What's for Supper

LOL!  That does sound good, Sandra.  I may have to bring Roxie by sometime if we're in Texas.  

What did the bones do Sandra?  You said they were mushy, did you leave them in whole or do they all break up?   Sounds pretty good to me,,,,I wonder if I can use a whole chicken for something like that,,,we have a store here that sells them pretty cheap. And now that I think of it,,,wondering if we can use cheap cuts of beef and cook long like that, what would the bones do in that if slow cooked a long time.?    

The bones go so soft you can crumble them with your fingers...just about like the bones in a can of salmon.  I still can't bring myself to give raw bones, and i know these crumbliy chicken bones won't do a thing for their teeth, but maybe there is some nutrition in cooked, crumbed bones.  Even if there isn't, the dogs sure did enjoy the "soup".

I opened a can of Merrick "thanksgivng " or something,,,it had a whole chicken leg bone it! I freaked out - getting ready to call  the company when I took my finger and crushed it to nothing .  So I quess its ok to eat the bones once cooked way way down  like this?      

I have such a phobia about bones after seeing what happened to that lab puppy with punctured stomach (peritonitis set in, he died) that if i even had 1/2 % of a doubt it was not  safe, I wouldn't  give them to my dogs.    Once I saw how the bones crumbled, I had no doubt that they were safe for my dogs.

Sandra,  you didn't find the skins created too much fat?  I would refrigerate my crockpot mixture and find this layer of fat that I would skim off.
 
My last effort was using a bunch of chicken thighs.  It created so much fat that I wound up throwing most of the batch away. 

No it didn't seem to cause any problems for my dogs, but I had already decided to remove the skins BEFORE cooking the next time.  The recipe did not call for skinless legs and I didn't even think about it until the legs were cooked.  I got this recipe off a nutrition site and could kick myself for not marking it as it had other recipes and I can't remember the name of it.  Most of what i find i stumble onto anyway!

ORIGINAL: Hollysmom

I opened a can of Merrick "thanksgivng " or something,,,it had a whole chicken leg bone it! I freaked out - getting ready to call  the company when I took my finger and crushed it to nothing .  So I quess its ok to eat the bones once cooked way way down  like this?      

 
     I'm not saying its recommended to feed cooked bones BUT ... lol
My late great Aunt bred Shepherds for close to 40 years. She had her first litter somewhere around 1947. Her dogs ate a steady diet of cooked bones, scrap meat, fat, pasta, bread, potatoes, lentils and various soups. They used to raise rabbits and chickens, and the dogs got whatever was left over, bones and all. My mother visited the house on a weekly basis, and she recalls the dog poo in the yard was always the "chalky white poo" often seen in the older, dried droppings of raw fed dogs. Yet these dogs were never fed any raw whatsoever nor did they get into the rabbit hutches or kill the chickens. If they did ......... Anyway, these dogs did not get many other sources of calcium save for the bones and a bit of whole milk. Their litters were large, and the adults lived to be 15 on average, with no debilitating health problems in between ... imagine, German Shepherds living long, healthy lives ... {{sigh}}
     Anyway, I've caught myself numerous times throwing in whole leftover chicken thighs straight from the pan. The dogs have eaten the cooked bones and it has always come out the same way it does when fed raw ... thoroughly pulped and the poo turns into a fine powder when stepped on. Just to see what would happen, I've shattered raw chicken thighs and cooked thighs using a hammer (w/o the meat). They both splintered, and the fragments were similar in consistancy of size and both were sharp. I think the only difference between raw and cooked bones is that the raw version offers more bioavailable nutrition. [sm=2cents.gif]

When I was a kid our dad did feed Purina Dog Chow to our setters and pointers and they also got all the left over bones but that was it.  No leftovers.  My parents grew up during the depression, my Dad on farm, so no shortage of food, my mom in Perth, Western Australia where they had to make 1/2 pound of ground meat feed a family of 6.  My Mom wouldn't even waste a spoon full of mashed potatoes--save it and mix it in with ones the next night, or heat it and other leftovers for her lunch  Anyway, our dogs ate cooked bones--chicken, pork, beef, quail, dove, duck, squirrel, rabbit, and we never had a problem with them and any of our dogs in all those years.  But i would not do it today, except for the crumbled ones i cooked in the cook in the crock pot.  As i said in previous post, after seeing that lab puppy who died due to punctured stomach, i just can't bring myself to feed bones.

That's really cool, Sandra. All these crockpotting posts have me thinking. I may have to try it, for my rotten pair.

Yeah, I'm thinking that Ella might be in for a treat soon.
It just seems kind of pointless for me to crock pot cook for one dog.
Cooking separately for my dog will get in the way of me cooking for the family.


My dog gets more proper nutrients then anyone in my family!!!

Hubby says the dogs eat better than he does!  I think it easier to cook the crock pot method than  fix several meals one at a time   I just know my dogs LOVED it and i know without a doubt it is very good for them.  I just wish i could remember the site where i found this recipe because there are several more there i would like to try.

Sandra,  you just added enough water just to cover or what? I bet we can add whatever,,,but I don't want to make soup of it.   I'm going to get some groceries to do this next week.Heck, I always cook meat either beef, turkey or pork and then add veggies,,,many times in the form of baby food veggies,,,this sounds better because I have to believe that the bones in it makes it more nutritious.  

Another way crock pot recipes are good is the water the dogs get.  This is a great way to get more water into your dog!