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I've been looking into Raw feeding for some time now and finally decided to make the switch. We have 3 dogs; 2 mutts -- one a 65 lb RottX, the other a 100ish lb LabX -- and a Miniature Schnauzer. The lab has some suspected, but undiagnosed allergies, seems to get fat on air and seems to be aging ahead of his years so he is a big part of the motivation to go raw, but we would love all three of the dogs to be on a raw diet.
I wasn't able to find just one cut of chicken at a reasonable price locally, but I did find big bags of "country style" chicken for .59 per lb and decided to go with that for our first week.
Tonight I had planned to give them some chicken with a reduced portion of dry dog food to kind of wean them onto the idea of raw.
I cut some meat off a drumstick for the Miniature Schnauzer and that worked wonderfully.
For the RottX I put a whole drumstick in her dish with her food. And for the LabX I put a whole thigh in his bowl with his dry food. Neither of those two seemed to know what to do with it. They licked it. Picked it up and moved it around, but neither tried to eat it. I didn't expect them to have trouble as they're not exactly pampered and both are accustomed to big chew bones.
So I took the pieces back up and cut them into smaller portions. I cut the drumstick in half and the thigh I cut into about 2inch by 2 inch sections. Put that back in their dishes and they seemed to get the idea after that.
Now for the questions...
1) Both of them proceeded to pick the biggest piece in their bowl and run into my living room with it to eat it off the floor. For obvious reasons, that's not such a great idea. I'm guessing because it seemed like a "treat" they wanted privacy for eating it. If any of you have had dogs that did this, did they eventually stop? Or will I have to take to feeding them outside forever?
2) I know chicken bones are supposed to be safe when raw, but I just have to clarify. They were breaking the bones into pieces with their teeth and presumably swallowing those small pieces -- one of which I picked up and felt -- and they didn't seem at all what I would call "flexible". Are we sure this isn't going to cause problem?
:redface:
3) Do you all cut your dogs' raw food into bite sized (or slightly larger) pieces everyday?
I appreciate any advice and guidance you can offer! I'm all ears!
I wasn't able to find just one cut of chicken at a reasonable price locally, but I did find big bags of "country style" chicken for .59 per lb and decided to go with that for our first week.
Tonight I had planned to give them some chicken with a reduced portion of dry dog food to kind of wean them onto the idea of raw.
I cut some meat off a drumstick for the Miniature Schnauzer and that worked wonderfully.
For the RottX I put a whole drumstick in her dish with her food. And for the LabX I put a whole thigh in his bowl with his dry food. Neither of those two seemed to know what to do with it. They licked it. Picked it up and moved it around, but neither tried to eat it. I didn't expect them to have trouble as they're not exactly pampered and both are accustomed to big chew bones.
So I took the pieces back up and cut them into smaller portions. I cut the drumstick in half and the thigh I cut into about 2inch by 2 inch sections. Put that back in their dishes and they seemed to get the idea after that.
Now for the questions...
1) Both of them proceeded to pick the biggest piece in their bowl and run into my living room with it to eat it off the floor. For obvious reasons, that's not such a great idea. I'm guessing because it seemed like a "treat" they wanted privacy for eating it. If any of you have had dogs that did this, did they eventually stop? Or will I have to take to feeding them outside forever?
2) I know chicken bones are supposed to be safe when raw, but I just have to clarify. They were breaking the bones into pieces with their teeth and presumably swallowing those small pieces -- one of which I picked up and felt -- and they didn't seem at all what I would call "flexible". Are we sure this isn't going to cause problem?
3) Do you all cut your dogs' raw food into bite sized (or slightly larger) pieces everyday?
I appreciate any advice and guidance you can offer! I'm all ears!