Is feeding chicken to chickens (leftovers)....

Emmamoo · Post by **Emmamoo** » 04 Sep 2007, 14:38

Seen as cannibalism?

I know its daft but I gave em all my veg but kept back the chicken as I had this horrible though about my girls going savage like that film Ravenous.....only kidding but hey is it wrong to feed em their own?

Citrine · Post by **Citrine** » 04 Sep 2007, 14:52

I think its not acceptable - DEFRA guidelines say not to feed poultry/fowl any meat, particularly pork

Gedda

Emmamoo · Post by **Emmamoo** » 04 Sep 2007, 14:57

I would like to point out that i haven't fed them meat! Methinks my humour was missed here somewhat....

Citrine · Post by **Citrine** » 04 Sep 2007, 15:07

Sorry, sorry, its only cos I'm new to it all, and I suppose I just presume that everyone is as daft as me!!!

:oops:

Emmamoo · Post by **Emmamoo** » 04 Sep 2007, 15:11

I just had a daft thought to myself earlier when giving my girls the leftover kebabs - KIDDING! just gave em carrots etc and wondered about the whole savage chicken thing. Guess I must have smoked to much stuff in my teens eh....

Citrine · Post by **Citrine** » 04 Sep 2007, 15:14

...seeing as we're talking about Chook nosh, I (vaguely) remember my Grandad always cooked the veg peels etc before he gave it to his girlies - should I be doing that, or is raw OK????

Post by **wendy** » 04 Sep 2007, 16:03

my girls have cooked veg. Simply because I get the left overs from a friend who has a restuarant.
They do eat a little protein ie worms, mealworms. But I think about BSE caused through feeding meat to cattle, and as has been said DEFRA says not to do it, for the same reason I think
Wendy

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 04 Sep 2007, 16:14

Hi Geddauk
Mine don't get 'leftovers' as there are never any! They at the moment have raw cabbage, calabrese and anything else that is over/finished in the garden including windfalls.
I do cook them porridge (mixing in layers mash as they won't eat it otherwise) everyday, I have this myself and I just make extra.
I did treat them yesterday to some 'reduced' grapes from the supermarket (14p) but they are not sure if they like them.
All our peelings go onto the compost heaps.
The only thing we don't eat are bones, they go into the rubbish.

Post by Mo » 04 Sep 2007, 16:37

My grandparents cooked the veg peelings in the war because you could only get hen food rationed I think, and the advice was that they couldn't get the goodness out of raw potatoes. Anyway we were a frugal lot then, everything was used up.
Didn't it smell horrid when it was boiling.
I reckon that if the meaty left-overs have been cooked enough to make them fit for human consumption they're ok for hens. And they don't know what they are eating when they fight for pork fat, or chicken skin.
Anna, we don't have many left-overs either, except windfall fruit, which I don't give much of.

Citrine · Post by **Citrine** » 05 Sep 2007, 07:50

My girls adore apples!!

Willow · Post by **Willow** » 05 Sep 2007, 10:38

Mine love boiled potatoes... Cybil gobbles down huge pieces as fast as possible... Apparently carrots are another veg that we and I suppose anything else cant get the total nourishment from unless its cooked.. something to do with the cell structure I believe.. ^b:

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 05 Sep 2007, 18:37

Hi Willow
I will disagree about raw vegetables, carrots in particular. Potatoes we cook as they are not very pleasant raw but all other vegetables are OK. It is when they are overcooked that they loose their nutritional value also don't forget the microwave that can destroy half of the vitamin content.

Willow · Post by **Willow** » 15 Sep 2007, 21:25

Hi Anna.. I was surprised too, but take a look at the site below, some really fasinating facts about the humble carrot...

Taken from :
www.carrotmuseum.com (very intresting - take a look)

"Are Carrots more nutritious in their raw state than when cooked? That's a very good question. Opinions vary. Clearly a raw carrot has more goodness in it when it is raw and therefore you would assume it is the healthiest way to eat it. But unless the carrot is juiced then consumed, the body cannot break down the goodness because of the cellular nature of the carrot.

So in reality, unlike most other vegetables (though not all), carrots are more nutritious when eaten cooked than eaten raw (except when juiced). Because raw carrots have tough cellular walls, the body is able to convert less than 25 per cent of their beta carotene into vitamin A. Cooking, however, partially dissolves cellulose-thickened cell walls, freeing up nutrients by breaking down the cell membranes. So long as the cooked carrots are served as part of a meal that provides some fat the body can absorb more than half of the carotene. Also, it usual for Carrots to be cut into pieces and eaten after boiling or steaming, but done in this way, half the proteins and soluble carbohydrates will be lost so it is more advisable to cook them whole and then cut up.
Experiments show that eating lightly-cooked carrots is much more beneficial than eating raw carrots, which confirms the ancient wisdom in traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have always recommended that their patients eat lightly-cooked carrots in order to get the best nutritional absorption. Recent research by Dr. Xiangdong Wang at Tufts University shows that beta carotene can change in the human body into a substance called retinoic acid, which is widely used to treat cancers. "

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 15 Sep 2007, 21:40

Thanks Willow
Will look at the link
Anna

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 15 Sep 2007, 21:48

Oh Willow
Where have you sent me....cutting carrots will not be funny from now on....I shall think of all their stress!