Q: "At the recent veterinary nutrition seminar re: dogs they said
(veterinary lecturers for standardprocess.com) let them eat bone!
Their point was in todays world chickens are prepared at 12 weeks
of age for market therefore they say the bone is not hard enough
to cause any problems!"
I haven't yet performed density studies on the bones of immature
chickens, although it is on my list of "to do" items (Currently, I am
taking density measurements of ferret skeletons to determine if an x-ray
could be used to predict adrenal disease. I have also started taking an
x-ray of my ferrets during their yearly physical to see if comparative
x-rays would be useful as a screening test for a variety of diseases).
I CAN say the density of the chicken bones is markedly less than those
of adult chickens, based on dry weight, porosity, sectioning, and visual
appearance. How do you know your chicken is immature? The packaging
doesn't say, but the determination is very easy. Just crack open the
upper leg bone (the femur). If it is hollow, it is an adult. If it is
filled with red (or dark brown) marrow, then it is a young juvenile. In
the years I have been feeding chicken to my ferrets, I don't think I have
EVER seen an adult femur--all have been juvenile.
From my experience, younger vets are not as paranoid about bones as
older vets, probably due in part to changes in attitudes and the slow
realization that the actual (absolute) risk is actually quite low and
comparable to or lower than the rates of injury caused by common pet
toys. For example, I have a year's worth of data from a single vet
practice where the treatments for ANY problem caused by eating bone was
18 instances (17 dogs, 1 cat, 0 ferrets), requiring 12 surgeries (12
dogs). The vet thought that was a high number of instances. However,
during that same period of time the treatments for ANY problem caused by
ingesting or chewing toys, household objects, and other foreign objects,
including rocks, metal objects, coins, part of a woman's personal massage
device, and a combination lock was 43 instances (34 dogs, 6 cats, 3
ferrets), requiring 32 surgeries (26 dogs, 3 cats, 3 ferrets). One Lab
was treated 5 times and had two surgeries during that year for intestinal
blockages caused by swallowing rocks. The point was never that eating
bone doesn't place ferrets at some risk, but that the degree of risk is
minor compared to many other problems. The three ferrets had surgery to
remove bits of rubber blocking the gastrointestinal tract.
Q: "I was shocked to read you recommend using bleach to disinfect
chicken...are you nuts? Won't you poison the ferret?"
I am nuts about ladies wearing red lipstick, but not about this. Clorox
is between 5% and 7% Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl), and if diluted 1:49,
the final concentration is well above what is safe to drink (5 ppm), but
it insures that the bacteria contaminating the OUTER surfaces of the
chicken will be killed. If you rinse the chicken for 5 minutes in warm
water, whatever the concentration of bleach left behind will be far less
than what is encountered in typical drinking water. Additionally, Sodium
Hypochlorite tends to decompose in warm water, making the final bleach
contamination even less of a problem.
I was also asked about the wisdom of adding an acid to the bleach,
which typically produces chlorine gas. Vinegar is about 5% Acetic Acid
(CH3COOH, sometimes written as HC2H3O2), which is at a far greater
concentration than the diluted bleach solution, insuring all bleach is
neutralized. When vinegar is added to the bleach solution, you get the
following reaction:
NaOCl + CH3COOH <-------> HOCl + [ CH3COO-] + [Na+]
The typical reaction between bleach and vinegar creates Hypochlorous
Acid, a negative Acetate ion, and a positive Sodium ion (If allowed to
dry, the two ions form Sodium Acetate). ALL three products are soluble
in water, so they easily wash away when rinsed in warm water, and the
danger of forming enough chlorine gas to cause irritation is negligible.
Go swimming at the municipal pool and you will breathe more chlorine.
As dilute as the final bleach solution is, even if it released all its
chlorine as a gas, it would dissipate rapidly in a typical kitchen,
especially if the oven vent or ceiling fan was working. Bleach is your
friend. In various dilutions, it can disinfect anything, kill bacteria
and viruses, and leave your whites sparkling bright.
Q: "Fresh I am assuming means raw? What exactly is "wet cooked"?"
A: Fresh, green, and raw all refer to uncooked bone and parts. Wet
cooked means the bone or parts were boiled or stewed. I would tend to
add pressure-cooking to the group, but haven't had a source of enough
pressure cooked bones to actually determine how the bone has changed (if
someone has a few chicken's worth of pressure-cooked bones they are
willing to donate, email me privately). The big difference between wet
and dry cooking is that wet cooking introduces moisture into the bone,
while dry cooking drives moisture away from the bone. Dry cooking makes
bones harder, more brittle, and more like a ceramic. Wet cooking makes
bones softer, less brittle, and more chalky.
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4167]
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