[Update: A reader pointed out some conflicting information in the USDA Database regarding th amount of bone in a chicken wing. I was surprised to see the significant gap between the results th reader found and what I used in this post. I did some research and determined why I opted to use 38%. It is a bit convoluted, so I have addressed it on a separate page: Varying data regarding the amount of bone in a chicken wing]
I think it is pretty clear that calcium is a must-have in every dog’s diet. When using chicken bones a the source of calcium, things can get a little tricky. If you feed a whole chicken carcass, the meat to bone ratio balances out; if you happen to buy a bag of chicken wings on sale, it can create calcium and bone-to-meat ratio overload.
How Much Calcium in a Chicken Wing?
Well, let’s breakdown the ratios of bone, meat, skin, calcium and phosphorous. By calculating data provided by the Australian Chicken Meat Federation, a chicken wing is 37% bone; data in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Nutrient Database states that a chicken wing is 38% bone. That is consistent enough for me.
Once I had the meat-to-bone ratio figured out, I wanted to know how much calcium that would provide. That answer was not easy to find. After a few hours of searching, I found a document, titled “Results: chemical composition of raw material.” It was republished as “Chicken Bone Calcium Extraction,” which I have inserted at the end of this post. It describes the results of a study on the amount of calcium that can be extracted from a chicken bone. Within the paper, I found the gold nugget I was searching for: the amount of calcium in raw chicken bone. Score!!!
100 grams of raw chicken bone (a mix and match of all types) contains 5.5 grams (5500 mg) calcium and 2.6 grams (2600 mg) phosphorus.
That fits nicely into the recommended 1:1 to 2:1 calcium/ phosphorous ratio mentioned in A Crash Course on Calcium, but the actual mount of calcium seemed like an awful lot. I noticed that one-half teaspoon ground eggshell provides about 1,000 milligrams calcium. With that in mind, I guess the amount stated for a chicken bone is not too far fetched. Nonetheless, chicken wings won’t be a staple of Phoebe’s diet.
What Would Happen if I Just Fed Ground Chicken Wings?
A little hypothetical – If I used the proportions I posted, with wings as the sole source of chicken, the calcium intake would be insane (keep in mind, I am using the information at hand; I don’t have access to a lab, so take it for what it is worth).
- Phoebe weighs 42 pounds (19051 grams)
- I want to feed 2-3% of her body weight per day (2.5% for simplicity): That is 1 pound (454 grams) per day
- I want 80% of her daily intake to be meat, and 65% of the meat is chicken (7.68 ounces; 290 grams)
- A chicken wing weighs 89 grams, so the chicken component would consist of 3 wings (3.25 to be exact).
Wings are 38% bone, so if I add up all the meat (363 grams) and do the math, those 3 little chicken wings would result in a meal with a meat-to-bone ratio of 30%. That is way too high and puts the meal in the danger zone (remember those little constipated bone poops). In addition, the calcium and phosphorous would be too much as well (somewhere around 7500 mg).
I don’t make her meals daily; I make them in batches. This gives me the opportunity to incorporate those chicken wings and let the bone percentage average out as she goes through each batch (one to two weeks, depending on how much I make on mad-scientist-food-prep-day). Also, chicken meat alone does not contain exorbitant amounts of calcium, making it even easier to balance things out.
After mixing and matching I determined that the lowest common factor was 4 pounds of chicken. Since the focus of this post is the chicken wing, and since the calcium content of all the other ingredients is not humongous, I have left out the details for the other ingredients.
Here is the recipe I use when chicken wings are the calcium source.
Whew! That sure took a whole lot of calculating!
Check out the Nutrition Facts page – if you need me to swap an item you can check out the USDA Nutrient Database. Don’t forget, I have not even touched upon other essential nutrients. I am beginning to see why people charge $275 -$375 to create customized diets. Ahhhhhh!
When my brain is not fried from all these calculations, I will add in values for the other essential nutrients. For now, if you are curious, I recommend the USDA Nutrient Database.
The Bottom Line
This little exercise was to prove that one cannot take a nonchalant attitude when creating a diet recipe. It does not mean that the whole world has to be as detailed as I have been with my wing-thing.
All I am trying to get across is that guessing on a meat-to-bone ratio, or taking what others say, on blind faith can result in something contrary to what you are trying to accomplish.
Phoebe's Tails 
October 4, 2016 at 10:50 am
Please I want to know which animal bone can I eat to regain calcium for I was tested and noted I have calcium deficiency
October 4, 2016 at 12:01 pm
unfortunately, I can’t speak for what humans should eat. I know they have calcium tablets. The doctor that gave you the test results should be able to guide you.
April 21, 2014 at 1:05 am
Ive been using the usda site for awhile now, its great. It states the bone/refuse content (eg 36%) however unfortunately doesn’t include the calcium content of the bone, just the human edible parts. I ended up calculating my dogs meals from scratch using quantities from various studies on poultry. It was based on a meal of 80% muscle meat (beef heart) and 10% chicken bone (necks) and the CA:P was only slightly off. The CA was 475mg and the P was 493mg for that meal. I have a wholefood/natural mineral supplement called ‘Green Min’ sitting in the cupboard, and I discovered that if I add it to my dogs meals it will be an extra 200mg CA (virtually no P). So after all of that I think they should be in relatively good balance of calcium & Phosphorus. I’m going to make a word doc of a few of their meals in case my vet ever brings up the ‘balance’ issue. I’m pretty sure people like us put more time, care and research into it than the kibble companies 🙂
April 21, 2014 at 9:15 pm
I agree wholeheartedly!
Thank you for all the comments.
If you learn new things that contradict what is on here, please send me a note (phoebemessal@yahoo.com). I hate propogating incorrect info.
April 18, 2014 at 6:10 am
Hi, I too have been looking into the science behind the calcium/phos requirements too. I mainly feed chicken necks as my dogs edible bone (10% of their diet), however recently discovered that they may not be getting enough calcium, due to the high phosphorus content of chicken bones. If I feed extra bone they get constipated but I still want to make sure they get enough calcium. I dont suppose you know the calcium & phosphorus amounts in Mg, for chicken necks do you? It would be a great help in deciding how much eggshell to feed (if any).
April 18, 2014 at 7:33 pm
Calcium is a sticky wicket.
Unfortunately, I do not know the precise values, but the information about chicken wings was based on 100 grams of raw chicken bone (from all parts of the chicken). to get the amount for a chicken wing, I just did a lot of math. So, I am thinking that the Calcium / Phosphorus ratio applies (5.5g / 2.6 g) to the chicken in general.
The only thing to remember is that chicken necks (without skin) are about 75% bone, so one neck is about twice the “everything” of a chicken wing.
Are you serving raw or cooked?
April 19, 2014 at 3:33 am
I’m feeding raw (Prey Model) at the moment. All the info Ive found on chicken bones (including the info you found) all suggests that the calcium/phosphorus ratio is already ideal in these bones (2:1 roughly). So when I add in the 80% meat (eg heart) wouldn’t that mean that the phosphorus shoots way higher than the calcium? This suggests to me that chicken bones arent the best source of calcium due to their high phosphorus levels. I’m so confused
April 19, 2014 at 10:00 pm
I know exactly how you feel. I was going crazy trying to make sense of it all. I was obsessing. Finally, I threw in the towel and switched to a cooked diet, where I had a better grasp on what I was feeding Phoebe.
I think you said you like the science of all this, so if you check the USDA database you can kind of “build a raw chicken” (they include calcium and phosphorous counts). Here is the link; just click the link for poultry (on the left side of the page)
http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods
I hope you get your pup’s raw diet to a point where you have peace of mind.
Let me know how it goes 🙂