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Hurray For Chicken Necks!

carcharios

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I just got back from our local Giant Supermarket and they had chicken necks for dirt cheap. I can't believe how fast my tegus wolfed them down. These seem like the perfect food for larger tegus. They're lean, have bone in them for a nice calcium source unlike regular chicken breast or turkey balls, and they're natural - and really, really cheap I should add. Anyone else feed their tegus chicken necks?
 

Pikey

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i tried turkey neck, but they wanted nothing to do with it (i had to use a axe to cut the stupid thing in half they are really hard)
But i might try chicken necks
 

carcharios

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They wolfed down the chicken necks. I even heard some crunching noises and my tegus cracked the vertebrae. They had no problems going down. For anyone else out there who can't afford to feed live food like mice, etc. I would think chicken necks would be a decent substitute considering that they consist of both meat and bones for the tegus calcium requirements. And if tegus are feeding on nestlings in the wild anyway, I don't see why bird necks wouldn't be a nutritious. Don't get me wrong, I still mix it up with canned tuna, shrimp, eggs, and turkey balls with supplements added to them. But the chicken necks seem to be a great healthy alternative and again, they're very inexpensive. A whole pack was only a little over a dollar and each neck is about the size of a full grown mouse.
 

VARNYARD

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I am a little afraid of whole chicken bones myself, I had some impaction problems one time from wing bones.
 

goodtimes

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The chicken necks sound like a good thing to me.

To Bobby,

If the larger bones pose a problem, is it simply a digestion issue? ( they cannot fully break them down before trying to pass them?) If so, how about putting them in plastic wrap, or something to keep them together, and breaking them up with a meat mallet to make the bone pieces smaller? This way they get the whole bones, meat, and such without the large bone pieces. It would only take a minute to do. Maybe a cheese cloth or bakers parchment would work to keep the necks from getting all over the place while slamming with the mallet.


I am gonna try it tomorrow. Let me know what you all think?
 

VARNYARD

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Yes it was a problem with not digesting them, but I do think your idea would be safer for the animal.
 

DMBizeau

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Couldn't breaking the bones up cause sharp pieces of bone inside the neck? I would think this might lead to a problem as well with sharp edges.
 

DMBizeau

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tora said:
Well they shouldn't be too sharp, they only splinter once they're cooked.

uhh, no bones are actually more prone to splinter when they are raw. If they are fully cooked they crumble alot easier. I am sure with the small size of the neck bones it won't be to big of an issue.
 

Rudd

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DMBizeau said:
tora said:
Well they shouldn't be too sharp, they only splinter once they're cooked.

uhh, no bones are actually more prone to splinter when they are raw. If they are fully cooked they crumble alot easier. I am sure with the small size of the neck bones it won't be to big of an issue.


Actually, Tora is correct. This is a common mistake for people to make and is why many dogs are in the vets office because of feeding them cooked meat with bones.
 

tora

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Hm, I've always heard/read that the only reason dogs/cats can't eat cooked meats is because the cooked bones splinter a lot easier, and thus are far more likely to stab through their insides or get the jagged edges lodged in their throat. The cooking makes them a lot more brittle, not crumbly. Personally, I've seen that raw bones are far less sharp, because they still have all the goodness in them so while still solid, they're soft.

After reading your comment I re-checked my info, and everything says that if you're going to feed bones, make sure they're raw.
 

carcharios

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I don't get it. When we give our tegus rats and mice, don't they digest the bones? I've seen fur in their stool but never bones. Don't they need to digest the bones to get their calcium intake? And in the wild, they're feeding on carrion and birds, which just happen to have BONES in them. Aren't we going a little too extreme here with all our precautions?
 

HerpDLP

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carcharios said:
Aren't we going a little too extreme here with all our precautions?
just my view on this and what i know from working on criminal forensics cases, i do think people tend to forget and me included.
we have to keep in mind most places in the wild they do not have chickens just on the loose in abundance and most flightless birds have much more dens bone composition and compared to that of the bone density & composition of a smaller birds that do fly it is a huge difference.
a reptile has some of the strongest digestive acids/juices there is but if bone is to dense this will still pose a issue with captive reptiles..
 

goodtimes

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I can definitely see both sides of the issue. If you (anyone) has a decent butcher in their local market I am sure he/she would be more than happy to grind up just about anything you ask. Have them grind up the chicken necks and there you go, nice ground up calcium and protein for your children! :)
 

carcharios

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I hear what you're saying about flightless birds having more density in their bones, but from what I recall from my trips to Mexico, Venezuela, and Costa Rica, there are plenty of forest birds (not chickens) that occur in those regions and South America as well that are larger than chickens - and my guess is that they're on the Tegu's menu. There's even a south american version of our very own turkey! If anything, I would think that Tegus would feed more on these ground birds than the smaller birds passerine (song birds) because the smaller birds capable of flight would be more difficult to obtain.

Also, Tegus naturally feed on smaller lizards as well - another food item that contains vertebrae just like the chicken necks do. And what about the fact that they feed on fish along river banks - yet another organisms with vertebrae? Or carcasses of organisms that most definitely would contain bones? I'm not sure why the fuss about chicken necks all things considered.

These lizards evolved to handle these food items. It's not like we're giving them something unnatural. Millions of years of evolution have accounted for the fact that their food contains bones. In my opinion, they're fully capable of consuming and digesting chicken necks. However, IF I notice any complications, I will be sure to post them.
 

chelvis

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Chicken necks i don't see a problem with, but anyhting you have to cut with an ax i would avoid. Not because their is a problem they can't digest it but more so the problem they can't swallow it safely. I've had to chop cow legs in half with an ax and it doesnt matter if the bone is raw or cooked, hitting it with that much force can cause splitters, this is where the problem arises.

If the bone is still covered in meat to protect it while traveling to the stomach, my guesse is that the food is safe. In the wild when they catch a bird or large fish or come apon a carcass they don't eat the whole thing unless they can swallow it. A chicken is too big to swallow. So what they do instead is tear into it and eat the organ meat first. Then they'll eat the surrounding meat. They amost always will leave the outer parts of the animals and yes the larger bones. Most are too large for them to crush. Now on some animals with easy to brake bone, like domestic chicken or reptile or even fish, they might go ahead and eat a few of the smaller bones but most of the time this is done while eating the meat. If you don't belive this take a look at a wild large monitor (kamodo dragons are best at this). I've give my tegu an xl-gpig for his birthday last year and he tore it to pieces and he did leave a few bones that i got lucky to clean up.

SO what i'm saying is your tegus know thier limits, but don't give them whole bones (cooked or raw), unless its part of a bigger meal.
 

carcharios

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The chicken necks I feed my guys are about the size of a mouse. They swallow them whole, do the neck bend trick to get them down and that's about it. I'm still waiting to see what their stool looks like. My guess is that it will take some time to digest the meal so I may be waiting a few days...
 

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