Grinder help and bones

[eaumond]

Hello,

We sort of unsuccessfully made the first raw batch of food

. I was having major difficulties with my grinder becoming clogged with bone, and was hoping for some hints/tips on how to help prevent this and anything else that may help keeping this clean/safe.

Grinder:  - STX INTERNATIONAL STX-3000-TF Turboforce

Chicken raw food recipe was from : http://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers

Thanks for all the help!

 

[tatiana2]

I have not done my own grinding yet but was looking into it about two years ago. I would have to see if I can find my old notes, but from what I recall, you need a more industrial one than the one you posted the link for. I think the ones which had been recommended to me by someone who does this for their cats bought one which was around three hundred dollars.

My thought in mentioning this is it could be your grinder. How big was your chicken? You may want to start with small Cornish hens and see if that helps.

 

[eaumond]

I used chicken thighs (with bones), hearts, and liver.

 

[silverpersian]

Your grinder looks very similar to my Tasin. Mine gets stuck occasionally, but not so often that it is intolerable.

Have you read the reviews for your grinder on amazon?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R39X9J...deID=284507&store=kitchen&tag=&tag=thecatsite

Other people seem to be using it for cat food, and are happy.

Have you tried grinding the bones in two phases? Run them through with the coarse plate first, then the fine one. Are you chunking the meat first? That would help too, because a skinny bone is less likely to get crammed in their than a bone with a lot of meat on it.

I don't run the liver or hearts through the grinder. The liver is very soft and it seems like too much of it gets left behind. I just chop it up. The hearts I leave whole because chewing is good for the teeth and jaws.

You probably know this already, but just in case: when you are buying chicken, ensure that it hasn't been injected with anything. A lot of the supermarket chicken is injected with brine, and that makes the sodium dangerously high.

 

[eaumond]

I did not know about brine... I'll have to check with them about it, I got the chicken thighs and livers from whole foods, and the hearts from a local butcher. Do you know of any better places to get those types of cuts? Trying to find hearts was a challenge in itself. I'm in Tempe Arizona.

On my next batch I will try the coarse method twice, I had tried it coarse and then fine before but it seemed to leave semi large chunks of bones in the batch. And perhaps I left too much chicken on the bone while chunking it. I'll just have to try again.

Also thanks for all of the info!

 

[meowlifestyle]

I use a manual grinder and I am extremely happy with the results. I've been grinding chicken and rabbit bones and other muscle meat consistently  for a year and a half now with no problems.

My grinder was about $30, works great and I have never had a problem with it. I chose a manual grinder because its smaller, cheaper, easier to clean and less likely to break down. it does take a bit of muscle, and its easier to do with someone helping you. But I manage to make large batches on my own.

As I said chicken and rabbit thighs are the larges bones I grind,