LOL! If you can't find owners for them I'd take them home and feed Whole prey :wink:

 

^^^Let the dogs loose on them. See what they do. I know I would let Aspen *play* with a chicken...:wink:

 

Maybe I'm being soft, but I am surprised that so many of you would let your dogs kill their own food.

Obviously I'm not opposed to feeding raw but wouldn't it be better to kill the chicken humanely than for it to suffer at the paws of a dog that is inexperienced at killing? Even an experienced killer would still cause it to suffer more than if a human were to dispatch it.

It seems to me there is no benefit to letting a dog make a kill, none that outweighs being humane to the "meal" anyway :frown:

Personally, as hard as it would be for me- I'd rather snap their neck than to watch my dogs bring it a slow death.

I've seen this idea come up a few times here, and I just thought I'd throw in my thoughts.

 

Maybe I'm being soft, but I am surprised that so many of you would let your dogs kill their own food.

If I could let Aspen loose and let him hunt for his own food, I would. He was born a predator and I'll let him do what he was born to do and be happy about it.

Personally, as hard as it would be for me- I'd rather snap their neck than to watch my dogs bring it a slow death.

I know my dog won't bring it to a slow death. Unless it's a gigantic chicken. :smile:

 

If we came across something similar we would probably kill them before feeding them. We fed a live mouse once to The Kitah. She couldn't figure out how to kill it. We ended up letting the dogs come kill it and then she ate it.

 

I don't know a whole lot about chickens, but I know the same evolutionary processes that make a prey model diet appropriate for a dog have also given a chicken different methods to avoid being eaten. Is there a chance your dog could get hurt killing them (scratched or pecked... maybe in the eye?)?

 

^^^^It CAN happen. There is maybe a slim chance. But, I doubt it. I've seen him kill chickens and he uses his body weight as an advantage. The chickens he's come across don't have time to react really...

 

Can't hurt :wink: Tiger caught a baby rabbit so I let him eat it, he loved it!

Not sure if you are supposed to worm after feeding live prey though?? I didn't worm Tiger and he was fine.

 

Not sure if you are supposed to worm after feeding live prey though?? I didn't worm Tiger and he was fine.

You worm your dog when he has worms. My cats eat wild critters a lot, maybe 2 or 3 or 4 times a week for years. My dogs do but not nearly as often as the cats. They don't seem to be as good of hunters. :smile: Anyway they have all eaten many wild animals and none have ever had worms of anykind. Eating wild animals doesn't mean the preditor automatically has worms.

 

Dogs can get tapeworm, Dipylidium caninum (and a few others but this is the most common one) from eating fleas...or the animals that are infected with fleas, but the flea is the actual vector for the parasite. So, if the animal that the dog ate had fleas, there is a chance that he can contract the tapeworm. I see on a regular basis at work in the summer.

The other common intestinal parasitic roundworms (whipworms and hookworms) from fecal contamination...ie ingestion of fecal matter in the environment.

 

Wow, so when I take my dogs to the field they love to pla in I should be concerned when they start inhaling all the goose poop??!!

 

Honestly, I know I couldn't kill an animal to feed to the guys, but if they catch a rabbit or whatever (SQUIRREL!) in the yard, well, so be it.

I don't think I could even feed the cat a day old chick because of Echo (my parrot!). I'm too much of a softie.

I couldn't do roadkill either, I'm too easily squicked out by dead stuff and the scent of death. Yesterday I saw a squirrel get killed by a car as I was walking the dogs, and I still didn't have the nerve to let them check it out.

I am a wimp.

 

Parasites. Eww.

Does the regular worming at the vet take care of all worms/parasites? Would you suggest getting a dewormer done regularly?

CorgiPaws, know what you're gonna do yet? :tongue:

Richelle

 

Well.... it kind of came down to... I have nowhere to put these chickens for the next three days, nor a way to take them home to Vegas.... so we let them just go.
I was totally bummed out. I wanted to see how they'd work out. Oh well, maybe another time we'll get to experiment with live prey. I just want to see if they've "got it" in them.

 

One thing to keep in mind though...when the dog gets used to catching and eating live prey (which can sometimes happen after even one time), they are going to start wanting to do it on there own and often. This can pose a problem if not trained correctly, IMO.

So, if I were you and wanted to feed my dog live prey, I would make sure that I trained him to get it ONLY on command...especally if you have small critters in your own house. You might come home one day to find that your dog caught and ate your prize canary or something. :tongue:

 

I'm not sure if this is true or not. Kinda' follows the 'blood thirsty' myth. Interesting theory, which could be true for some dogs.

Dingo's in the wild.

 

HAHA...well I'm not so much going by the 'bloodthirsty' myth, more that fact that once you let a dog have something, they are more likely to think it's theirs. If you've never let your dog chase after an animal to catch it and eat it, he may still have interest, but over time will learn that he's not supposed to. Some dogs will subdue trying after a little while, some will not. However, when you all of a sudden let him do it, he'll start to think it's ok. And some dogs will carry this rule over to all the time. It's kinda like how your dog knows his things that are ok to play with versus your things that are not. He knows this because you've stopped him whenever he's tried to go after your things and encouraged him when he's played with his. Kind of the same principal to me. I was just mentioning the canary as a joke. :biggrin:

 

I agree with this too. I do not buy into the blood thirsty myth either- it's simply not true.

However, I plan to have a farm one day and if I let them catch and kill live prey (ie: chickens) and one day I have chickens that they would be in contact with- I don't think it's unreasonable to think the chickens would not be as safe as they would be if my dogs did not connect a live animal with a meal.

Plus, catching mice in the field aside, I would still rather kill their food before they got a hold of it for the sake of the prey.