Author Topic: Cornish hens -- need advice  (Read 1514 times)

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Offline Pookie

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Cornish hens -- need advice
« on: January 04, 2013, 09:09:20 AM »
I caved.  I had a coupon for $.99/lb on a 2-pack of cornish hens and I bought them.  I keep hoping that I'll get the nerve to feed Pookie bones.  I don't know why I'm nervous . . . he's eaten feeder mice, but I just worry that I'll give him something he can't handle and he, in his excitement over getting raw, will have a problem that will require me to take him to the vet.  Anyway, questions:

- how long can I keep them in the fridge before I have to cut them up?  (I bought them last night).  I may not get to do that until Sunday.

- are there any bones in a cornish hen that I SHOULDN'T feed to him, due to size or something else?

-  what part(s) should I offer to him first?  This would be a snack, not a full meal.

I can't think of anything else but I'm sure I'll have more questions.  Any other suggestions/tips would be VERY much appreciated.  THANKS!
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Offline Pookie

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Re: Cornish hens -- need advice
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2013, 10:36:14 AM »
Thought of more (and please be kind -- they may be silly questions but humor me   Bumpurr1):

- should I cut up both of them, or just 1 to see if he'll even eat it/tolerate it?

- If I cut up 1 and freeze the other, and he's ok with it, how long do I need to thaw the frozen one in the fridge before I can cut that one up and re-freeze?
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Offline Middle Child

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Re: Cornish hens -- need advice
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2013, 02:27:48 PM »
I cut up two cornish hens yesterday.

Let's see. The last hen I cut up was frozen when I bought it. I thawed it in a bowl of cold water for a few hours.  It was still partially frozen as I cut it up. I gave a wingtip to TC and she ate every bite, crunch crunch yum..  The other two, I cut the other wing tip up into small pieces and they ate the pieces okay.

The hens I did yesterday, which I bought on Dec 31, and were dated use/freeze by Jan 5, hadn't been frozen yet, so nobody has had any of it yet, but here's how I did it. I pulled off the skin and weighed out one ounce portions (like I always do, I use ice cube trays) I mixed breast, thigh and giblet (liver and gizzard, the hearts were missing :() with each portion.

I froze the wings, the tips and middle part, whole, for TC's snacking enjoyment..

Then I was left with the carcass, with a lot of shreds of meat and connective tissue still attached. I didn't want to waste all that meat, so using the scissors I just cut it all up into a...hash.  Ribs, back, cartilage, leftover skin, anything that my scissors would cut through easily. If the scissors wouldn't go through the bone piece easily, (leg bones and thigh bones, and what I think is the..sternum? Not so great on anatomy, lol) I didn't use them. (I've saved them, in the freezer toward my next soup stock)

All crunched together in a big mash, I portioned them into half ounce servings and froze them.  I don't know yet whether the cats will eat them.  I posted in the new raw forum asking about if what I did was safe for the cats, and if I should omit the calcium supplement on any day the cats get one of those bony treats. (no one has replied yet)

I guess what I did basically was make a 'rough grind'. Maybe I should be concerned about surface bacteria, doing it that way but...shrug....I'm pretty confident that cats can handle a bit of bacteria, especially as I don't intend to give them those bony treats more than once a week. I got 16 half ounces of them. :)


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