Questions about fine grinds

[redmoonbringer]

Does anyone have experience with making or sourcing super fine grinds?
Unfortunately solid bone isn’t an option for my girl Lillith right now, so I’m looking to replace bone-in meals with fine grinds. The only grinds I can find where I live (Japan) are chicken neck/wing grinds with the bones at 3~5 millimeters. I’d really like to get grinds with the bone pieces being less than 1mm. If anyone knows where to get or how to make grinds like this, please share!

Bon(e)us questions:
•Is 9 USD per pound for chicken neck grinds expensive? Seems expensive...
•How big are the bone pieces in most commercial/home made grinds?
•Do ferrets fed bone-in grinds still pass pieces of bone in their stool?
•Would it be a bad idea to run a meat grinder in an apartment? I’ve gotten noise complaints from trying to smash bone with a hammer before (sorry neighbors...).

Thanks!

[lyles]

I use a lot of fine grinds, 5 days out of the week actually.
A lot of grounds pre packaged have varying % in their contents, pay attention to this and supplement for the correct balance.

Another note about fine grinds is that 1) ferrets might be picky with grinds, you can water it down a bit to have a more gloopy consistence that will encourage them to lap it up (not a soup) but be sure to add some bone meal to it so that it hardens their stools up (they can get very loose stools or even diarreah with grinds).

Make sure they have at least a couple of days of bone in bird necks of some kind or gizzards if you can get them to eat it. This ensures that their teeth gets cleaned and maintains their jaw muscles.

You'll need to break up their meals throughout the day with grinds too, their stomachs will get upset if they eat grinds left out all day and they will tend to eat too fast and too much.

[lyles]

Instead of smashing the necks with a hammer, get duck necks and chop them into 1" pieces with a good big and heavy kitchen knife. Duck and Chicken necks are soft enough that you don't need to smash them with a hammer, they will chew them up just fine.

[redmoonbringer]

Hi! Thanks for the replies✨
My girl is actually excellent at eating bone-in meats! But unfortunately I can’t give them to her for the foreseeable future... she had a botched surgery that left her with a “pocket” in her intestines where bone bits build up and hurt her tummy 😢
That’s why I’m trying to figure out where I can get super fine grinds!
I’d really like to know if grind-fed ferrets still pass pieces of bone in their stool too-
anything that goes through Lillith’s intestines is going to get stuck in the pocket, so I need the bone bits to be small enough that they’re mostly dissolved in the stomach!

[redmoonbringer]

May 10, 2021 17:58:50 GMT -5 lyles said:

I use a lot of fine grinds, 5 days out of the week actually.
A lot of grounds pre packaged have varying % in their contents, pay attention to this and supplement for the correct balance.

Another note about fine grinds is that 1) ferrets might be picky with grinds, you can water it down a bit to have a more gloopy consistence that will encourage them to lap it up (not a soup) but be sure to add some bone meal to it so that it hardens their stools up (they can get very loose stools or even diarreah with grinds).

Make sure they have at least a couple of days of bone in bird necks of some kind or gizzards if you can get them to eat it. This ensures that their teeth gets cleaned and maintains their jaw muscles.

You'll need to break up their meals throughout the day with grinds too, their stomachs will get upset if they eat grinds left out all day and they will tend to eat too fast and too much.

Thanks for the tips!!! I didn’t even think about them eating too fast or too much... but now that you mention it, when I’ve given my guys minced meat in the past, they lapped it up super quickly. I guess I’ll have to be careful with how much I give them at a time... maybe I’ll do half bone-in grinds and half meat/organ chunks for each meal...