How do you deterimine bone mass?

jack31

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I'm really trying to get back into raw and I'm trying to make this as simple as possible, so I'm trying to remember what made it so much work for myself last time.

One issue I had was determining amount of bone in a meal, if I fed a chicken wing I could weigh it but I had the mass of both meat and bone.

So how do you determine your 10% if you will.

Also what type of bones do you use, I'd like to purchase thighs but I know my boys cant handle the bones, I don't wanna pitch the thigh bones, do you guys pound the bones so they are edible? How do you avoid waste?

Leslie
 

auntie crazy

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I can't remember where I located the info, but chicken wings are 48% bone.

I simplified addressing the bone portion for my five by feeding (mostly whole) chicken ribs and ground chicken wings. I buy the freshly pre-ground wings from a Whole Foods market that has several raw feeding customers. (It's not the closest WF, but it's the only one who will grind for us so I consider myself lucky.)

I purchase the ribs as "chicken breasts with rib meat and bones", cut most of the rib meat off for my own use, and feed the bones and remaining meat to the cats.

I keep a feeding schedule on my refrigerator to make sure I stay on track.
 

sharky

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on the USDA website is this info... sorry dont have the exact site on bookmark
 
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jack31

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Thank you so much.

Fed some venison tonight--everyone loved it, including the kitten, which is great news for me. Also have 30 lbs of free venison being dropped off this week!!

Leslie
 

chris10

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here is one way to figure out how much bone.

My cats usually eat 1 chicken neck with 1 piece of meat for every meal. This equals to about 3oz of food.

1 chicken neck weights approximately 1.5 oz and is 36% bone. So 36% of 1.5oz = .54oz of total bone. Adding in the piece of meat brings it up to 3oz of total food. 0.54oz is 18% of 3oz. So my bone ratio is 18%

For thighs. thighs are about 21% bone. 1 thigh weighs about 4.2oz. Cutting that in half, 2.1oz, roughly equals the amount, maybe a little under, normally fed in one meal. But cutting in half with the bone still makes it 21%. So if you wanted to be somewhat close to the rough guidelines you would have to feed a quarter of the thighbone for every half of a thigh.

All of these measurements are not exact but somewhat in the ballpark. You don't have to worry about being exact with the bone. 10% is just a rough guideline.

Thigh bones are a little tough. It takes my meat eating veterans a little while to get through them. They can be smashed. Since chicken is usually the cheapest of all the meats, their bones are normally fed. Chicken necks, thighs, wings, ribs, and sometimes backs are the bones that normally make the bone requirement of the diet. The only other bones I can think of are turkey necks since those can be smashed.
 
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