Cooked bones

Natalie

Natalie

So, I'm not talking your average cooked bones here. Let me set the scene.

I cooked a chicken in my instant pot (electric pressure cooker ) on Wednesday. Saved the juices ( requires about 250ml of water to pressurise) and put the remainder of the chicken in the fridge. Used it for curry on Friday night and then today picked off all the remaining meat ready for soup tomorrow.

I then put the carcass, minus most of the skin back in the pressure cooker along with the original juices. Set to high pressure for over 3 hours, this is probably the equivalent of 24-36 hour cooking on the hob. I've drained off the juices which will make amazing stock.

Now, the carcass. It's reduced to half its size, and there's a few bits of meat which were previously undetected. The bones are now like soft biscuits, just a prod with my silicone spoon breaks the leg bone in half. Monty's gravy bones are much harder.

The guidance, taken from a very knowledgeable home cooked food site, states that these remains cannot be eaten, no ifs no buts. It's a blanket reply that I've seen many times, so I'm not going to ask the question again , it's not the friendliest site at the best of times.

I'm just curious- if there's a valid reason, I will take that on board. If there's absolutely no nutritional value in feeding these bits, then fine. But if it's about splintering, then I can't agree. Monty is much more likely to injure his insides from a piece of dog biscuit than what I've got left over here. I could mush them to breadcrumbs with a plastic fork in 10 seconds they are that soft.Is there a really good reason why Monty can't have these leftovers?
 
M

M.F.

On the raw feeding forum I belong to, bone broth is a huge thing (um cooked! :)). Some people there regularly feed the soft bones to their dogs with no ill effects—they describe them as you do, that they are so soft and disintegrate to the touch. Some people, though, say that all the collagen and other useful nutrition has already left the bone (into the both) and don’t see the point nutritionally for the dogs to eat the bones. I have no idea, and don’t know how they know either. But, just passing on what they say.

However, definitely do not feed a hard weight-bearing bone from a big animal. That can get stuck and cause damage. Snowie once swallowed a bone that my aunt had used for bone broth. It was as hard as steel with a jagged end. It got stuck on the way out, caught on his anus as it was exiting. Thankfully did not cause any serious damage, just to my bank account as it required the deft fingers of the vet to manipulate it out—with tons of lube. An ultrasound showed no internal bleeding. Thankfully!!

Snowie munches a lot of discarded chicken bones on our walks. People think nothing of throwing their takeaway leftovers on the pavement. Short of muzzling him, I can’t avoid it. He’s been doing this for 8 years and so far so good. He does, however, chew all bones (except that bone broth one—he was in a state of over the top excitement then) so I’m not worried.
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
I’ve never looked into the nutritional content of bone broth; a quick look at Wikipedia says it’s high in protein and some other beneficial bits and bobs, but I’d have to look at some more scientific sites to know for sure. But personally, when we have a carcass, I will blitz it in my Nutribullet and use it to make training treats. The dogs love these and I love the fact there’s no waste.
 
Natalie

Natalie

snowbunny said:
They look perfect, but what is the Labraverdict?
Click to expand...

Oh, they were inhaled, of course, though no different to how a piece of kibble would be😁 I do wonder if this is worth the effort, sometimes. I'm a convert with the home cooking now, though he still gets kibble most mornings, evenings is home cooked food and I aim to do even more after Christmas. But treats are a bit of a faff, though the reason for my initial post was to reduce food waste, so I have achieved that and used up a couple of out of date eggs. 😊

The cat, however, was not impressed with the treats and assumed we were trying to poison her. Monty literally nosed his way in and devoured her leftovers, so no waste here 😁
 
snowbunny

snowbunny

Location
Andorra and Spain
I’m with you! I save carcasses until I have enough and then I spend an afternoon cooking and cutting. I don’t use the moulds much anymore, and just spread into tins then cut.I don’t regret cooking for them for a second, but training treats are generally either decent kibble or JR Pet Products pate.
 
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