[cypress]

Is there any part of a whole chicken I shouldn't feed my three month old pup? He weighs about 17 pounds, should grow to about 70 pounds, and has been eating raw chicken (drumsticks and thighs mostly) for two weeks.

Thanks in advance!

Woof!

 

[rannmiller]

Nope, it's all good!

 

[SuZQuzie]

Except that one should introduce non-muscle portions very slowly to help avoid digestive upset.

 

[cypress]

Thanks much!

There are several small bones going across the underside of the bird. These are okay for him?

I put the gizzard and liver in a seperate bag and will do my best to introduce him slowly.

 

[SuZQuzie]

Thanks much!

There are several small bones going across the underside of the bird. These are okay for him?

I put the gizzard and liver in a seperate bag and will do my best to introduce him slowly.

Just a warning, I USED to feed to raw, but that was about 5 years ago, so I may not be the most appropriate person to respond, but I will anyways.

I never felt comfortable feeding chicken bones so I never did and preferred to just supply beef knuckles for the RMB portion of the diet.

I personally wouldn't introduce offal for about another month, but that is just me. Go ahead and stick those in the freezer so that they keep for a later feeding. :smile:

 

[CorgiPaws]

yup, those bones are just fine.
Chicken bones are almost all of the bone content my Corgi gets. They are very easy to chew up for smaller dogs or puppies. He has a tough time with pork neck, but gets it after about 15 minutes.

 

[DaneMama]

Chicken bones are fine, but if they are small, make sure that they are fed with some meat on them so they don't just swallow them whole. Our Dane puppy has swallowed several whole bones without issue.

 

[cypress]

Thanks for all the feedback!

When should I begin to feed liver and/or gizzards?

 

[DaneMama]

Thanks for all the feedback!

When should I begin to feed liver and/or gizzards?

Since you are relatively new to feeding raw (only 2 weeks in) I would hold off with the liver, or any other organs-kidney is the only other that we feed, but liver and kidneys cover all the nutrient bases, until about 2 months in.

Organs are relatively nutrient dense compared with other meats/bones, so they take a fair bit of time to work into your dogs diet, and one of the last things to introduce. If you can, start getting quarters or backs (you can get quarters at Walmart cheap considering they have just a little organ meat attached to them. This will slowly introduce organs into the diet.

When you are ready to actually add in an organ meal, I would feed it accompanied with a bone in meat, like chicken. Chicken is always your backup meat source when adding something new to the menu.

Gizzards on the other hand are not considered organs, in the nutrient department. They are actually a muscle meat, and should be fed accordingly. They are super tough and some dogs don't like them much, I think they taste different too, but I wouldn't know LOL. You can feed those now, if your dog will eat them, but I am sure yours will since its a puppy and puppies raised on raw are usually not picky eaters!

If you want to start adding other things into the diet, which its time to, I would start with turkey. You can buy necks and drumsticks for starters. Necks take a bit of work for a puppy to get thru, but ours did just fine with hers at first. After you add in turkey, I would go for a pork source. Personally I like pork ribs and shoulder roasts the most when it comes to choosing a cut of pork. They have a lot of meat, but some good bones on them both. Then add in a type of fish or two. Canned fish is expensive, so if you can find a wholesale meat place/distributor in your area. Then add in some beef, we get beef heart, also considered muscle meat and not organ, and stew beef and ribs. Beef ribs are a bit on the hefty side and are a good chew bone/treat that lasts for a long time. Not a whole lot of meat on them, but good nonetheless.

 

[rannmiller]

Well on the other hand, since your puppy looks awfully young and puppies tend to adjust much better than adults, I'd think you could start slowly introducing them now if you wanted. Feed a heart or gizzard with a chicken meal this week and see how he does with it.

Also, just to reaffirm what all the raw feeders (not former raw feeders, sorry SuZ) said, chicken bones are not only fine for your dog, they're essential, so feel free to feed them! My dogs have never once had a problem with eating chicken bones (or any other bones for that matter).

 

[oakley]

I have a 15 week old boxer puppy who currently weighs around 16-17 pounds and there is no bone on the chicken I would hesitate to give her. That said, everything I give her is in a good sized chunk about the size of her head. That way she has some chewing to do and wont swallow it whole.

Shes a great chewer, as I imagine your pup is, being introduced to this diet at a young age is great. I would never give my parents lab a chicken back, he would inhale it and probably choke- because he is not used to getting such food and has no concept of chewing food.

My pup Oakley has been munching on raw for a few weeks now and has done great. The only issue I had was with a piece of venison heart that was about 8 x 3 x 3" I thought it was big enough... wrong. She swallowed it whole and panicked a little with it going down, I got pretty nervous, but she was fine. Once in a while she tries to swallow a piece of chicken without it being chewed small enough, and she gags it back up- chews it some more and down it goes. This seems to be very normal.

Shes teething right now, last night I gave her goose drumsticks half frozen. Oh boy those kept her gnawing for almost 2 hours... the bone is denser and really gave her a workout. She lost interest after a while and I picked up the small fragments she abandoned and threw them out.