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Short answer: They'll eat it.
Longer answer: Nothing horrible will happen, you won't get chicken zombies or mad-chicken-diseased chickens. I presumed your question meant cooked chicken, the same as what humans would eat: Fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken strips, stir-fry chicken, etc., but to take one simple example: Lots of processed animal food is made from chicken (dog food, for example). You can feed chickens chicken-based dog food and they'll totally eat it.
As long as one does not eat diseased animals, and as long as the food is cooked and such, eating a member of your own species (cannibalism) has one distinct advantage over eating any other random food: Any given animal already has all of the necessary enzymes to completely digest itself. It's a necessary part of life that an animal have all of the enzymes needed to process its own cells. You can't digest the hulls of corn kernels for example, as anyone who has looked in a commode can tell you. But if you were to eat a member of your own species, you'd at least be able to digest them. The same holds true for chickens. So very bluntly speaking, if you were to feed chicken to your chickens, they'd pretty much thrive, provided you also feed them water and food or supplements with any other nutrients they may require.
Fun thing to do on a boring day: Toss chicken-skin scraps from your KY-Fried to the pigeons in the park. They'll DEVOUR it.
Source(s):
http://www.biology-online.org/articles/digestive_enzymes.html
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This also occours in humans.
http://ldevarajan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/ist2_2687286-crazy-chicken.jpg
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Cow_Disease
Tags: cannibalism, chicken, madcow
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bunnyphuph...
http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range556/Appl_BEHAVE/projects/Chicken_Cannibalism.html
Chickens are omnivores, so I don't know if it would really hurt them to eat chicken meat -- but of course it would wreak havoc in a hen house!
Here's a video of a chicken eating a drumstick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUT9J8ej708
Source(s):
http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range556/Appl_BEHAVE/projects/Chicken_Cannibalism...
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Answered Question
Best Answer Decided by Votes
| June 07, 2009 03:49 AM |
Longer answer: Nothing horrible will happen, you won't get chicken zombies or mad-chicken-diseased chickens. I presumed your question meant cooked chicken, the same as what humans would eat: Fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken strips, stir-fry chicken, etc., but to take one simple example: Lots of processed animal food is made from chicken (dog food, for example). You can feed chickens chicken-based dog food and they'll totally eat it.
As long as one does not eat diseased animals, and as long as the food is cooked and such, eating a member of your own species (cannibalism) has one distinct advantage over eating any other random food: Any given animal already has all of the necessary enzymes to completely digest itself. It's a necessary part of life that an animal have all of the enzymes needed to process its own cells. You can't digest the hulls of corn kernels for example, as anyone who has looked in a commode can tell you. But if you were to eat a member of your own species, you'd at least be able to digest them. The same holds true for chickens. So very bluntly speaking, if you were to feed chicken to your chickens, they'd pretty much thrive, provided you also feed them water and food or supplements with any other nutrients they may require.
Fun thing to do on a boring day: Toss chicken-skin scraps from your KY-Fried to the pigeons in the park. They'll DEVOUR it.
Source(s):
http://www.biology-online.org/articles/digestive_enzymes.html
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Voted as best: ssmacd, soundboy, williamwaco, yagelski, drmatt, hazifazlan, badaspie, hcp56, worldflavors, khenney, newbey, andyroo, jrwilliams
Other Answers (4)
June 07, 2009 12:22 AM
Nothing good. The basic cause of "mad cow disease" was/is cannibalism. Dairy farmers once fed cows food made from beef by-products that contained ground up pieces of other cows. The brain and spinal column is where this infection lives so if you continually fed a or some chicken(s) whole chickes or chicken feed made from other chickens the same result might be likely to occour. This also occours in humans.
http://ldevarajan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/ist2_2687286-crazy-chicken.jpg
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Cow_Disease
Tags: cannibalism, chicken, madcow
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Helpful: bunnyphuphu, geniusofhardwork
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bunnyphuph...
June 07, 2009 02:56 AM
and you can take it one step further and have chicken zombies.
http://z.about.com/d/horror/1/0/6/F/-/-/TheGeneralwithChickenDemon.jpg

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June 07, 2009 03:05 AM
I could happen to humans too.
http://a.getbackimages.com/uri/w514_h676_cfalse_K0224043308/-poultrygeist-night-of-the-chicken-dead-/image/4/0/4/3/4043424.jpg
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http://a.getbackimages.com/uri/w514_h676_cfalse_K0224043308/-poultrygeist-night-of-the-chicken-dead-/image/4/0/4/3/4043424.jpg
June 07, 2009 12:28 AM
Suprisingly, chicken cannibalism is a big problem in the egg industry, where hens attack each other with their beaks -- and then take a bite. http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range556/Appl_BEHAVE/projects/Chicken_Cannibalism.html
Chickens are omnivores, so I don't know if it would really hurt them to eat chicken meat -- but of course it would wreak havoc in a hen house!
Here's a video of a chicken eating a drumstick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUT9J8ej708
Source(s):
http://www.cnr.uidaho.edu/range556/Appl_BEHAVE/projects/Chicken_Cannibalism...
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June 07, 2009 02:45 AM
I have seen it happen with my own chickens - they pick another one to death - usually the small or weak ones. You can clip their beaks to keep them from doing it. As long as the weather is good I make sure to let them out of their coop so they can run around. Close confinement makes them more apt to get cannibalistic. I also feed them table scraps often and am embarrassed to admit I once accidentally gave them a piece of chicken that was mixed in with the veggies - they gobbled it up before I could get it away from them. You should see them eat spaghetti - hilarious!
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