Ol Roy dog food - Page 9

Here's an interesting thing my husband keeps mentioning, that I wonder about.  To me, it doesn't make any real sense, but what do you guys think?

If you feed a dog raw, such as chicken, will it make them kill chickens?

To me the answer is no.  The dog is not going to eat the chicken you gave him then look at the chickens and go, "hey, there's more chicken!"  If a dog is going to kill chickens, in my experience, anyway, they are going to do so regardless of what they are fed.

I have supplemented with raw beef and venison, and I've never had Oakley try to chase and kill either cows or deer, so to me, it doesn't make sense.  GSD have quite a bit of prey drive, so I wouldn't be surprised if she would chase and or try to harm a chicken, even though she is blind.  She likes to chase and eat those grasshoppers we have around here that fly around making a clicking sound...Pretty funny stuff to watch Oakley chase them.  She's eaten quite a few, though not a huge amount.  Goofy dog.  Don't know if they'll hurt her, but they haven't yet.

I just don't think that eating raw chicken will put chickens on her menu, if they weren't already there. 

Crys

Crys, good one. 20 something years ago we had a GSD (east german) who killed a good part of our chickens one day by hunting them down like a cat does while playing with a mouse. He got such a whooping from my mother, he never eat chicken again. And back then we didnt have kibble. All dogs were on a home cooked diet consisting of left overs, cooked potatoes, rice and raw meat from the slaughter house or when we were butchering. They did very well on it and we never had a problem feeding cooked bones from left overs. To us it would have been a major waste not to give that to the dogs.

KC, feeding raw as a supplement to the diet is fine. You can feed raw in the AM, then kibble in the evening, as long as it's separately fed, as kibble digests longer. You mention price per pound, but remember that Orijen is a very concentrated food, and meat has all the moisture (think or bodies are 70% water) so meat will always weigh more and require more to be fed, a 70 lb dog may eat 2 pounds a day

Jenni, you bring up another great point, over-vaccination.  I have been wanting to own naturally reared dogs, but it's just so hard, some breeders give up because the new owners vaccinate, and because they get trouble from others who say they should be vaccinating.  One of my dogs has never had a vaccine of any sort, no chemicals, dewormed with DE, and while that may not be for everyone, I believe we vaccinate dogs for the fear we have, but to raise them naturally I believe may be the solution to healthier dogs in the future.  This breeder has been doing it for 12 years, and I love what she has to say on her website http://www.daybreakaussies.com/natural_rearing.htm  There are breeders all around the world, some have many generations of vaccine-free raw dogs.

I would recommend anyone to read what Magda has to say on the dangers of vaccines, there's also a list of natural rearing breeders:  http://www.truthaboutvaccines.org/

Sorry it took me so long to respond, 4pack.... I have a meat man in Newcastle I am in good with, and also a mutual friend we both know. I try to mix it up a little, they get anything my boyfriend hunts for ie; deer, wild boar, game bird, rabbit, fish, goat... It also depends on the season and hunting. Our meat man also gets scraps and bone from game and passes them to me. I also have almost unlimited access to live goats for butcher.


Edited to add: I also have chickens.... One dies, it goes to the dogs WHOLE..... I only have 1 dog that will not chase and kill, then eat chickens. But it is NOT because I let them eat raw chicken.

* "If you feed a dog raw, such as chicken, will it make them kill chickens?" *

-- I find this to be not true. None of my dogs ever killed my chickens, turkeys or calves etc. The dogs are supposed to protect them and they do for the most part. Can't expect them to save every little fuzzy peep running around from moongoose, eagles and owls .. but no, feeding raw doesn't make your dog want to kill chickens, turkeys, calves etc. Or at least a farm dog doesn't. My dogs know the food comes from the kitchen. And they know to protect the livestock.

I see dogs that prolly never lived with chickens running around would just kill a chicken for the fun of it, after the first kill, kill another and another and another till nothing running around... never really wanting to eat it. Just a killing spree. A game. These are the dogs that need shot on sight. (MO) Because these are the dogs that search out and eat from a dog bowl, then go around killing for fun, farm to farm. The longer they roam, the bigger their targets get. IE: calves, foals, lambs etc.

Good question. I'd like to know what others think too.

Interesting point, BabyEagle.  That's what I figured.  From what I have observed, it is not the food that makes a dog kill.  There are thrill killers.

My old GSD Prince ate raw chicken, that he killed himself.  He killed about forty chicks once that my mother was raising.  They were about a month old, not very big at all, and he had gotten out of the kennel.  I kicked myself in the butt for that one, but it was too late to do anything, other than to be absolutely sure that the kennel was secure, and that he was supervised when outside.  He never killed anything else, never showed any aggression other than that, but he had prey drive.  Plenty of prey drive.

Crys

 Doberdoodle, I have 2 "natural" dogs. Hard to obtain, really. I give my puppy buyers the option though. I won't do any shots if they don't want any, and I try to educate them on (at the very least) the Dodds protocol, though I have one I like better that involves titering the pregnant bitch to find out exactly when it would be appropriate to give Parvo and Distemper shots if you were so inclined. 

Update...

Apparently, chicken is not on Oakley's menu.  We had an incident today with me not getting the chicken pen door latched, and three hens and a rooster made the great escape.  Oakley chased one hen about fifty feet.  The funny thing about it is that she was not so much interested in chasing as in herding the hen.  I got that girl back in, then the other two, but the rooster gave me more trouble.  I put Oakley, who was right there, on a stay, and between her, me, and my littlest daughter, we got that cantankerous banty rooster back in the pen.

Oakley is not trained for herding, but she seems to get the basic idea.  I'm pretty proud of her just for not killing the bird.

Crys

She's a good dog and knows what the "herd" in Shepherd means!  

With all this talk about chickens and roosters lately, I wish I had some, LOL!