in gaining buddy mass. Another thing the meat of Capons is much much more tender!

Interesting. I know little about near birds, so much to learn!!

 

[lazy gardener]

IMO, there is no such thing as a factory farm raised vegetarian chicken. For the very reason of the filthy farm practices. Chickens do die often under such practices, and those bodies are not picked up right away. What do you honestly think happens to them???? Not to mention the flies attracted to such operations. To my knowledge flies and maggots are meat based!

For the record, I am thankful for Arknaf2's incredible knowledge of biology and physiology, and the addition such knowledge brings to any discussion. Not condescending at all. Keep it coming, Benny.

 

[Dayrel]

IMO, there is no such thing as a factory farm raised vegetarian chicken. For the very reason of the filthy farm practices. Chickens do die often under such practices, and those bodies are not picked up right away. What do you honestly think happens to them???? Not to mention the flies attracted to such operations. To my knowledge flies and maggots are meat based!

I couldn't disagree more. What about vegetarian implies room to move around? By definition, they must be kept confined. What about vegetarian is incompatible with filthy? What about vegetarian chicken poo is less attractive to flies? If a chicken died in a vegetarian operation, what makes you think that other chickens wouldn't feed on them before the bodies were removed? Chicken vegetarianism is a human-imposed life and chickens will eat meat when they find an opportunity.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Yep - Google "chicken litter cattle." There are even several studies on the nutritional value. It was thought to be a contributing factor to Mad Cow Disease by some.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease AKA Made cow disease, is a cotegus disease caused by prions, it was mainly sheep disease call Scrapie.
In Britain they thought that it is a good idea to desicate and flake the byproducts of the meat industry including the brain and the spinal cord which the prion is. This is the way it past from sheeps to cow and from them in industrial hamburgers and hot dogs ( Yes yes the used to put the brain in them.) To pepole!

 

[Sara Ranch]

Grocery store chickens are less than 31 days old. From hatch to harvest - on average 28-30 days.

They are given a specific feed full of stuff to help them stay "healthy" in their confined, dirty, stressful conditions.

Lol - my chickens would never be big enough at 4 weeks to harvest!

 

[perchie.girl]

I think someone said it already but here is how they are "getting away" with saying feeding only vegetarian diet. Or no Antibiotics...

Production hens weather cage free or caged only produce eggs for two years. Then they are Slaughtered for soup. And yes they can say cage free and the hens will never get to be outside.

NO antibiotics ever for their natural chicken (Tyson). What they don't say is their Natural chicken is bred to be slaughter weight by the time they are six weeks old.

Prion disease (mad cow) exists in nature... Deer, humans, etc. But of course we humans find a way to spread it more easily.....

I am not a scientist but I am into research The following is from a quick search on Prion Disease https://www.cdc.gov/prions/index.html

Human Prion Diseases

• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
• Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)
• Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome
• Fatal Familial Insomnia
• Kuru

Animal Prion Diseases

• Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
• Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
• Scrapie
• Transmissible mink encephalopathy
• Feline spongiform encephalopathy
• Ungulate spongiform encephalopathy

 

[Akrnaf2]

My thoughts on this are that unlike humans who have the ability to choose to be a vegetarian or not, chickens are pure instinct and their instinct is to eat anything they can find/catch. The day I see a chicken not get super excited about finding an earthworm and gobbling it up, is the day I will say..."that chicken chooses to be a vegetarian!"

I don't agree with vegetarian chicken feeding because of the above but as already stated on this thread, maybe not a big deal for chickens raised as meat birds due to the short life cycle. On the other hand, I know I get cravings for a big ol' steak or hamburger and would imagine chickens deprived of non-vegetable protein might crave the same way given that they are natural omnivores. I believe all animals instinctly know what they need in their diet.

I always have issues with humans imposing their lifestyle on animals or forcing an unnatural diet on them to save money. In my opinion, it has a level of cruelty to it that seems unnecessary. As we become more and more aware of what is in our food, I prefer animal protein in which the animal was allowed to eat what it's supposed to eat, not what humans decided it should eat. For that reason, I personally would not buy a "vegetarian" chicken to eat.

Crul, moral, are human concept! When a lioness kills and devour a pregnant Zebra, or when a blue wale is ingolphing milon of krill shrimps in one time, they aren't crul they are just eating, cruelty is taking milions of innocent people and killing them in gas chambers.

 

[perchie.girl]

Interesting. I know little about near birds, so much to learn!!

LOL.... The more I learn the more I find out I dont know.... Been around the block a few times but there are so many other corners out there I havent been down.

deb

 

[FrankHomestead]

Yea as much as humans want to control everything it is absolutely impossible. Even vegans unknowingly consume animal proteins..whether it be a bug in your salad or a fly in your chocolate bar
Ppl need to relax a bit & enjoy life

 

[lazy gardener]

I couldn't disagree more. What about vegetarian implies room to move around? By definition, they must be kept confined. What about vegetarian is incompatible with filthy? What about vegetarian chicken poo is less attractive to flies? If a chicken died in a vegetarian operation, what makes you think that other chickens wouldn't feed on them before the bodies were removed? Chicken vegetarianism is a human-imposed life and chickens will eat meat when they find an opportunity.

You miss my point. My point is that in a factory farm operation, to state that the chickens are 100% vegetarian is a fallacy b/c those birds are going to be eating flies, maggots, and their fallen comrades. I agree with you. Chickens are going to eat meat where ever they can find it, and will have even more of a craving when having that "vegetarian diet" regimen thrust upon them.