A Raw Christmas... - Page 2

For one thing, chewing bones develops the muscles in the head/jaws and helps the ears become strong and erect. Bones provide all the benefits of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate. Personally, I don't like raw chicken wings because the small bones may splinter. For pups, chicken backs/necks, pork necks, raw whole sardines (with ingesta and viscera), etc. are great. I don't have any qualms about buying eggs and hormone/antibiotic free meats (as well as, chicken hearts, gizzards, and livers) from Costco or the Walmart Superstore. I don't worry about possible bacteria because the dog has a very short digestive tract accustomed to digesting carrion and offal. I can't imagine why anyone in Pennsylvania would pay to have a pallet of frozen food shipped all the way from Washington. Surely, you don't want to buy and keep frozen more than enough food to last you a couple of months. Shelley, I think that you will find many prepared frozen diets (for example, Oma's Pride, Bravo, K-9 Kraving, etc.) readily available in your area. These are equal (if not superior) in excellent ingredients and quality control to Common Sense--JMHO. A word to the wise, do not microwave frozen pet foods as doing so will denature (alter the biological values of) proteins and enzymes. If you don't like grinding fresh fruits and veggies, do what I do and buy the dehydrated Olewo carrots, The Honest Kitchen "Preference", and the Happy Dog Grain-free diet. Finally, I believe that The Honest Kitchen "Embark" makes an excellent gruel (contains meats, ground bones, fruits, veggies, vitamins/minerals) for weaning young pups. You can always add goat milk, buttermilk, plain yogurt, raw eggs, etc. The raw sardines I mentioned above are a complete whole food particularly relished and easily digested by the babies. The important thing about any diet (raw or otherwise) is to rotate your food sources.

First, Happy holidays to all.... I am fortunate enough to live near a samll butcher shop which butchers their own every thing my proteins include: chicken( hearts, gizzards, necks, wings etc), pork (tongues, hearts, ) Beef (everythung including tripe, liver, kidneys Fish (mackeral entire fresh frozen from a korean grocer)venison (i sear very quickly, as one of my guys got a real bad parasite. Now i have no more problems) sardines, goat: stew bones include: venisn, beef, pork, chicken again, HAPPY AND HEALTHY TO ALL SARAH & K-9'S TANGO, KAYLEE AND SZARA

What about raw chicken legs vs wings? is one better than the other?

I would rather feed legs than wings. I recall a 10-weeks-old pup that got a tiny sliver of a smaller wing bone wedged in her gum between the teeth--required surgical removal and a couple of sutures. No great damage done, however. Had the bone been swallowed, it would have been readily digested. I suppose that the same thing could have happened by chewing a twig. I find that chicken quarters have a greater meat to bone ratio than I'd prefer. Often many chicken parts contain too much fat, IMO. For example, have you ever bought (for your own consumption) one of those huge, cooked rotisserie chickens from Sam's Club or Costco? When you remove the skin, you'll find an an unusual amount of fat. I try to stick with softer, flat-irregular bones with plenty of red marrow. Pork is probably the leanest of all meats.

I don't feed weight bearing bones anymore. No more legs portions for my dogs. I had a male swallow a chicken leg whole last year. That surgery was very expensive. I do wingettes, thighs, backs, necks, and the like. If the bone is weight bearing it better be a bovine leg.

Actually, I feed most all of the chicken, just did not write all the parts. use thighs, necks etc. the only exception is backs. My dogs bring them back up.

Yeah, like I really trust walmart to provide quality meat. One day you wont have any choice. off topic sorta but my two cents regarding raw meat or eggs.

I'm already sick of mixing raw food for ONE dog every week. I can't buy the ingredients retail cheaply either. I'm thinking pallet + freezer. At distributor prices, in bulk, Common Sense is 25% cheaper, not to mention easier, than doing it myself, especially if I fed it to all my dogs. (I have 8 right now). Note to self: a 6 cup food processor will NOT hold 10 cups of liquid & oils. LOL SS (basically lazy)

Shelley- you don't have a lazy bone in your body! LOL! Hey, do you have a new litter of pups? Would that be the Eagle/Gabi litter? How are they, & you? I was pricing the raw frozen food yesterday...whew! Talk about pricey! The one that comes in medallions states that you should feed 18 medallions daily for a 60#-70# dog, no mention of activity level, etc. I need some better references to figure out nutritional requirements, I have a hard time just trusting the package labeling. So far the dogs are doing fine on raw with kibble supplementation...but this is a can of worms I'd be happier opening armed with yet more literature, like on dog physiology, metabolism, etc. I was able to comprehend basal metabolic rates in humans, how much harder can it be with dogs? I want charts that give basic caloric needs, etc. Where can I find a good canine A&P book? jackie harris