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a good raw diet, needs about 15% bone in it. could be whole chicken, or beef bones to chew on, but your dogs need the calcium. there are tons of good informative sites and a few youtube videos, do some research. One thing everyone isn't mentioning is clean up after your dogs is much easier when feeding raw.
bones cause more problems than they fix, dogs break teeth or simply grind them down over the years.
not the case with the smaller chicken bones...for bone content I stick with bone in breast, wings, wing tips, necks and backs. It grosses my wife out to hear the crunching but my dog loves it. Always non cooked of course.Quote:
Originally Posted by vom Dufenshmirtz
my preferred method as well, don't count out the mighty turkey neck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deer Wrastler
Interesting, any problems with dog digesting these?Quote:
not the case with the smaller chicken bones...for bone content I stick with bone in breast, wings, wing tips, necks and backs. It grosses my wife out to hear the crunching but my dog loves it. Always non cooked of course.
no actually dogs have higher acidity in their stomachs than we do so they are able to break down uncooked bone and digest the calcium. In the wild they would be eating bone and all and their stomachs havent evolved much since. Not that I run her poo through a sieve but no bone fragments from what I can see. Bones are a great source of calcium and that how they get their calcium in the wild. Key word being uncooked....any cooked bones are not good for your dog even though they sell them at pet stores. I only stick to raw chicken bones but I do give her deer shanks that she can chew on but thats just more for teeth health as other stated and to spoil her with a treat to chew on for hours. However I will add my dog is not a sporting dog and others on here have their sporting/hunting dogs on specific diets due to their demands in the field etc. My old girl is more of a napper now then a worker lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by fishhawk
I feed the avatar whole raw chickens, I tend to blanch them in boiling water for a minute or so.Chews right thought a whole chicken carcass minus the legs in 4 minutes or less.The poo out the other end is small,almost white and very compact.Never had a problem with teeth or chocking on them,mind you he,s a big guy with a big bite,don,t know if I would feed a toy poodle the same diet.He also likes to chew on a Moose antler or deer,teeth pretty white and sharp.Quote:
Originally Posted by fishhawk
and he looks great!
There are other ways they get calcium. One way is through the blood. That white you see is calcium coming out, obviously he is taking in more than he needs.
deb
Good to know longgun...