Broiler breeder chickens — the parents of meat chickens — experience severe chronic hunger due to feed restriction programmes. This is one of the most significant and underreported welfare issues in commercial poultry.
Feed restriction in broiler breeders is one of the most ethically troubling standard practices in commercial poultry farming. The birds experience genuine, persistent hunger — not simply a reduced appetite, but an active, motivated, unsatisfied drive to find food — across their entire productive lives of 40-60 weeks. This is a direct consequence of genetic selection for rapid growth in their offspring, which makes unrestricted feeding dangerous for the breeders themselves. The welfare problem is therefore structural and systemic. Partial solutions exist — high-fibre, low-nutrient feeds, environmental enrichment, and adjusted feeding systems — but full resolution requires either genetic selection changes or acceptance of higher mortality rates in breeders kept under less restrictive regimes.