Digestibility of raw animal skins

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

How digestible are raw animal skins? Aajous said once they are indigestible. Mainly Fish and Fowel because they are most easily accessible to me. But id still like to know about larger animals. Cows, mutton, Deer, ect.   

[goodsamaritan]

...only when cooked and sometimes fermented or prepared in some other way

cow skin is used to make leather.

[eveheart]

Raw beef "skin" would be rawhide ("Think shoelaces"), and it reminds me of starving cowboys eating their belts and whips. I've never seen fresh-off-the-beef unworked hide for sale. Where are you thinking of buying it from?

Pork and poultry skins are different, but I wouldn't exactly go to the ends of the earth to get some.

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

I was just curious about cow,mutton,sheep. I don't plan on buying.

But when I buy whole chickens and fish to eat raw, I have a difficult time ripping skin with my teeth. If there's no added nutrition from them I'll most likely stop eating them.

[goodsamaritan]

With some fish the fat is stuck to the skin so scrape it with a knife.

[eveheart]

I prefer to scrape fish skin against my front teeth to get the fat and then spit out the outer skin.

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

ok thanks, that clears things up.

[Projectile Vomit]

I suspect that if your stomach acid production is good, most animal skins are digestible. I get deer hides from a game processor friend each fall, and turn most of them into rawhide to back wooden hunting bows with. I do save some of the scraps to eat though, and to make into broth. It's been my experience that if I slice the hides into small enough pieces to swallow without having to chew (you can't really chew it into small pieces like you can meat), then it seems to digest fine.

[sabertooth]

I use to hang my hides out on a fence and a feral dog would come by and eat the entire hide leaving only a pile of wool. Skin is real tough, and a bitch to chew, but I am sure it has good nutritional value if you can find a convenient way to consume it.

I've been making stomach smoothies in a high power blender that have turned out fairly good. Perhaps it would be possible to blend some pieces of skin with a little water into the consistency of a pudding, and eat it that way?

[eveheart]

I've posted a link somewhere to a study about digestibility of bones (conclusion: small bones eaten whole get "digested" just fine). Same would apply to other tough parts like tendons and skin.

[Ana]

I always eat salmon skin raw.

Am I the only one who does it?

I cut it into very small pieces with my scissors.

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

When I was eating raw mackerel I couldn't bite through the skin. I was able to scrape everything off with my teeth. A thin clear layer was left over.

[dariorpl]

I always eat chicken skin. I don't know what you guys are talking about, to me it's about the tastiest part of the chicken, besides the marrow. My only problem is the plucking process which involves submerging the whole chicken in hot water for a few seconds up to 1.5 minutes.

As for scaly fish skin, the scales are really annoying to chew. It's like plastic. And it seems no matter how much I de-scale, I always end up with some scales left. In the past I used to love salmon skin that had been fried or baked. The scales turn from a plastic-like consistency into something crunchy.