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This is Gregg and I'm posting the following message here that was sent
to me directly by Lisa as I feel that if it wasn't meant for the List
but just me that it should be here anyway because it's appropriate and a
Reply to one of my previous messages in this Thread.  I'm posting it as
if I was her so that it will look exactly how it would've looked had she
sent it directly to the List, so that the Archives, Search, and Sort
will show the message appropriately - Enjoy!!!
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Gregg,

> Bonemeal is the one essential supplement that must be added to homemade
> food.

What's the matter with raw *bones*?  You seem to care enough for your
pets to feed them RAF in the first place.  Why do you want to give
them processed, cooked, diseased bonemeal?  Am I missing something?

> Bonemeal is the only supplemental form of calcium that is complete, and
> therefore safe, for dogs and cats.

Outside of the actual raw product, that may be true.  But dogs and
cats have digestive systems that can break down fresh bones.  Much
healthier, IMHO.  :-)

It isn't just the calcium you are concerned about here, it is the
ratio of calcium to phosphorus.  That is why people use bonemeal in
the first place...it has the right ratio of Ca to P for strong bone
growth because it *is* bone.  Unfortunately, they never dig deep
enough into the issue to find out how (and from what kind of animal)
that bonemeal is made.  I think that if they did, they'd go straight
to the raw source and bypass the processed bone meal.  Remeber the
mad cow disease scare?  Ever wonder what happened to those cows?
Most of them ended up in bags of pet food and bonemeal.  They weren't
just buried!

Just wondering where you are coming from on this issue because you
seem so bang-on (meaning I agree with you) with the rest of it!

Lisa Sporleder
Ester, Alaska