Thanks, Milt. One more question: for grinding up chicken backs or turkey necks, what size plate would be appropriate? I imagine I'll actually have to put it through twice.

Dave, 25 years in the meat business and I have never had a call to grind backs and chicken skeletons. I will make an experiment for you and let you know how it turns out.

Milt

Thanks, Milt!

I'm not surprised you've never had a call for this. Humans aren't exactly equipped to digest bone chunks!

I usually grind chicken for my puppies when I first switch them to the BARF diet. All I have used is the meat grinder attachment on my old Oster Kitchen Center (it isn't heavy enough for permanent use). The blades are metal, but the piece that feeds the meat towards the blades is plastic. This will grind necks, wings and backs to a pulp. From what I have picked up from the BARF lists and people that grind all the time, the grinders that are recommended are the Moulinex, Pierce, Krups, and Maverick. You want one that is heavy duty, but has parts that break to protect the engine in case of overload.

If you are interested I can probably find out the websites for most of these.

Milt--

Another question. On that webpage you referenced there's a picture of a manual grinder (#32, apparently) with a big pulley on it for an electric motor. At only $99 (less on eBay), it looks like a bargain, and something to get started with while I'm looking for a commercial unit (or an electric motor <g>.

But is it reasonable to expect that it would be usable for grinding up chicken backs and such manually, in small quantities? The pulley looks big enough to lend a fairly substantial leverage, but I've no experience to go by.

Dave,
That grinder also caught my eye. Many of my senior citizen customer use a small hand crank grinder. That big wheel looks like it can produce the torque needed. How much meat do you plan on grinding at one time, and how often.I'll have your answer on how the bones came out tonight.

Milt

Milt--

I'm not sure yet how much use I'll be giving a grinder, which is why starting with a manual one seemed like a good idea.

My male GSD has no problems with chicken backs, turkey necks, or even ostrich necks (which seem to have the hardest bones), so I probably won't grind for him, unless something happens.

My bitch, on the other hand, seems sensitive to a raw diet. In fact, she came down with bloat on Christmas Day after I re-introduced her to green tripe a couple of days earlier (she recovered without incident--no torsion, thank God). Maybe it was too soon, and maybe she just can't handle raw.

But to answer your question, I'd probably grind up about 15 or 20 chicken backs at a time, which would last her a couple of weeks. It doesn't look like it's too hard to clean a manual grinder, so I don't mind grinding more often rather than wearing out my arm or giving myself a repetitive stress disorder from too much grinding at one time.

Thanks for taking the time to research this!

BTW, kudos to you, Ed. The range of experience on this board is astonishing. It's a really useful resource.

Dave,
There was no problem grinding the backs and skeletons. I was surprised at the consistency, almost hamburger like. I really don’t know much about the barf diet, but what always bothered me was feeding a dog poultry skeletons. Any butcher will tell you how nasty a prick from a chicken bone can get. Grinding will solve that problem. Others have posted the same. I can’t endorse the grinder on the web page without ever seeing it or using it. For 100 dollars you have to expect poor materials, but I am positive it’s still better then any of the home grinders. What do you have to lose, the cost of a Saturday night out? The question now is which grinder. The one with the pulley wheel was my first thought, but I’m swaying toward the hand crank. The reason, I doubt that you will ever attach a motor to the pulley. If you chose the one with a pulley, be on the look out for your neighbor’s discarded washing machine and dryer. You can pull a nice motor out of them. Even if you did that, the pulley would really pose a hazard. However, they do sell a guard. On the other hand, the crank model offers two different plates and stuffing tubes for the same money. It’s your call. Let me know what you plan on buying. There are other parts that you will need. The stomper to press the meat into the grinder, and extra washers. Remember the grinder is bigger then you think and doesn’t belong in the kitchen.

I’m sorry your dog had bloat consider yourself lucky. Maybe lamb and brown rice would be more digestible. What little I read about the natural diet it was suppose to prevent bloat. Maybe others can chime in.


Milt

You might just want to ask around at local butcher shops. I asked my butcher to grind the necks/backs. He at first said, no,it would be too messy, then he said, he would try it. After experimenting he found that he could grind them frozen with very little mess. So, he does the work for me and I buy it ground.

Another alternative for those who don't want to grind but are also not comfortable feeding them whole is to put them in a strong plastic bag and take a meat mallot to it. It crushes the bones very effectively, yet most stays in place, so the dog gets to still chew away.

Tripe is FULL of digestive enzymes, and is one of the best choices for dogs to switch over on or to give puppies. Not sure why it would make your dog bloat. Did you give it in its raw form or the bleached white stuff you buy from the grocery store? Did you give it whole? or ground? If you give it whole it can look like your dog is bloated but really just full? When I have given it whole to my dogs most chew it and knaw on it for some time (great for cleaning teeth!!!!!!) but I have one dog who actually will take the piece and swallow it whole. Drives me nuts! He has never brought it back up as this is what many would do and it would be considered quite natural. Usually they just eat it again!

Dave,
Shandar suggestion about going to your buthcer is a viable option. I was assuming that you want to grind all the ingredients together.