# Poultry carcass



## cornking4 (Nov 25, 2009)

I know that it's good for tegus to get nutrients from eating entire chicken or poultry carcasses, but I need to know a few specs. Raw innards and organs are what I'll buy from the farmers market to feed to zzyzx, but I also heard that chopped up raw bone is a great source of calcium. Here's my question: my family eats pre-cooked rotisserie chicken all the time and throws out the bone. Could I use this cooked bone as food or is it too difficult to digest once it's cooked?


----------



## reptastic (Nov 25, 2009)

im not sure about raw bones but i do know that cooked bones are a big no no because they splinter and can rupture the intestines which is very bad but i have given my tegu chicken wings with the bones crushed inside with no problem


----------



## cornking4 (Nov 26, 2009)

I never thought about cooked bones splintering as they do in dogs' digestive systems, I suppose you're 100% right about that :-D 
The reason I asked is because I was talking to Tom yesterday (owner of Pets, Inc, featured in Reptile Magazine) and he was mentioning that in argentina, wild tegus raid chicken coops and swallow adult poultry whole, bone and all, and that I should start tossing entire chicken corpses bought at farmers markets to zzyzx. I'd like to get a second opinion on this though (not because I don't trust Tom but because I want to know how often, technique for cutting up bone, etc....)

Any ideas about that? :-D


----------



## MMRR - jif (Nov 26, 2009)

Why not just purchase some frozen chicks? They are fairly inexpensive at American Rodent Supply or RodentPro. You can get either chicken or quail chicks of all ages.


----------



## skippy (Nov 26, 2009)

get a pair of butchers scissors and go to town. safer than a knife and just as effective(if not more so) 

i used to feed my monitor whole chicken drumsticks for the calcium content. same thing goes for whole fish(my oliver loves fresh sardines and mackerel) feed bones, guts and all if you can since whole prey items are better than just pieces of meat.


----------



## cornking4 (Nov 26, 2009)

Great ideas, everyone. I could just slice up an entire chicken and portion-pack it in freezer bags like I do with his beef liver/ground turkey mix... it would allow me to mix it up with different organs each feeding. A pet store near me also sells frozen quail and chicks for about $1 each, so that would work great.


----------



## skippy (Nov 26, 2009)

in that case i would just stick with the little birds and mice with the occasional fish or crustacean thrown in for large items.


----------

