Best cal/protein ratio per piece of chicken??

    • Gold Top Dog

    Best cal/protein ratio per piece of chicken??

    Which chicken pieces are the best for correct calcium per meat base?

    Also, is a turkey neck the greatest peice to start with?

    My local options for chicken are going to be leg quarters or wings; can't find any co-op's that serve Colorado without paying membership fees to investigate further.

    • Gold Top Dog

      The maximum amount of calcium in leg quarters is 1.04% for 100 grams, and .61% phosphorus for the same weight; minimum values are .64% for calcium and .42% for phosphorus. That's a pretty good ratio; I don't have the figures for wings and necks though.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Great...thanks...do YOU feed leg quarters and have you had any issues?

    Appears the leg quarters are a great thing to start with, rather then wings/necks based off info I'm reading.

    Have no problems feeding quarters to my big guy, and perhaps keep the little guys on NV raw.

    • Gold Top Dog

    stanton
    Great...thanks...do YOU feed leg quarters and have you had any issues?

     

     You're welcome; wish I could feed them, it would be great for her teeth, but she's allergic to chicken. I've tried turkey wings and the bones splintered so bad that she's not getting them anymore, but chicken wings may be different.  She hasn't had necks 'cause I'm worried she'll choke on the them because the bones are so small. She's allergic to pork too but she gets beef rib bones and marrow bones. It's a shame there isn't a co-op nearby for you.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Have you checked processors?  Sometimes they have retail stores where you can get cases at at least a better deal than the grocery.

    Quarters are pretty widely considered to be the best deal as far as providing a correct phosphorus to calcium ratio.  However, if you depend too much on them for your diet, you'll need to supplement copper, iron, zinc and possibly manganese.  It's not difficult to do - it's just something you should be aware of.

    Beef heart provides iron and a lot of copper.  Beef liver has even more copper (and the B vitamins). An oyster once a week provides plenty of zinc in a nice natural form.  I dislike fussing with all the extra ingredients unless I have to, so I do the calculations (or have them done) and do a weekly supplement formula. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Yeah...I've worried about the turkey wings...and they're HUGE

    How are you balancing your calcium to meat ratio? I mean, I've thought about going it alone off the HK preference, but I'm not 100% sure how much calcium to give versus a pound of meat.

    Any ideas..I've heard 1/4tsp of eggshell powder per pound of meat, BUT can that be just any type of eggs. Farmers eggs are expensive here as well, but we do eat a lot of eggs from the stores.

    • Gold Top Dog

    stanton
    How are you balancing your calcium to meat ratio? I mean, I've thought about going it alone off the HK preference, but I'm not 100% sure how much calcium to give versus a pound of meat.

     

      The beef ribs and marrow bones are recreational and she only gets them a few times a week, so I don't worry about balancing the calcium. The cooked diet she gets has been formulated by Sabine and has the correct amount of bone meal to balance the meat. According to Monica Segal, you need to add 250mg of calcium for every 3 and a half ounces of meat. You can find calcium citrate and calcium carbonate at health food stores; the amount of calcium per teaspoon is given on the label.

    • Gold Top Dog

    My recipes are balanced with their meaty bones.  Ted's the only one who gets any added calcium, because he just gets sooo much boneless meat.  Oh, no, Lu does too, I forgot.