[3RingCircus]

What can't I feed my giant breed dogs? I read there are some meats with bones to avoid which they might eat whole and shouldn't.

It appears that our local grocer, independently owned, will be our supplier for now. They normally throw away their chicken backs and turkey backs.

Can I feed turkey backs as well as chicken backs to begin with?

 

[RawFedDogs]

Stick to chicken for the first couple of weeks. This is a process to help minimize the chance for digestive upset. When you shortcut the process, you increase the chances.

 

[DaneMama]

What you shouldn't feed your dogs (once they are fully transitioned):

Odd shaped bones that have been cut, T bones for example. If they chew the bone down to just the T part it can be a choking hazard.

Cooked bones of any kind.

Knuckle or other weight bearing bones, especially ones from a cow. They are dense enough to break your dogs teeth. If the bone is big and hollow, my rule is to avoid it.

Freeze salmon from the Pacific Northwest for at least a few weeks to avoid any salmon poisoning disease (the freezing kills the bugs).

Any size chunk of meat that your dogs could swallow whole. They pose a choking hazard for "gulper" type eaters. IF you absolutely know for sure that your dog will chew a smaller chunk of meat well before swallowing then it is fine. You just need to pay attention to what kind of "eater" your dogs are. We have a definite gulper and one moderately good chewer and 2 meticulous chewers. I trust the two really good chewers with smaller cuts of meat just because I *know* that they will chew it before swallowing. This isn't to say that your dog might crunch a chicken quarter 3-4 times and then swallow. Dogs don't chew like us humans, they just need to make a meat chunk small enough to fit down the hatch. Akasha (Great Dane) is our gulper and she will crunch the bones in a chicken quarter 3-4 times and then swallow it. Takes about 10 seconds for her to finish a whole quarter!

Ground meats should be fed at a minimum, I would say no more than once a week. Ground meats have a tenancy to harbor more bacteria than whole chunks of meat (air pockets created during the grinding process) and don’t provide any dental benefit to your dog.

And I would start with just the chicken backs. Leave the turkey necks for week 2. If you're going to start out with the chicken backs, I would feed them exclusively for the first 3-4 days. Try and remove any organ meat and excess fat on them to minimize the potential for diarrhea. After the first few days, add in chicken quarters that have less bone content. You don't want to feed too much bone for too long or you'll end up with constipated dogs! Alternate chicken backs with the quarters for at least 2 weeks until you see consistent, normal bowel movements.

Don't hesitate to post up any and all questions :biggrin:

 

[3RingCircus]

What you shouldn't feed your dogs (once they are fully transitioned):

Odd shaped bones that have been cut, T bones for example. If they chew the bone down to just the T part it can be a choking hazard.

Cooked bones of any kind.

Knuckle or other weight bearing bones, especially ones from a cow. They are dense enough to break your dogs teeth. If the bone is big and hollow, my rule is to avoid it.

Don't hesitate to post up any and all questions :biggrin:

Thank you for the info danemama08.

Can I feed weight bearing bones while they are transitioning to full raw?

We just bought eight pounds. Actually, I should say my hubby bought them. He hates to waste anything and insists that these won't hurt our puppies while they transition.

He actually thought you could continue to feed them until I read him all the info I found.

 

[whiteleo]

What exactly did you buy?

I give my dogs marrow bones all the time, but they don't chew on the outside of it, they just suck out the marrow and then I throw it away.

I will say that knuckle bones are very dangerous as I've had one that dislodged a small piece and got stuck in my females throat, it was a bison knuckle bone sold at my most trusted high end specialty store, I would never give those to a dog.

Weight bearing bones are really dense and shouldn't be given at all in my opinion.

 

[DaneMama]

Thank you for the info danemama08.

Can I feed weight bearing bones while they are transitioning to full raw?

We just bought eight pounds. Actually, I should say my hubby bought them. He hates to waste anything and insists that these won't hurt our puppies while they transition.

He actually thought you could continue to feed them until I read him all the info I found.

You definitely could feed them, but keep in mind that your dogs have the definite potential to break a tooth on them. Before we knew better than to give weight bearing bones one of our dogs and she broke one of her upper carnassial teeth. We had to have it extracted which cost about $200 or so. Usually a broken tooth like this needs to be pulled because they run the risk of an infected root. You could take your dog to a specialist and have it repaired but that can cost a few thousand dollars. Our dog Shiloh doesn't chew as well on that side of her mouth anymore so tartar builds up, and if it gets bad enough we may need to have them cleaned, which again is a few hundred dollars. I would say that the only reason a raw fed dog will need a dental is in the case of a broken tooth that impairs their chewing abilities. So with all this in mind I personally wouldn't feed them to my dogs, too risky and expensive. I would use them to make some soup!