DANGER! Day old chicks!

**catslave** · 27th August 2011, 12:35 AM

Been talking to my mouse dealer today who feeds his Bengals Raw and ............... DO NOT FEED DAY OLD CHICKS TO CATS ... he had problems as they are all beak and claw and no actual meat and has had lonts ttof health problems. I know Howlinbob asked about prices on another thread and cant find it ... but basically the day old chicks here are only sold in 50's for Owls etc

**Antonia** · 14th September 2011, 04:08 PM

Sorry for the late reply... hadn't noticed your post earlier. But this is the first time I ever heard of such a thing. I do know DOCs are not particularly nutritious (eggs on legs) so they shouldn't be the mainstay of a cat's diet. But dangerous?

Surely only when you feed not much else. But that goes for any type of meat.

I feed little Minnie a DOC 2-3 times a week as a treat, because I think she could use some more meat on her bones. (Vet probably won't agree though, he thinks cats should look like whippets, lol.)

debbie560 · 1st December 2011, 10:24 AM

I also feed them, with other meats and my cats look amazing!! the insides is the protein etc with the yolk sack etc!! ???

**pouncysmom** · 17th December 2011, 06:20 PM

What are day old chicks??

**brightlight23** · 17th December 2011, 08:03 PM

I wondered the same thing - can't believe it literally means feedling live chicks...

**Antonia** · 17th December 2011, 10:13 PM

They're not live chicks. They are quite dead. Frozen and sold as food for cats, ferrets and reptiles. They are by-products of the egg industry... male chicks that can't be used as layers. The 'chicken meal' that is used in commercial pet food contains ground day-old chicks too.

**Antonia** · 18th December 2011, 12:08 AM

The ones that are sold entire as cat/ferret/reptile food are gassed with CO2 prior to being frozen.
The ones that are shredded and rendered into kibbled and canned food… I don’t know.

debbie5602 · 18th December 2011, 09:04 AM

Most of us have this inability to process this information, most buy their meat prepacked from the supermarket.. it fits the what we see, what we eat part in our brains.

To see a whole cow, lamb, pig in our freezer, makes most people not happy... but packed all nice in a plastic container... that's okay....

Day old male chicks (which have no use to chicken farmers) have for a long long time been ground up and added to the dried food we feed, we accept it why because we can not see it..

The Chicks are humanly killed and so, as long as you can get over the fact that you are looking at your cat eating these chicks then its a fantastic form of food.

The chicks contain all the right protein and offal a cat needs, for a daily feed.

BARF cattery's feed chicks some daily some ever other day. Cats are a little unsure when they first see then preferring to play, but after feeding more than once they soon get the hang of it.

**Antonia** · 18th December 2011, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by debbie5602

To see a whole cow, lamb, pig in our freezer, makes most people not happy... but packed all nice in a plastic container... that's okay....

I have never been squeamish about 'recognisable' meat ... as long as it's dead (and hopefully humanely killed) I'm OK with it. My poor husband OTOH can't bear to see it. But he admits that's just him... he gladly drives for miles to get me my chicks and other stuff.

BTW Debbie, why did you open a second account?

debbie560 · 3rd January 2012, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by Antonia

I have never been squeamish about 'recognisable' meat ... as long as it's dead (and hopefully humanely killed) I'm OK with it. My poor husband OTOH can't bear to see it. But he admits that's just him... he gladly drives for miles to get me my chicks and other stuff.

BTW Debbie, why did you open a second account?

Yes because I could not log on with my other account lol!!

I am back now with my original account!!