Hi Sue and everybody- I just made a batch of chicken gravy yesterday, so I feel obligated to write in response to Sue's questions about it. I've tried different ways of making it in the past- even bought a heavy duty meat grinder to grind everything (didn't work at all on bones, raw or cooked, and was a pain in the butt with everything else). I'm not sure of Bob's exact procedure, but this is what has worked well for me the last several times I've made the stuff. Yep, the recipe calls for a whole chicken. Rather than try and cut one up, which I personally hate doing, I just buy one already cut up and packaged (it'll say "whole chicken- cut up) and throw the pieces in a large pot with water. I also buy some extra fat, since I don't cook often enough to have my own fat trimmings to save. I try to ask the guy in the meat department if they have any and they usuallly do, but I've also used a disgusting thing called "pork jowl" (yuck) which is basically a hunk of the fattiest bacon you ever saw, still on the skin (which I cut off). Yesterday I used beef fat trimmings. Anyway, I let the chicken and the fat cook for several hours until the chicken pieces are just falling apart, then I add all the other stuff (Nutrical, ferret kibble, etc) and let it cook for a little while until it's the consistency of a thick soup or stew. I let it cool until I can get my hands in it (this is the messiest part) and I pick out all the bones by just squishing my fingers through all the stuff and feeling for them. I personally have never been able to get the bones soft enough to go through my blender or a grinder, but I know that the marrow is important, so I use a sharp knife to chop as much of the bones up as I can (usually the ends are softer and I can cut them off in little chunks), then I use a small knife to scrape as much marrow as I can from the inside of the hard middle part of the bones. I throw away these big hard pieces once I've gotten a lot of the marrow out. After I mix the bone-end chunks and marrow back into the chicken stew-stuff I just get my blender out and start ladling portions of the stew into the blender, pureeing it, and pouring the puree into another big bowl, until it's all pureed. Then I get out my little sealable baggies (either snack-size or sandwich-size), fill and seal them, and stick them in the freezer. And that's it! I don't usually give it to my healthy ferrets, unless one is sick and then I'll sometimes make the others a special treat of it. But my Gus is pretty sick with insulinoma now, and since he's already had most of his pancreas removed for it several months ago and there really isn't anything more we can do surgically, I'm feeding him chicken gravy 3 times a day to maintain is blood sugar as long as I can. From what I've read here and experienced in the past, it's wonderful for insulinomic ferrets. But anyway- that's what works for me. If anybody has figured out a way to get the entire bone soft and chopped up enough to put in the blender I'd love to hear it. I figure I'm getting the majority of the marrow doing it my way, though. And Gus sure loves his chicken gravy! Jamie and the Furry Five Gus, Hopper, Einstein, Butterbean, and Baby [Posted in FML issue 3846]