I apologize for all of my questions and threads, but I sure appreciate direct responses to my questions!
I thought I was going to try and start raw, but I am nowhere near ready. I still haven't found a source, nor do I have freezer room (have been looking on craigslist for a freezer though).
One of my biggest concerns is really with the bones. A lot of the information I've read online about bones they seem to skip around the danger of raw bones and say how cooked bones are dangerous (I think everyone knows this). One excerpt I read from a book off of Amazon was "Can dogs die from eating raw bones?" The answer is yes, they can die from eating just about anything and people feel that the benifits outweigh the risks." - This wasn't an exact quote, but the general idea. My question is, how dangerous are raw bones, really? Can they cause a problems in the digestive tract? Puncture, obstruction, etc?
Some of you know I tried chicken quarters with me 20 month old dane and 5 month old puppy. The male (20 month old) wanted nothing to do with it and the puppy loved it. I gave her a second one the next day for dinner, but considering I'm not ready to start 100%, I'm not going to again until (when/if) I can start completely. I noticed the next day that she pooped out a whole bone (obviously the drumstick/leg bone) It was completely in-tact. I picked it up (with gloves of course!) and tried to break it, which it broke pretty easily, I could still see the marrow on the inside. It was softer than the consistency of a cooked bone I believe, and I didn't notice any "sharding" when I broke it, but I could see that it could produce sharp pieces.
What happens to the bone in the digestive tract? It was very interesting to see that the meat was metabolized, but the bone wasn't, though it's consistency changed. How was it able to come out "the right way" and what would have happened if it had turned directions? (i.e. could it have caused an obstruction?) I think I might need to get a dog anatomy book, but the thought of this rather large bone going through her digestive tract scared me a little.
Any thoughts would be great!
I thought I was going to try and start raw, but I am nowhere near ready. I still haven't found a source, nor do I have freezer room (have been looking on craigslist for a freezer though).
One of my biggest concerns is really with the bones. A lot of the information I've read online about bones they seem to skip around the danger of raw bones and say how cooked bones are dangerous (I think everyone knows this). One excerpt I read from a book off of Amazon was "Can dogs die from eating raw bones?" The answer is yes, they can die from eating just about anything and people feel that the benifits outweigh the risks." - This wasn't an exact quote, but the general idea. My question is, how dangerous are raw bones, really? Can they cause a problems in the digestive tract? Puncture, obstruction, etc?
Some of you know I tried chicken quarters with me 20 month old dane and 5 month old puppy. The male (20 month old) wanted nothing to do with it and the puppy loved it. I gave her a second one the next day for dinner, but considering I'm not ready to start 100%, I'm not going to again until (when/if) I can start completely. I noticed the next day that she pooped out a whole bone (obviously the drumstick/leg bone) It was completely in-tact. I picked it up (with gloves of course!) and tried to break it, which it broke pretty easily, I could still see the marrow on the inside. It was softer than the consistency of a cooked bone I believe, and I didn't notice any "sharding" when I broke it, but I could see that it could produce sharp pieces.
What happens to the bone in the digestive tract? It was very interesting to see that the meat was metabolized, but the bone wasn't, though it's consistency changed. How was it able to come out "the right way" and what would have happened if it had turned directions? (i.e. could it have caused an obstruction?) I think I might need to get a dog anatomy book, but the thought of this rather large bone going through her digestive tract scared me a little.
Any thoughts would be great!