Guest Post - Making Your Own Dog Food from Turkey/Chicken Carcasses

Because we have three wonderful dogs and two cats to feed, my even more wonderful mother began researching how to make dog food. We had stopped buying canned dog food on a regular basis and weaned our dogs on to a mostly dry food diet due to the price of canned dog food. Then my mother suggested making canned dog food and here is what she researched and came up with. I can't believe it and neither can my dogs- they can't get enough of it!!

Guest Post from my mother Annette:

Getting the Most of your Leftover Chicken and Turkey Carcasses

If you cook a carcass in a slow cooker for a long time - 1-2 days, you can "melt" even the bones - great meat and scraps and gravy for dog/cat food.

This picture shows big turkey legs in my slow cooker. I did not cook it long enough to melt the big bones but all the small ones smashed between two fingers.

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This picture is all the meat I got from these legs. My cooker works too hot even on low. So I had trouble doing the turkey - all of it - but it depends on your cooker how this works out for you. A chicken carcass is the easiest - day and one half at most and good bone melt and lots of food. Be sure to smash all the small bones completely that have melted and to remove all larger pieces of bone that you cannot smash between your fingers so your dog will not choke on them.

This picture is the frozen turkey carcass that would not fit in the cooker. I used a stock pot and put foil over it, tucked inside the pot so no drips on stove. I added about 1-1/2 qt. of water and melted it down a little. Putting the large carcass into the cooker with stockpot liquid, I had to use a plastic cutting board to force it down - otherwise I would bend my large spoons or splatter juice everywhere.

This picture is all the meat and juices I got from the carcass and believe it or not, this carcass had been previously picked!! I cooked this turkey carcass - a very large one - about 29 hours. I did add water twice - you may not have to with your crock pot. I did not melt all the bones because my cooker is just too hot. I did add some little seasonings-poultry seasoning in small amount to each batch - dogs like flavor too!

Total outcome was 24 ounces of just meat, 2 small 8 ounce containers of mostly meat and some juice, 1 approx 24 ounces container of juice with meat pieces and stuffing pieces(left in turkey carcass) great for putting over dry food, and 1 tub of meat. The actual work involved in picking the carcasses and smushing some bones about 10-15 minutes twice. Cleanup can go fast. Have a bowl of hot soapy water available, and a go-in-the-washer rag while you pick.

I'm telling you...try this...my dogs go nuts when I pull these containers out of the freezer or fridge!! Thanks Mom!!