Feeding raw to dogs....

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_Acolyte_

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Well someone suggested I tried feeding the greyhounds raw chicken bits for their teeth? So tonight for the first time I gave them a smallish drumstick each
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They both crunched the main bone down a bit and swallowed the damn thing whole
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I am now petrified thinking it will hurt them
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Logically I KNOW that the bones become brittle and splinter when they are cooked - these drumsticks were DEFINITELY raw - and even my mum said that the bones were rubbery when raw. But I am worried now
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Sorry, stupid pointless post, both dogs are asleep with a happy smirk on their faces
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My local butcher saves me all the left-over bits for my "pack" of five (springers x3, golden retriever and Munsterlander), which is predominently chicken - they LOVE it! It's safe to feed RAW chicken bones, but not cooked, but I'm a bit in the dark as to how much constitutes a meal! They usually get (about four evening a week) a couple of chicken carcasses (mmm....their favourite!) plus about four wings/drumsticks each. Perhaps soneone can enlighten me on quantites!
 
Oh thank you for saying that! Truly I know it is perfectly OK, but having never done it before (I am a traditional all-in-one feeder!) it was a rather
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experience!

I think mine are just going to have chicken bits to supplement their hypo allergenic all-in-one stuff at the moment, just to try and improve their teeth
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My butcher usually lets me have about four carrier bags a week (I collect twice a week, £5 for two bags) - so heavy today, I could hardly carry them, so good value! Like I said, I'd like to know what constitutes a "good meal"! My two "baby" Springers have delicate tums so I feed them on Chudley Sensitive but the raw food never causes a problem - in fact one caught her own grub the other night in the form of some poor litle bird she'd pounced on in the garden!
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One of my clients told me that she has a friend who shows her Red Setter at Crufts and feeds it nothing but road kill!!
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Sorry, don't think I could stoop to that....... Apparently, the dog looks amazing!
 
Ooooh I am not that brave - to hold onto the drumstick I mean - Flick in particular is obsessed about food (she was a starvation case when she was rescued) and I wouldnt have any fingers left
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But thank you for the reassurance - I am still sat here eyeing them both suspiciously and looking for signs of perforated insides - but they absolutely loved the chicken
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They can eat fingers too, just so long as they are raw!! LOL!!!
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I was really worried at first too. Alfie did have small episodes of vomit whilst he was getting used to it but TBH he was having a greater amount than a chicken drumstick. Feeding raw is all about getting the amount of bone content right and i think i was giving him too much bone and his body was rejecting what he couldnt digest as vomit!
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I know how you feel but I steel myself by reminding myself how much Stan enjoys his "dinners on the bone". I usually get him wings but he gets other kinds of bones as well and always gnaws bits off them. Once in awhile he'll "recycle" a small piece that hasn't digested but less and less as he's got older and used to the diet. The only problem I have is he'll take all the wings out of his bowl and hide them in the spare room if I don't watch him, to consume at his leisure!
 
my Jazmine will not eat anything raw, in a fit of healthy eating I gave them both a raw chicken thigh outside for the first time last year and she looked at me as if to ask if I was crazy thinking she would eat such a slimy thing. (This is also the girl who refused to go to toilet out in public for 2 years!!!). I am sure if you gave her a glass or knife and fork her little toe would go up in the air.

Bailey wolfs his raw chicken down, and alas I am not sure his even touch the side of his throat. Tonight I gave him a chicken thigh and it was just gone - not even a crunch to bother with...yours will be fine too
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Well just a quick update - they were both exceptionally bouncy and happy this morning, so I am guessing they have survived
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Hopefully I will get used to the idea, as I have a whole bag of chicken pieces in the freezer to get through
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I wouldn't worry Bes does the same - two chomps and it's gone! Never been a problem!

Ours had turkey necks last night - they love them and they can't just swallow them whole. Shouldn't be too hard to get hold of this time of the year!
 
They will be fine it just goes against the grain for owners at first, it's against all the spin you have been fed that bones are dangerous. One of my sisters gutty Huskys crunches twice on a whole chicken carcass before swallowing it!

It probably comes from having to eat while you can in the wild, you cram eat at the kill and think about digesting it later, somewhere safe. Mine do the same eating really fast and often throw up to eat it again, some dogs ideas of table manners are quite disgusting!

Some dogs need help adjusting to raw one of my rescues a few years ago had been fed kibble all her life, so I had to show her how you dismantled a raw chicken leg, once she knew how to do it she didn't need help thank you! But the cattle dogs never even hesitated!
 
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My local butcher saves me all the left-over bits for my "pack" of five (springers x3, golden retriever and Munsterlander), which is predominently chicken - they LOVE it! It's safe to feed RAW chicken bones, but not cooked, but I'm a bit in the dark as to how much constitutes a meal! They usually get (about four evening a week) a couple of chicken carcasses (mmm....their favourite!) plus about four wings/drumsticks each. Perhaps soneone can enlighten me on quantites!

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Do you mean they get that each?? as in a couple of carcasses and 4 wings each?
Do you just feed once a day?
My collies and springer get 2 chicken wings/or lamb rib/vertebrae for dinner and some probiotic yoghurt. In the am they get pet mince (which is from our butcher and basically all the bits they couldn't sell in chunks for a person to eat!! With some wholemeal biscuits. Not much different from the packs of mince you can buy at say Pets at home or online Landywoods/Prize Choice. But contain no bone minced up.

When I started I fed too much bone I think, it takes a while to get things right
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It's also important to feed some offal once a week or so - heart etc.
Mine also get tinned fish once a week - in oil - they love it!!!
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Mine are all getting a bit fat now as have slowed down for winter (never thought I'd see my 2 collies chunky as could hardly get them to eat enough complete dry food to keep them alive!! hehe!) so am cutting down on the biscuits and the high fat pet mince
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It's also important to feed some offal once a week or so - heart etc.


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Two of mine had great fun yesterday with an Ox's heart and and Ox's liver
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Oooh! Think I'm doing this raw meat thing all wrong by the sound of your post!!! Every morning they have Chudley Working Crunch or Chudley Sensitive (baby Springers have delicate tummies!) with a couple of spoonfuls of tinned meat and possibly gravy too. In the evenings, assuming my butcher has been able to come up with the goods so to speak, and depending on what's in the butcher's carrier bags, I'll give them EACH a chicken carcass or two, plus about four wings/drumsticks/other disgusting looking bits. I've been worried that I'm not giving them enough - they gulp it down so quickly! I'd be really pleased to hear from you if you know what the proper feeding guidelines are, because I'm just using guesswork and no-one I've spoken to has any idea either as to what I should be feeding! Their age range is one to three and a half years and they all seem very well, with beautiful glossy coats.
 
In the morning you shouldn't really mix the Chudleys with the meat as it digests at different rates (Meat taking hours and hours and hours!). Evening sounds good to me. Raw feeding includes alot of bone, I don't have the percentage of meat to bone to fat to carbs (ie veg - think that's something like 7%) at hand now but I'll look it up for you. In the Chudleys you could mix a few spoonfuls of veg paste (just lightly boiled mushed veg). Remember the offal if you can (shouldn't have any problem if you're using a butcher, even lights count but contain less than other offal) and also the fish for the Omega 3 (proper stuff not that bloomin plant extract!) and raw apples (minus the pips) and raw carrots too.... I'm sure others will add to what I have written.
 
You are meant to feed around 2% of the dogs body weight a day. Although if you are doing half and half (complete food am/raw pm - not too sure....). Many people I know (inc. me) feed according to the feel ribs but not see them rule.
The last puppy we had I was unsure on amounts so she was fed complete food 'til nearly 6 months to give her an even amount of all the good things puppies need! but slowly changed to inc chicken wings then complete raw (one thing I really have noticed is she hasn't had any really noticeable growth spurts, she has never looked all gangly and awkward like the others at certain growth stages - which apparently some complete foods can encourage huge growth spurts).
It depends how 'busy' your dogs are as well Keeperscottage - if you have Spaniels that are manic and never stop they probably burn off pretty much everything you feed
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which is why you are probably getting away with feeding such high quantaties!
 
I go by the rule 10% bone, 10% offal and 80% meat. Which means Alfie get around 30% raw meaty bones of his weekly allowance. If you feed too much bone they will get constipated and blockages and you will be giving them too much calcium, bad for bones. He gets 1kg a day of food.

If you want to feed raw its much better to read up on it first to make sure they are getting all they need!!
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I'm sure it's higher than 10%. Chicken wings are exactly the correct ratio.

Also with feeding raw you won't have to pay your vet to empty their anal sacks!
 
You can tell if you are feeding too much bone by your dog's poo.

If the poo is:

yellow and crumbly - too much bone
dark brown and loose - too much offal
mediumish brown and perfectly formed - perfect!

Keepers Cottage - I think you are overfeeding....

My 20mth old goldie bitch gets:

AM - 1lb of mince (all sorts of varieties are available)
PM - RMB (turkey neck, I chick carcass/back or 4 chick wings or half a turkey wing or some lamb ribs or heart)

Then once a week she'll have one evening meal of liver or kidneys, then once a week she'll have pilchards in tom sauce, then she might get an egg, banana and bio yog for a meal.

Can you feel your dogs ribs? They should have a nice layer of fat over them, but so much that you have to search to find the ribs....

There are loads of good websites about RAW feeding.

Some people do hold the chicken wings in tongs or similair to stop the dog bolting but if you have a dog with issues, perhaps better to give her something she has to chew like a turkey neck, she won't be able to swallow that in one go.....

The dogs that I know that are fed RAW look so well on it.

I can see the cost saving of feeding road kill but I just couldnt do it myself ! I can just about cope with frozen heart and rabbit ears!!!
 
In Give Your Dog a Bone Billinghurst recommends that the diet is 80% bone to meat. Other diets I have seen about go far too far the other way with a far to high veg content in my humble opinion! Some purists recommend a day of fast but I think that’s a bit too much for a domestic pooch, especially when they watch us eat little and often!!!!!!.

I tend to stick to the 80% rule unless a dog is loosing weight then I up the muscle meat content of the meal until they look/feel (to me) better. That’s why chicken wings, carcasses and boned out rib of lamb are so good as they are the correct meat to bone ratio. You then have chicken legs and the lamb rib cut (unboned) if you want more weight on

It is a really good diet in this way as if you get it a bit wrong it will balance itself out over time, and you can still give an overweight dog something satisfying that actually helps it loose weight, and you don’t have to weigh the dog or the food!

Personally I switch mine straight onto raw when I re-home them and on a raw diet once a day is best. I would not mix commercial dry diets with raw, that’s courting trouble from bloat and blockages as they are digested very differently.


My two cattle dogs weigh about 15 to 16 kg and this is a typical diet sheet for them over 14 days . I Only feed mine a meal once a day, they may get treats in between but they have one main meal. Treats = Eggs occasional table scraps, beef jerky etc.

I will swap similar items when on offer such as ox tail for the lamb ribs or pheasant for the chicken or roadkill but you have to watch that it is not too badly damaged as they won't eat it if the (and this is gross) gut content escapes into the body cavity if you get my drift!.

1, 1 Chicken Carcass with some meat still on it
2, 1 side of a Rack of lamb ribs
3, Can of pilchards or very lightly cooked fish
4, 5-6 Chicken Wings
5, 1 Chicken Carcass with some meat still on it
6, ½ lb minced meat with liquidised veg (2tbl spoons) an egg and some chopped pumpkin seeds
7, 1 side of a Rack of lamb ribs
8, 1 Chicken Carcass with some meat still on it
9, Offal of some kind (Heart or tripe with a bit of liver mixed in)
10, 5-6 Chicken Wings
11, 1 Pigs Trotter
12, 1 Chicken Carcass with some meat still on it or ½ a rabbit
13, ½ lb minced meat with liquidised veg (2tbl spoons) an egg and some chopped pumpkin seeds
14, 1 side of a Rack of lamb ribs

I don't stick rigidly to this if something is reduced or on special offer or I have a lot of chicken carcasses, they will have chicken for a while just like in the wild when there is a glut of young rabbits to catch, so daily or even weekly balancing of the diet is not necessary.

PS Don't panick about the poos being hard, that is what a dogs anal gland is for to ease the passage of a natural diet, they should be firm.
 
Hi all,

I have been reading this topic with interest. I have a Staffordshire bull terrier (who loves having a treat now and again) but i have never fed her raw.

would i be able to feed her the occassional raw chicken wing as she does love having something to knaw on? I wouldnt want to change her diet totally to raw but would giving the occasional piece do her any harm?

sorry if repeating anything, just want to be totally clear i wont be doing her any harm.

Thanks everyone
 
hi

Just read this post and it's very interesting but I have a few questions!

I'm really interested in feeding raw to my 2 dogs (13 week old puppy and 10year old).

I just wondered how the costs compare to commercial dog food?

Does anyone have any suggestions of good books/websites so I can read up?

Thanks
 
Cost depends on if you can befriend a local butcher, which will be a lot cheaper than the supermarket reduced counter. A months meals for my two cost £12-£15. If you have trouble shop around for example Morrisons do lamb bone packs at about 60p and the value variety chicken wings are about £1.50 for 12 or so. ASDA now have Turkey legs in for a reasonable price too, you will find similar in all the major shopping chains, though not always bones.

Starter reading:
Ian Billingshurst’s book “Give Your dog a bone” is a good place to start, though I do not agree with all the feed he suggests it is a good introduction and places the emphasis where it should be on bones.

A purist site is http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

Species appropriate diets have been championed for some time by Kymythy Schultz http://www.kymythy.com/index.html
 
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