6 month GSD and feeding meat/bones - Page 1

So my 6 month old GSD, I fed him a pork neck bone. he was chomping away and when I walked up to him, I think he thought I was going to take his bone and whatever size it was, just swallowed it. I knew it was faily large as he choked as it was going down. (He has done this with a couple of kids socks as well). So I induced vommiting and he threw it all up and noticed some fairy large pieces. 

So should I refrain from feeding him bones and stick to pure meat?

No reason to have induced vomiting. Pork bones in particular break down very easily in digestive juices. He could've choked on it coming back up! And no, you cannot feed just meat. You MUST feed bone with meat. If you're not super competent in raw feeding, maybe a premade raw is a better idea until you get more experienced. You only have one chance to raise a puppy right. 

I don't care what anyone says, feeding raw is not without a certain amount of risk.

I know of people who have had their dogs choke to death on a turkey neck, had bowel perforations or obstructions due to bones, had dogs shatter teeth (you think human dentistry is expensive??) or get bones stuck between teeth.. the list goes on!

Let me tell you a bit about my backgrond. I an a retired nurse. I also have a BSc degree in Biology and taught biology at the secondary level. I also have a particular interest in anatomy and bones, with several university level courses on these subjects.

The digestibility of bones depends a lot on the type of bone fed. Young animal's bones aren't fully formed yet, and are softer and contain more cartilage, especially at the end of the bone, where the growth plate is. They are therefore easier to digest. I once had a dog scarf down some chicken wing bones she found. The next day, she seemed to be in pain, so, having heard of the hazards of cooked bones, I had her x-rayed. There was no sign of the chicken bones...her stomach acids had likely dissolved them...but the vet found severe arthritis in the spine, which was causing the pain.

One of the university courses I took studied how native people had used bones. Pretty much ANY bone can be sharpened and made into a tool or a weapon. It really doesn't much matter if it's cooked or raw. It can still be sharp enough to do damage.

Cooking does two things to bones. Moist heat will soften them especially if they are from a young animal. Direct heat (eg. from a fire) will carbonize them and make them more brittle. This will make it easier for a dog's teeth to break them into small fragments. With extreme heat, the bone actually becomes very weak and crumbly (that's what cremation does to a human skeleton, in case you hadn't thought about it.)  SO, I see NO REASON for saying that cooked bones are more dangerous than raw, nor have I ever found a properly researched scientific paper that offers any proof of this.

If you feed your dog raw, meaty bones, it IS going to swallow some of the pieces. Be prepared for that. Yes, you can give them the large shank bones, which are almost impossible to break. Oh, wait...what if it's a young animal that still has an epiphysis (growh plate) on te end of the bone? Or what if your pooch is an vey heavy chewer? Too much bone causes constipation and can even block the bowels. Be careful.

When I was growing up in the Dark Ages, I was told to never, ever feed a dog or cat chicken or poultry bones. The reason for this is quite simple. These bones are hollow inside, and when broken open, the bones snap to expose jagged, spear-like edges. The danger is all too obvious to anyone with half a brain. On a personal, note, we used to have a cat that liked to catch his breakfast on the wing. He nearly died when a bird bone perforated his gut.

Then, about 15 years ago, the raw-feeding folks came along, and proclaimed raw poultry bones were perfectly safe. WTF?? What changed all of a sudden? The anantomy of birds hasn't changed much since the days of the dinosaurs!

Cooked poultry bones are supposed to be unsafe though. Hey, next time you eat chicken, try this experiment for me. Take one of the leg bones, and try to crunch it with your teeth. Pretty soft, isn't it?  Almost all chickens sold in the supermarket these days are marketed at an age when their bones are still quite immature and soft, and present absolutely NO hazard to your dog's innards. I've often had my dogs steal chicken bones off my plate, and gulp them down. If they got too many of them, they might be a bit constipated for the next day or so, but the bones came through just fine.

That's my 2 cent's worth...

If I were going to feed raw, I'd limit the amount of bone my dogs got. I would not feed large uncooked poultry bones, or any bones large enough to be swallowed whole and cause a blockage. I'd be aware that the current mass raising and slaughtering of livestock means raw meat is almost always contaminated with bacteria that is harmful to humans, and sometimes to our pets as well. I would be aware that game animals and fish sometimes contain parasites that can be very dangerous to our pets.

And I'd take the raw-bone-is-safe, cooked-is-lethal- mantra with a grain of salt. Our dogs evolved as scavengers at the fires and garbage dumps of our early ancestors. No one gave a darn as to whether the dogs got raw bones discarded while butchering game, or cooked ones that were roasted in the fire, or cooked in a stewpot!  Somehow, the dog managed to survive.

DO NOT GO FEEDING AN ALL MEAT DIET WILLY-NILLY regardless of who tells you and what their background is, unless it's in canine nutrition. You WILL screw up your dog if you limit bones and feed only meat, particularly during critical growth periods. 

I've fed raw since 2003. I've had many many dogs eat many many pieces of meaty bone whole, as in, drumsticks swallowed in one gulp (I had a 5mo old pup eat 2 in a millisecond, zero chewing), and never have I had the slightest issue in all that time in approximately 20-30 dogs (dogs I was watching, dogs I sold for friends, dogs I was training, fostering, etc.) over that time frame (not including puppies). 

Dogs can choke on bones. Dogs can choke on kibble. Dogs can get salmonella from raw. Dogs can get salmonella from kibble. Dogs can get obstructions and perforations from bones...and sticks, and socks and tennis balls, too.   Feeding  Having dogs is not without risk! The idea is to weigh the risks and their likelihoods and decide from there what risks you're willing to take for what benefits. 

I have fed raw chicken leg quarters to well over 60 GSD beginning at 3-4 months of age and I have never had a single dog choke or have bloat.  The bones in raw chicken are not very hard because the birds are killed at a very young age despite their size.  The teeth in the back of a GSD's mouth were designed to crush bone.  I have noticed less health problems and more dense and smaller stools when feeding raw.  Dogs were never meant to eat a high carb diet and they do much better on a high fat and high protein diet low in carbohydrates.  Cooked bones will splinter so I try to never let my dogs eat cooked bones.  Pork rib bones and raw deer meat can also be fed raw and my GSD will eat everything but the deer's antlers and the hooves.  The dog food kibble business is a relatively new con based on selling by-products and garbage as food for dogs.  

Thank you all for your recommendations and advice.

Jenni - you make me feel better then, about the bones. 

I will also do some leg quarters as bubba suggested. 

I feed a partial raw diet to my older dog Xena..... She is 8.5 years old. I feed kibble to her in the morning and pre-made raw at night. I use Natures Variety raw or Prairie raw  as I can get both at my work. I can definatly tell the difference in her stools between each meal. The stools after the raw meal are smaller and less stinky. I have also noticed an improvement  in her coat as well.

Dr. Karen Becker has several great videos on yourtube about feeding raw. She also has her own receipe book that she has written and has for sale. The book is great for people that are just starting out with raw.. the receipies she has in the book are 100% complete diets.

Here are 3 of her videos about the raw diet...

Here are her videos on raw meaty bones...

I second what Jenni says!

University of Toronto has a bone room that contains a complete skeleton from just about every vertebrate in North America, and they're working on S. America, too. (It's named in honour of my osteology professor, the late Dr. Howard Savage.)

I noticed one skeleton that had bones that were twisted, almost as if they'd melted. I asked about it, and my professor said some idiot had bought an ocelot, and fed it only ground hamburger. Of course, you don't take a cat outside for walks on a leash, so the poor animal also probably got very little sunshine (which is important for Vitamin D metabolism.)

The poor animal developed such a severe case of rickets that it had to be euthanized!! 

If you're going to feed raw, please EDUCATE yourself!!  There's more to a raw died than just meat!

"If you're going to feed raw, please EDUCATE yourself!! "

I think this sentiment should be applied to any diet, homemade raw, pre-made raw, kibble, or whatever you decide to feed your dog.