Protein/Calcium ratio for chicken feet?

[pinkman]

So I moved! Instead of the halal butchers like I mentioned earlier in a different thread, I did venture out to a "supermarket" a couple blocks away from me... I was very happy with what I saw!

Lots of different pork items, goat, chicken livers, kidneys, hearts and gizzards (sold separately!), beef kidney and liver, and... 

Chicken feet!

Some may be grossed out by the fact that chicken feet are consumed, but it's a delicacy in dim sum. Also, they are a good source of collagen and used to make some awesome broth.

Unfortunately I did not see any necks, which are my go-to for calcium.

Does anyone know how much calcium chicken feet contain? I suspect a decent amount, but I'd love to incorporate them into Lox's frankenprey days. For the record, for one day I feed 3 ounces.

I'll be checking out the local Halal butchers soon... I just have too much in my freezer right now, oops!

 

[ldg]

I tried feeding chicken feet, both whole, then cut up, then ground, to Flowerbelle, because of her arthritis. I did a lot of searching for bone vs cartilage, and as I remember, i never found it. I'll check my bookmarks when I'm on the laptop.

Hope the move went well, and glad you're finding such great stuff! I'm not completely jealous or anything.

 

[furmonster mom]

I'm guessing it's pretty minimal, since they are mostly covered with skin, fat and cartilage.  But it's an interesting question.  My cats look at me like I'm nuts when I try to feed chicken feet to them, but the dog thinks I'm the best mommy evah!

 

[ldg]

It's not minimal, there's a lot of bone in chicken feet - it's definitely not all cartilage. :nod:

I'm on the laptop, I'll go look for any links...

 

[ldg]

OK - from the link Sally (mrsgreenjeens found) when Ritz was asking about chicken skulls: http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00044/id16.htm

So chicken feet have 16 small bones.

A more detailed description of the chicken foot - though not overly helpful with bone vs cartilage, as it's just anatomy, it has pictures. :lol3: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res13-feet.html

This link is NOT for the faint-of-heart. It is a "how to" dissect a chicken foot. And all it really illustrates is how fatty and full of tendons they are: http://cswnetwork.org/community/projects/pdf/199.pdf

Any search turns up what great stock they make: they have a lot of skin and that gelatinous fat, so all that collagen is good for joint health (as are all those tendons).

No closer to understanding how MUCH bone is in them... but compared to any other bone/joint in an animal, I have to think you get a lot more cartilage and collagen per amount bone. Maybe that's what you meant, Furmonster mom?

 

[pinkman]

Thanks for all the information, Laurie!

I still wonder and can't really figure out how much to put when making a pound of food... I wonder if I put an ounce and a half per pound of food I make, will that be too little/enough?

So 12.8 ounces of "muscle", 0.8 ounces of liver, 0.8 ounces of kidney, and 1.5 ounce of chicken feet? Hmm, not sure. 

 

[ldg]

:lol3: Well, going by LOOK, I'd have to say they're 25% - 40% bone, depending on how fatty they are (or aren't). :anon: I guess you'll just have to experiment!

 

[pinkman]

Sounds good! Yeah I haven't bought them yet but I'll buy them maybe tomorrow and dissect them!

 

[ldg]

Well, not being feint-of-heart, you've got instructions if you opened that link. !!

 

[furmonster mom]

 but compared to any other bone/joint in an animal, I have to think you get a lot more cartilage and collagen per amount bone. Maybe that's what you meant, Furmonster mom?

Yes, that is what I was thinking.  Thanks for clarifying. 

 

[ritz]

Can you get a whole chicken head?  They have eyes (secreting organ) and as I understand it a fair amount of soft bones.

I gave Ritz the whole head (weighed about 1.6 oz) after I tried and failed to cut it in half.  She ate the whole thing.

I gave Ritz a chicken feet (the whole thing) and she just looked at it like:  and your point?

Next time, I'll tie a string around it, drag it along the tile floor and see if I can use it as a toy!

 

[pinkman]

Chicken heads... That I gotta search around for. I haven't gotten the feet yet since I've been having problems with Lox eating since I moved. I did find lamb liver though! If I travel a bit further to BK Chinatown I can probably find heads... Or maybe another place that will slaughter poultry for me.

.... Which I actually just found on Yelp. 20 minutes away bus ride. They slaughter chickens, silkies, guinea hen, and ducks. Woop.