# Grinding whole rabbit for dog food



## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

I have a customer that wants me to grind whole rabbit for dog food, they want the bones included. Has anyone ground a whole rabbit with bones? Did the bones grind up ok?


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

We make dog food like that all the time. You have to grind twice. Grind course on the first round and then switch and grind fine. You should not be able to find any bone if you have ground it right.


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## jesirose (Jun 20, 2013)

It's just kind of pointless to grind up the bones. 
People do it, but it loses a lot of the teeth-cleaning benefits of feeding a raw diet.


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

KimTN said:


> We make dog food like that all the time. You have to grind twice. Grind course on the first round and then switch and grind fine. You should not be able to find any bone if you have ground it right.


 
What organ meat do you include? I would assume just heart, liver, and kidney, what about lungs?


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

jesirose said:


> It's just kind of pointless to grind up the bones.
> People do it, but it loses a lot of the teeth-cleaning benefits of feeding a raw diet.


 
I know but this person wants everything ground up, I told him that he could give the whole rabbit head to his dog since I can't grind that but he thought that was disgusting


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## jesirose (Jun 20, 2013)

bassmaster17327 said:


> I know but this person wants everything ground up, I told him that he could give the whole rabbit head to his dog since I can't grind that but he thought that was disgusting


Forgive me but do you actually mean the rabbit's head? Because they don't usually eat that part when it's prey-style.



Yes, lungs are ok. (The one benefit to ground is that you can get them to eat organs, and sometimes dogs are picky about the organs if they weren't raised on raw from puppies)


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

Thanks for the help, my dogs like the rabbit heads but I guess every dog is different


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

I grind up the liver, heart, kidneys, and lungs with the whole rabbit (skinned, gutted, and without head). We also add sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas to our dog's diet. We have a bunch of shih-tzu dogs, so you have to grind the food for them. For our big dogs, we just kill the rabbit and toss over the fence. The big dogs are able to eat every last bite.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

I think its funny when people try and re invent the wheel with things like this, unless the dog is old and loosing his teeth there is no reason they cant eat whole rabbit bone, and yes dogs eat rabbit heads, all preditors eat the head of animals small enough to chew up, lions and Hyenas even eat the heads or most of the heads of buffalo and zebra. the skull of a rabbit is no contest for most medium to large dogs. a toy breed might be in for a challenge though.


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

I agree but this is for a customer, not for my dogs, if he will be a regular rabbit buyer as long as I grind the rabbit then I have all intentions to do that


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## jesirose (Jun 20, 2013)

KSALguy said:


> I think its funny when people try and re invent the wheel with things like this, unless the dog is old and loosing his teeth there is no reason they cant eat whole rabbit bone, and yes dogs eat rabbit heads, all preditors eat the head of animals small enough to chew up, lions and Hyenas even eat the heads or most of the heads of buffalo and zebra. the skull of a rabbit is no contest for most medium to large dogs. a toy breed might be in for a challenge though.


Have you ever read the threads on "what killed my chicken?" I've seen more chickens with their heads left on than not in these threads. Not all predators eat the heads. Not all dogs are big enough to do so even if they wanted to. There's nothing important nutrition wise in the head anyway.


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

The head contains the brain, a pig brain appears to have some nutrition but is high in cholesterol. Per three ounces of pork brain:

Calories:117
Fat: 8.1g
Cholesterol: 2169mg
Protein: 10.3g


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

skunk weasel and cat all start eating from the head down, possum start from the abdomen up, **** go on a killing spree killing and maybe eating a little from each bird, but all of them allowed to eat their fill off of ONE bird will eat the whole thing, head and all.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

If the dog is going to eat the bones be sure to give it the hide too. Dog guts are designed to wrap sharp bones with fur as the stool moves down the gut. Every wolf dropping that I've seen looks like a fur covered tootsie roll with bones on the inside.


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## Zeet_Cranberry (Jan 11, 2011)

Cooked bones are brittle and will splinter but raw bones are perfectly safe whether ground or whole....whole being better. The liver is very rich so is better in small doses but other organs can be fed as meat.


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## bassmaster17327 (Apr 6, 2011)

Thanks everyone, I ground up the rabbits yesterday and all went well and easier than I expected. Once skinned, gutted and head was removed I was able to put the whole rabbit into the grinder. I was surprised over his willingness to pay that much for dog food, I thought for sure he would not pick it up and I would have to feed it to my dogs


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