Meat Grinder?

[ladysown]

Not sure if this is appropriate spot, if not...move it.

Looking to get a dog in the spring.

Wanting to get a meat grinder. Preferrably one that will do an entire animal.

Any thoughts as to where to look, what to buy, and so forth? Want something reliable.

Needs to be good enough to grind kits as well as adult rabbits, plus whatever else we decide to throw into it. We won't be feeding all ground food, but we will be feeding some ground, just makes some things easier.

 

[eco2pia]

I am curious too--I'd be using it for people food, therefore no bones. I was planning on getting an attachment for my kitchenaid stand mixer, but...I am open to cheaper/better options! Suggestions?

 

[pfaubush]

Wow, are we all looking for meat grinders? I was talking to a friend today about both of us wanting one. Curious for an answer too!

 

[Jack]

Um, one like what you want, I would start at the butchers supply, then start looking at small and used industrial grinders(proxibid other online auction websites that do bankruptcies and liquidations)

'whole animal', I take that to mean a skinned and gutted carcass, with no other processing??
your kitchen aid attachments, a cuisinart countertop unit... yeah probably not, but maybe a heavy (old) hand cranked?? sausage type grinder/stuffer? you can find those on survival/homesteading supply type sites, and amazon once you know exactly what you are looking for, I just wouldn't trust a consumer type grinder to stand up to much use.

 

[Miss M]

We found one of those old fashioned grinders as we were going through the cabinets here! I don't recall ever seeing my grandmother use it, so maybe it was her mother's. I plan to pull it out eventually and try it out. I found some similar ones on ebay, when I was trying to find out what it was.

 

[Shara]

lol! wow, we must be on some type of wavelength (anyone with kids has probably seen Toy Story...it reminds me of the little aliens...you know, the "uni-mind!")I was talking to hubby about gramma lending a meat grinder to mom when I was a kid, and wanting to get my own...

 

[ladysown]

nope, tried the old hand cranked. They don't handle bones, they do young kits but that's gross because they "pop" and well..ick. And then you have debone and I'm just not into that.

I want it to be able to handle fur, bones, etc.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hand-cranked meat grinders won't handle rabbit well. I tried one - a good, heavy-duty home model - and it got all gummed up with the membrane very quickly. I second checking out butcher supply equipment... and you definitely want an electric one.

 

[dearsrock]

Unless you spend a lot, you won't be able to do big bone like legs and back very well. But for a few hundred you can get a good one that will do small bone and meat. Size of the motor will dictate the power to grind. http://tinyurl.com/4vy9o2y this is what I got and it's ok. I'm able to put (very) small chicken legs and the such, but have to grind it a couple times to get the bone small enough to feed to the dogs. Northern tools gets thumbs up on most of my doggie lists. As does American Eagle.

Good luck and let us know how you like your new one!

Renee
S CA

 

[LASGSD]

If you want to grind meat AND bones and you want to keep the cost under several hundred $$, look for a Tasin TS108.

One Stop Jerky Shop currently has them on sale for $150:

http://www.onestopjerkyshop.com/tasin-t ... -p-47.html

I have owned these before and ground MANY a rabbit (and chicken and duck) with them with NO problems.

 

[ladysown]

thank you, I will look into that one. Sounds quite affordable too.

 

[xlt]

very displeased with the Kitcheaid attachment... we have a Kitchenaid 6000 professional mixer... wonderful mixer, terrible grinder attachment.

however the ones that hover around a 100-150 price range are not that good either.

small commerical/industrial is what I am looking for. occasionally if you can find a used restaurant supply place they have an oddball (commercial power etc. but home size) here and there.

Saw a Hobart mixer one time for countertop use. Looked just like the floor models (granted, they wanted $1200 for it...)

There are some fairly large hand crank grinders with pulleys (size #32 or bigger usually) that can be motorized and are pretty stout. That's what I would do on the cheap.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... _200449763 for dog food would use the coarsest plate I could find rather than that hamburger plate shown on there....

 

[eco2pia]

very displeased with the Kitcheaid attachment... we have a Kitchenaid 6000 professional mixer... wonderful mixer, terrible grinder attachment.

Shoot, I thought so. How terrible? Would it handle boneless meat for bunny burgers? I just wanted to conserve cabinet space, but if it ticks me off so bad that I never use it, it isn't worth it.

 

[xlt]

VERY TERRIBLE... cheap garbage cutter, cheap garbage plate, and a worm drive that wouldn't push pudding... angry that I bought it, angrier still that I bought and let it sit long enough I can't return it.

 

[eco2pia]

Thank you for saving me much cussing and aggravation!

 

[Jack]

Um, it would handle small (it's less than a 2" hole) chucks and can do SMALL grinding

But with a large batch, it is slow, messy, VERY slow, will strip a plastic geared Kitchenaid, and SEVERELY lug down anything below the 600+watt professionals, and is basically crappy for doing a good job...

that said, you can find the real deal for not that much more, any type of auger & blade/plate grinder can work (ie. not just for meat) the trick is finding a good one.

here is a fun place to look, lots of bankruptcy and liquidation auctions
http://www.proxibid.com/asp/SearchAdvan ... =1&refine=

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Why do you need to grind the rabbit bones? I gave some chunks to my dogs and they ate it whole. My dogs are about 15 pounds each. Or is this for sausage for humans? LOL

 

[ladysown]

i have dog food clients.

some want ground rabbit. So...I want to grind rabbit. Particularly young stock who die under 4 weeks of age. feeding babies seems to turn people off. If I can grind them... then I can sell them.

 

[moonkitten]

Particularly young stock who die under 4 weeks of age.

:soap: I know I've said this on here before, but let me say it again. PLEASE use extreme caution when selling deadstock. If you don't know why the rabbit died, if it died of enteritis, bloat, pasturella or some unknown reason PLEASE do not sell it as dog food without full disclosure.

Most people who raw feed their pets are doing so because either A) their pet has some immune related deficiency that requires careful control of the ingredients in the pet's food or B) they want to feed a HEALTHY diet to promote the wellness of their pet.

Although many raw feeders balk at paying human quality meat prices, most of them are not expecting to receive sick or possibly diseased animals as feed for their dogs. Currently selling dog food is not regulated in Canada, but all it takes is one person whose immune compromised dog contracts something (or supposedly contracts something) from a diseased feeder. If that person goes to the media, ALL pet food sellers will come under fire and we will ALL lose a valuable source of income.

So please, please, use caution when trying to make money by selling meat for raw fed pets.

Off the soapbox now

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

How about the snake or reptile people for the ones that young? They don't seem to mind that . We had one snake person who wanted LIVE from us!! Said no way to that.