Patent ID: 8394438

Claim:
A method for forming an edible animal chew toy comprising: (a) combining resin, a fluid and meat jerky to form a mixture, wherein the meat jerky is produced from meat which has been dried without cooking to a moisture content in a range of 0.1% to 40% (wt.), wherein the meat jerky comprises chicken, beef, venison, lamb, fish, pork, turkey, alligator, ostrich or elk and mixtures thereof, wherein the meat jerky is virgin meat jerky, and has not been exposed to prior heated molding including extrusion or injection molding, and wherein the meat jerky comprises particles having an average cross-sectional thickness from 0.10 inch to 0.25 inch; (b) introducing said mixture to a heated molding machine having a hopper feed section, a barrel and an output nozzle, including a plurality of heating zones extending from said hopper feed section to said output nozzle, wherein said plurality of heating zones comprise a first zone set at a temperature at or below about 70° F., a second zone set at a temperature at or below about 150° F., a third zone set at a temperature at or below about 300° F. and a fourth zone set at a temperature at or below about 375° F. and heating, molding and cooling said mixture to form said chew toy having a moisture content in a range of 11% to 14% by weight; and wherein the heated molding machine comprises a screw having a feed zone, a transition zone and a metering zone.