# chicken leg quarter--complete meal?



## balakai (Feb 9, 2005)

I've never fed them before as my previous dogs couldn't eat them(too big for them); I fed chicken necks and quail frames to the little guys.

I've read in some places that leg quarters are RMBs and I've also read that because they're meatier than most RMBs that they're really RMB and MM.

If I add a little organ meat, can a leg quarter be a complete meal? Would it follow the 50% RMB/45% MM?

~Kristin


----------



## smyke (Sep 24, 2009)

I have been wondering about this for a while also. there is a lot of meat on them and only 2 bones (right?).

I'm sure experts will chime in soon.


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

I serve mine as an individual RMB and do the normal MM for the day...maybe a little less MM than normal but I try to stay in the ranges. Then for the next day's meal I'll do something more boney....like pork necks. 

I'm not sure how else it would work...would you use the combined weight for that day's RMB and MM all served in chicken quarters? You wouldn't leave out the ounces of MM would you? 

Say Anna roughly gets 18oz RMB a day and 15oz MM a day...would that mean she needs 33oz of quarters? I guess I'm confused on that too.


----------



## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

Leg 1/4s have a lot more meat on them than many things that fall into the usual RMB category. I'd consider them to be somewhere in between RMB and MM. Obviously not just MM, but a lot more meat on them to qualify as just RMB.

We use them as a complete meal quite often. Sometimes we add a little bit of MM/OM, sometimes not. Some of the leg 1/4s we get are very large and meaty. We often end up separating them into thigh and leg because one leg 1/4 is too big to serve as a single meal for one dog, in which case the leg obviously has a higher bone to meat ratio than the thigh, and that needs to be taken into consideration when deciding what else they get for dinner. 

We try to keep the RMB/MM/OM ratios balanced out, but it doesn't need to be balanced every day... over a few days is fine. So they may get leg 1/4s a couple meals in a row, then get all MM/OM the next meal.


----------



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

You can use this page to see the % of bone - search for chicken leg, then click 100g - the refuse is the bone content.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
A leg is 27% bone...
I try to aim for 10% bone total (which the 45/50 MM/RMB balances out to and is what is recommended on the rawfeeding yahoo group), so when I feed a leg quarter I'll usually feed an equivalent amount of MM.


----------



## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

> Originally Posted By: aubieI'm not sure how else it would work...would you use the combined weight for that day's RMB and MM all served in chicken quarters? You wouldn't leave out the ounces of MM would you?
> 
> Say Anna roughly gets 18oz RMB a day and 15oz MM a day...would that mean she needs 33oz of quarters? I guess I'm confused on that too.


That's what I would do. I used to fed Jerz raw for dinner and some of the quarters were just huge and were the weight of her entire meal for that day. I tired breaking them in half but couldnt' do it so one day I tried just giving her the quarter and some OM and she was fine. No runny poop or anything. 

I think it depends on the individual dog. If your dog can handle that bone-to-meat ratio than I don't see it being a bad thing, esp. since you should be varying up the diet with other RMBs, and MMs. Feeding just quarters would obviously be unbalanced and would not make a good raw diet but I've def. feed quarters as a meal in themselves before.


----------



## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

> Originally Posted By: phgsdYou can use this page to see the % of bone - search for chicken leg, then click 100g - the refuse is the bone content.
> http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
> A leg is 27% bone...
> I try to aim for 10% bone total (which the 45/50 MM/RMB balances out to and is what is recommended on the rawfeeding yahoo group), so when I feed a leg quarter I'll usually feed an equivalent amount of MM.


A leg is 27% bone, but according to that site a thigh is only 21%. And a leg 1/4 is composed of both pieces. Can't use the bone % of just a leg to apply to the whole leg 1/4. And since a leg 1/4 is both pieces, and the thigh is bigger than the leg so comprises a larger % of the overall piece, a leg 1/4 would be closer to the 21% than 27%. And judging by the amount of meat on some of these leg 1/4s we get (these were some serious bodybuilder chickens) I'd bet it's even lower than that in many cases. 

Still not down to 10% though, so rotating some MM/OM in, either in that meal or another meal, is important.


----------



## smyke (Sep 24, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: phgsd
> A leg is 27% bone...


depends which part of the leg was chosen for that 100g. LOL

just kidding, i know what you mean.

Jerzey, you have to get yourself a nice clever and start chopping away.


----------



## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Our quarters aren't huge (whimpy chickens!) roughly about 12-14 oz so I began supplementing those with chicken necks or cut pieces of pork necks to get her daily weight. I'll just keep doing the RMB/MM ratio as normal, unless I get a big ol' quarter then I'll make it one meal. But I just got a bunch of backs, so I shouldn't have to worry about that for a while.


----------



## balakai (Feb 9, 2005)

I knew I had forgotten to order something! I need chicken backs for India and necks for the terriers, and I missed last week's order deadline. Darn it!

~Kristin


----------



## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

> Originally Posted By: smykeJerzey, you have to get yourself a nice clever and start chopping away.


So true!


----------



## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

Many times the leg 1/4 has the back attached, so you get a bit of organ meat mixed in there as well as more bone ratio. 
I feed a leg 1/4 as a complete meal but only about every third meal not consecutively.


----------

