Questions About Raw Meat Diet for Dogs

[Kittikity]

I have always heard that you should not give dogs chicken bones because the bones will splinter and can puncture their digestive systems.. What are yall's takes on this?

 

[truegrit farm]

The chicken bone deal is the most common misconception. The thing to remember is RAW........raw chicken bones are soft and flexiable COOKED chicken bones are hard and brittle.

Think about dog, wolves, coyotes etc. in the wild they will eat "your" WHOLE chicken bones and all but we've never heard about a wild dog, wolf or coyote building a fire and cooking them first, LOL!

Cooked is bad, raw is perfect food weather it be bones or meat.......


Carole and her parrots, chickens and dogs

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Thanks everyone. I've been reading and keeping up and doing my other research. Just because I'm silent, doesn't mean I'm not watching.

Keep it coming. It is a great discussion.

-Kim

 

[Kittikity]

Thanks for clearing that up.. Makes a lot of sense..

 

[FlightsofFancy]

Update on Breezy the Biewer......She is chowing down on the raw/partially cooked meet and I can now add a little kibble to it. YEAH!!!!!!!

Thanks for all your help!!! You guys ROCK!

 

[Rogue_Woman]

Yeah man, raw rocks! If you go to the butcher, sometimes you can get leftover parts for free...heads are popular (we get goat heads, the dogs LOVE them, and they take forever to finish!) The store down the road always has super dicount organs (2 full beef livers for 0.75) and you can get chicken quarters almost out of date for next to nothing. Just don't overdo the organs, especially at first. Look for meat at little "general store" type places, if it's going out of date it's super cheap. If the dog won't eat raw, cooked is still better than commercial dog food any day, just don't give cooked bones.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
Optimum protein source really depends on the breed and even the individual dog. My dogs are for the most part "beef dogs," but for variety we give them chicken, turkey, venison, mackerel, trout, etc. The key is in making sure that the ratios of protein to fat are right, as well as the ratio of muscle to organ meat.

I'm not big on guesswork, so I've been feeding the Volhard Natural Diet for over a decade now. I like the research that went into it, and the fact that it was clinically tested on generations of dogs before being published.

I won't say it costs less to feed than a premium commercial food--well, yeah, I will. Since ingredients are fresh and locally available for the most part, I'm not shipping in bags of food, which is the only way for me to get the kinds of foods I'd prefer in commercial diets. But it DOES cost more than anything I can buy off a shelf locally, for sure.

Part of the "payback," though, is lower vet bills over the long run. Most of my dogs never need dentals, though I do have one sire-line that does need dentals. No one ever gets sick.

It's definitely something worth learning about. My favorite text on the subject is Juliette di Bairiclay-Levy's "Herbal Handbook For The Dog and Cat," and then building on JBL's work is Wendy Volhard's "Holistic Guide For The Healthy Dog."

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
I think this is fairly safe advice to give most people who are buying their chicken at the grocery store, where, organic or not, it's likely very, very young chicken. But just because it's on this board, where people commonly harvest their own, frequently older, birds (and would be more likely to use older birds for pet food while reserving the more tender selections for themselves), I think it's important to advise caution with bones from older birds. If you've handled many meat birds, you know that the bones of a 5-week-old broiler are soft and flexible, while the bones of a year-old rooster are thicker, harder, and can be more prone to splintering when crunched.

Just something to think about.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
One thing I would add to this excellent advice would be to perhaps add a pinch of probiotic supplement to the Yorkie's food. Even a spoonful of yogurt w/a drop of honey would be good. It will help her digestive problems, and also help her more easily convert the food she IS taking in to usable fuel.

She sure is cute.

 

[summerwindsfarm]

My dogs eat older rooster bones with no problems at all. I probably wouldnt start a dog new to RAW out on old roosters but once they are used to eating RAW they chew instead of swallow. My laying bred roosters get really tough as they get older. The breast meat has a wonderful flavor so i skin them, remove the breast meat, and then let the dogs eat the rest.

I bought a whole pork shoulder today and my oldest ES was in heaven. Pork is his favorite and he waited patiently, but drooling while i cut the boston butt roast off. Then i deboned the bone out of the picnic and handed it to him. He took it in his crate to eat like a good RAW fed dog. I dont usually let them have pork bones because if i buy pork chops or something for them i buy the cheaper bone in sirloin chops and bones that are cut with the butchers saw have too sharp of edges to be eaten safely.

Cut bones and bones small enough to swallow whole are your dangers in RAW feeding..not raw chicken bones.

I think the other danger is that too often ppl feed really boney cuts of meat. In the wild dogs eat MEAT with some bones. Too many ppl seem to want to cut cost corners and feed a lot of organ meat and a lot of bone to balance it and that will get you in trouble.

The way we feed is called frankenprey. And while theres a lot of good info on the yahoo rawfeeding site theres a lot of baloney too. If you vaccinate your dogs, and i do..you get accused of *poisoning* them sigh.