Any Ideas on grinding hard bones - Page 2

Why all the fuss when you can just start them off on chicken wings? No fuss no worries and the proper ratio of bone to meat, to boot. I did find too, that Prager was correct, the pup(s) just might find their poops delectable. This disgusting habit was deterred and discouraged in my case with vigilance, and has not carried over into adulthood.
 
$45,000 to grind bones, LOL! Paul don't you raise chickens on your ranch, or whatever it is you live on?

Paul, what I do is just feed bones that are way too big for them to choke on; they wear on them and ingest a good deal of bone, but they don't "eat" them. I use knuckle bones a lot, too. If you're feeding a whole bunch of puppies, I understand it's easier to just ground a big batch, though. My friend who had a fur farm used a huge old grinder, and I mean old, that he powered with a tractor. That thing was dangerous...it would suck anything smaller than a cow right in. We used to throw whole stomachs, lungs, legs, etc. and try to get the right ratio of meat to bone to organ. I miss those days! I bet if you looked on ebay you could find one similar. It certainly wasn't $45,000...though it took a bit of ingenuity to rig up the right way for his purposes. 

Beef bones in general are too hard and heavy to be fed as part of a meal. I feed turkey necks as they are fairly easy to get and are a nice size to feed. I take a hammer to them to soften them up before giving them to my personal dogs from the age of 8 wks to around 3 months, after that they are able to chew them as is. Turkey necks are still the bone source in my dogs' diets.

Jenni78 These dogs are both for the cow dogs and my GSD's. The dog of my dreams was Pirry vom Elfenschloß and I gave him a knuckle bone and he choked to death on it. It was a freak thing but I will not feed whole bones again. I would rather have that dog then my house. It broke my heart when I lost him.

Blitzen That would work but I think it would be expensive, for the amount of dogs we feed. ( I have several partners in the cow dog program.)

Beetree..   I traded my country life for a house in the city. Wow what a change but it is more advantageous to live in the city for my business and saves me about 15 to 20 hours a week in driving. But I could never raise chickens for the price they are in the store. I do not know how they do it.

I run the genetics and breeding part of the cattle dogs. I do not raise or train anymore because I live in town. The only time I train any stock dogs is if there is a temperament problem.

Yes, if you're feeding a  lot of dogs, organic bone meal would get expensive.

Yeah, Paul, I remember talking about that now. Sorry. 

If you truly refuse to feed whole bones, then a fairly cheap and easy alternative is ground egg shell. As they are pure calcium you don't need to feed a lot of it. Just feed the eggs and then grind up the shell. You do need to grind it well for good digestion. A coffee grinder works well.

He'd have to grind a lot of egg shells for the number of dogs he's talking about.

I am going to try grinding egg shells also;  I feed egg rinse shells off, dry and put in ziploc in freezer until I have a bunch, then grind all at once.  We will see. 

Paul, sorry about your boy;  something similar happened to a friends Rotti bitch, big girl choked and died on a turkey neck, I think it got stuck, wouldn't go up or down and was only a few minutes before she died as my friend came back minutes later and she was dead.  Really disheartening but I really do consider it a fluke, although I can understand why you would not want to feed any more bones...  Could definitely make  you a bit skeptical. 

Has anyone tried the preground formulas;  am trying K9 Kravings on puppy, today was his first day so we will see.  I have used bravo and years ago Grandads.  K9 Kravings is now easier to buy and is made back east.  Like their formulas and seems they use enough bone.  Bravo formulas have some with bone and some without bone so you have to read ingredients first.  Maybe look for source of chicken backs.  I use chicken necks which are easy and measurable at about .0l ounce each so it works for me.  A bit leaner also.

Have a great day,  Nan

Well maybe I could put a ad on craigslist "wanted egg shells" need 200 lbs a week. lol

If it were easy everybody would do it.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions