ground bone cooked?

pabloandbailey

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Hi, I know cooked bones are bad but would they be bad if they are ground and cooked?

I have a weird schedule so my brother feeds the cats on the weekdays usually. I can't really trust him to defrost prepared raw food for the next day.

My plan was to grind raw meat with some bone and then boil it which should keep for the week in the fridge. Are the ground bones safe to eat after cooking?

Should I just forget the bones and use calcium? Do you think the meat even has to be ground or should I just chop the meat?


Ideally I wanted something cheaper than the fancy feast they get now that would be healthier. I feed raw wings/heart/liver on the weekend.

Thanks
 

lisahe

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I'm not quite sure how to answer your questions because I'm a little unclear on your plans. Do you have a supplement for making cooked cat food? Or are you using a recipe and buying all the various nutrients that need to be added to meat to make it into complete cat food? Some are specifically designed for use with boneless meat. Some require bone. At least some supplements (like the one I use) are designed to be used within three days because of digestive enzymes that lose their "fizz" over time.

I make cooked food using EZcomplete, a supplement that's used with boneless meat. Our cats love it, it truly is easy to use, I don't have to worry about balancing anything, and the supplement works with any meat: I use chicken, pork, and turkey.

I'm not sure what others might say about ground bones, though I know I've seen warnings about pieces (even ground) being dangerous for cats. Dr. Lisa Pierson, a vet who has a recipe for partially cooked food on her site, says she's not worried about ground bones in her cats' food because she grinds everything so finely--she uses a big, powerful grinder, which is probably the only way to accomplish that. (The page is here and includes information on how she grinds the food.) Bones are also tricky because of constipation.

Again, I'm not sure what to say about the safety of ground cooked bones so hope others will comment about that aspect of things.
 

mschauer

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No, food that contains ground bone should not be cooked. Raw bone is softish and poses minimal risk when ingested. Cooking makes the bone pieces hard and greatly increases the risk of bowel perforation.

Dr. Pierson does not cook food that contains ground bone. She partially cooks bone-in chicken thighs. The cooking is limited to the outer surface of the thighs. The cooking time that is short enough so that the bone does not cook. 
 
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pabloandbailey

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Thanks for the answers.  I had wanted to cook it through to increase the shelf life refrigerated not frozen and thought I could get by without having to cook it for hours to soften the bone. I know that cooking destroys some of the nutrients so wanted to preserve that as much as I could. 

Will likely go boneless and add the nutes.

Thanks again!

BTW does anyone know of any good fully cooked recipes?
 
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catmom marcia

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Catinfo.org says you should NEVER cook the bones fed to cats!  You can add bone meal to the raw if you can't grind the actual bones.
 
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