Are Chicken Hot Dogs OK Everyday? - Page 1

Hello. New member here. My name is Carl. I'm 58 and live in Michigan. I have owned German Shepherd Dogs for over 30 years. Currently I have Jojo and Max. I like to add meat to my dog's dry food both for the nutrition and because they like it. I used to buy bulk hamburger at Costco but discovered that my dogs seem to like the really cheap hot dogs so I've been slicing them up and mixing them into the food. It's been brought to my attention that the sodium and nitrates may be harmful to my dogs. Is this true? Are hotdogs OK? Should I stick with burger? TIA.
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Hot dogs are not real food because of the chemical additives. Commercial "hamburger" is better, but not by much. Best to use red meat that comes from one animal, like a shoulder roast, fed raw. You can cut chunks off for them. Another excellent source of raw red meat is deer during hunting season, ask for leftovers or the carcass.

Your question about hot dogs leads to a larger issue of canine nutrition, which gets discussed pretty frequently here.  Take a look.

Chemical infused, commercially processed foods like hot dogs and kibble lack many nutrients critical to a dog's development and health, and introduce substances that not only are not easily digested but can be harmful over time.

At times I feed a bit of hamburger, but cooked only.

I've also fed small pieces of hot dog during OB work, but only rarely - when the darn things were conveniently were sitting in the refrigerator.

Thanks for the replies. The dry food I use is supposed to supply all required nutrition but my dogs love meat so I like to include that just for their enjoyment! I saw a show on National Geographic channel I believe where a dog musher fed his dogs blocks of frozen hamburger tossed in a bucket of hot water. The burger was not to be sold for human consumption and contained pieces of charcoal to prevent it from being sold for human use. I lightly cook and drain the burger when I include it. It looks like the hot dogs are out and I will be going back to hamburger.

Yes I would drop the hot dogs and go back to ground hamburger;  however, you can also add any other type of ground meats, turkey, chicken, pork, duck, rabbit, venison, veal, the list is endless.  you can cook, but no need, raw is actually fine.  BOl  NAN

I almost never have to buy meat for my two GSDs.

There is always some unwanted parts, parts that are too fat for me, to add to the kibble.

I almost never eat processed meat at home and I always trim off as much fat and fatty parts of any meat. I almost never buy ground meat, except very lean.

Try to cook in a way that allows you to give the unwanted parts to the dogs; that is, season after you have removed the fatty parts.

Meat for my dogs are often chicken skin and all fatty parts of a whole chicken, and chicken neck.

From a whole chicken, I eat only the breast and the drum sticks. All the rest is food for my dogs;  except the four longest bones of a chicken, all are consumed.

   USE  hot dogs , for training purpose only, processed foods , including pasturized cheeses etc are  not even good for us...read labes on all treats...sodium nitrites and nitrates are very BAD>

   Follow the rule... no cooked bones at all...sharp  Kills ... RAW bones are pliable..

   Feed canned salmon, mackrel, or buy fresh....sardines...etc

   once in a while...switch up for variety..Read Dukes thread about went to HERDING CLASS>

   then look at cheaper Butcher places, that do your deer etc..for scraps..freeze and give to dogs daily...including boney necks from chicken , pork neck bones...all raw.

   feeze and give partially frozen...

   what ever you do not eat off your meat for dinner, put in their food.RAW, but a lot of fat is not good either..just some...Raw meats contain natural vitamin C which is important for immunity.
  I also give raw liver and raw heart....from BUTCHER or wherever I find it sold fresh not frozen.
  Walmart butcher will order you a box of the raw liver they have in their condiment meat section..NOT frozen...fresh...they have to sell it fast or it is a spoil factor so they do not stock much..THEY love to order  you a box and I do it when my females are bred..NOW I just buy 4 or 6 packages and seperate with a piece of chicken , etc and baggie for quick feed. THROW in freezer and grab out...put in dish for 1 hour add kibble and feed..

 never had any kind of digestion problem ...SOME say do not feed with kibble..as raw takes longer to digest..SO ....tell the dogs not to catch a mole after they eat as it might not digest???? not too much of a truth holder for me...DOGS  have diverse digestion systems we do not have.

..even broth off of fresh veggies..cooked..throw in a raw egg , fresh yard eggs best  every once in a while......whole thing...
 add some extra virgin olive oil once in a while and whalla    DINNER FIT FOR THE KING>>>

YR

Some chicken  bones are 100% OK cooked.

Neck bones can be severed along their natural ligament several sections about half to one inch  thick.

I cut up the rib part diagonally.

The only bone I don't use for safety are the limb bones, and breastbone for uselessness if I bother to remove. The hip bones I sever into pieces if there are good stuffs stuck to them.

"uncooked bones are safe" requires some faith, IMO.

I have been using tiny tiny pieces of chicken wieners as training treats since time began. They cost one dollar for a package and my dogs throughout the years have never had a problem with them.  Like anything, you don't go overboard.  I would never feed them to my dogs in a meal, however.  I'll bet the dog food companies that produce the hundreds of thousands of treat choices would not want me spread this around. I read recently there are recalls on all of the treats that are made in China. My chicken wieners have never been recalled.