I switched Cujo to The Honest Kitchen diet, but I want him to also have something other than mush to eat, like bones for his teeth. He has a big mammoth bone that he rarely chews on, he just carries it around making happy whining noises wagging his tail, he'll eat rawhide bones if you give em to him n let him run around with em for a week to "age" before he actually eats it, but rawhide is an occasional treat not a daily meal additive. What type of small meaty bones can I give him that he is likely to eat easily? If his bone is too big or too thick or too difficult to eat he'll take a year to eat it, he's not a strong chewer anymore, he was when he was teething but now I rarely catch him chewing anything unless he's really bored and his rawhide has aged long enough. Where would I find these bones? We don't exactly have many real butchers around here, you can't go to the supermarket n say "hey gimme a bag of small bones". I'm gonna run up to petsmart later to see if they have like a small bone assortment or something, but I liked the teeth-cleaning side of his dry food, and with this oatmeal type green honest kitchen mush, he's not getting anything to really chew on, he laps it up almost like it's soup.

What about chicken necks or wings? I had 7 wk old pups devouring wings. My old guy who isn't much of a chewer has a much easier time eating chicken necks than say leg quarters. Those I have to cut up for him in order to eat. Necks are a piece of cake for him.

Oh and you can find those at a butcher shop, large chain. Sometimes Publix will order them for you.

Hi Mike! Caleb's favorite are the beef soup bones. They're not expensive, and the shape is really good for not breaking off sharp pieces. They're called soupbones, no fancy code names, so you should be able to find them easily. He also loves various poultry bones (turkey last a few *seconds* longer than chicken, since they're bigger) but the beef bones are better for cleaning teeth, I think, because they don't just scarf the whole thing down. They work on it for a while. There's another kind that comes in round steak, I think. Lots more meat, and lots of marrow in the middle for tooth scrubbing, but watch the size. Make sure it's too small to get around his jaw or too big to get stuck. My mom's dog was chewing one and once she got through the marrow, she got the round bone stuck around her bottom jaw. I got it off pretty easily, but she was totally panicked, and a big dog panicked would be a lot harder to deal with.

Hi Mike - Bones are great for dogs - both nutritionally and and just for fun. As Angela said, chicken wings and necks are great as part of the diet and relatively easy to chew. Soup bones and marrow bones are great "recreational" bones, but add nothing to a raw diet. Just remember to scoop a lot of the marrow out of the bone because it is very rich, and you need to find out how much your dog can tolerate before getting an upset stomach. Also, these bones gives hours of fun, but will dry out after a day or two and then you take the chance of perhaps chipping a tooth. Whatever you give, you are certainly going to get a lot of tail wagging in return!! Have fun!

I just switched my dog to Honest Kitchen as well. I've been supplementing the diet with raw meats and RMB's like chicken backs/necks. I also give her beef rib bones and soup bones to chew on recreationally - they're cheap and always available at the local supermarket, and keeps her happy while I'm gone at work.

I don't know how Cujo chews, but I've never seen a soup bone dry out the next day because I've never had one last a full day <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />! The marrow thing is something I meant to mention, too. I think some depends on size and whether the dog is used to many different foods, as mine are. I never have problems with new foods causing upset stomachs, but you may want to be careful because you've just switched Cujo's food, too. Marrow is very rich! I guess it all depends on whether your dog eats the bone or just gnaws it in regard to whether it adds to the diet or is just recreation. The way they break, my dog is able to get small enough pieces to chew and swallow. They're pretty pliable and not terribly likely to break teeth when they're fresh. Some have more meat than others, too. For my little dogs, I take that into consideration as part of their diet; for Caleb, it's a fairly insignificant amount. Cujo will be a very happy boy! Even if he IS picky!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

BTW, how has your dog adjusted to the new food? I just switched off kibble cold turkey with no digestive upset, because she seemed to like the taste of the food so well. In fact, her stools are much harder and less smelly. I figure this is a good thing. She's also tolerating the variety of add-ins well.

I've switched his food a few times now, I switched him from the breeders Diamond brand food to Nutro, then from Nutro puppy food to Nutro adult food, then from Nutro to Great Choice canned food, then from Great Choice to Pedigree, and now to The Honest Kitchen (he was on the Nutro diet for over a year with occasional raw a few times a week), I questioned how good the Nutro was since he was barely wanting to eat it, so I tried going to a canned food diet, but I wasn't crazy about the no-name el cheapo petsmart brand canned food, he liked it, but I was more familiar with the Pedigree canned foods since that's what the family dog ate when I was a kid, he did really good on that but I found out there's some questionable ingredients in that brand of food, so decided to take the plunge n order the Honest Kitchen stuff. I just ordered another 20lbs today since he's halfway thru his 4lb pack that I ordered last week.

That said... normally when I switch his foods he'll have loose stools and have to poop all the time, it'll range from slightly mushy to very runny. To my huge surprise, switching cold turkey to the honest kitchen "embark" formula has actually been a breeze, his poop is PERFECT from day 1. On the Pedigree canned food his poop was pretty dark and it STUNK, I mean, I could stand 20ft away from where he was doing his thing, with the wind going away from me, n I'd have to hold my breath approaching it to pick it up, then couldn't tie the bag fast enough (scented poop bags are awesome for this), but on the honest kitchen diet, the consistency of his stool is exactly what I expect from a healthy dog, it's got a greenish tint and you can see the sesame seeds <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> And best of all, no smell. I also notice that with different foods his body odor changes. He gets that "doggy smell" when he eats Pedigree or when he eats Beggin' Strips (the fake bacon stuff which I refuse to ever buy again). His odor has disappeared on his new diet in only a few days of eating it.

The only problem I have is getting him to eat it, he doesn't dislike it, but he's not super crazy about it. He won't lick out his bowl like he was doing with the Pedigree cans. I've had to hide a few freeze dried liver treats at the bottom of the bowl for him to eat, but now that he's got the taste for his food I'm gonna go to the "put the food down, take it away after 15 minutes" thing n let him starve until he realizes that's his only diet. But from experience, I know that as soon as he walks away from his bowl, that's it, I might as well pick it up right then because he's not gonna go back to it for more and has no reaction to me taking it away and throwing it in the trash.

The other thing I'm wondering is that maybe the new diet is more filling for him, maybe he fills up faster on it, whereas on the canned food he'd have to eat 3 of the large cans a day, now he's barely eating 2 cups a day of the honest kitchen stuff. Based on his weight, the minimum reccomended daily is about 2-1/4 cups of the honest kitchen + water, he's eating about 1-3/4 if I put effort into making him eat it.

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......The other thing I'm wondering is that maybe the new diet is more filling for him, maybe he fills up faster on it, whereas on the canned food he'd have to eat 3 of the large cans a day, now he's barely eating 2 cups a day of the honest kitchen stuff. Based on his weight, the minimum reccomended daily is about 2-1/4 cups of the honest kitchen + water, he's eating about 1-3/4 if I put effort into making him eat it.

Mike,

I have read some detailed reasons for dogs eating less on raw (and, in fact, on any diet with significantly less grain), and I've been looking through my saved articles, etc.

I know there was reference to dogs needing less quantity when they no longer have to eat large amounts of grain in order to get the ingredients they are really geared to need and want, but I also remember something about an initial appetite decrease, and not just because of their being accustomed to additives/sodium/sugar, etc.

I thought it was Pitcairn, but so far haven't found it.

I will find that reference. Meanwhile, is he maintaining his weight OK?

I have had almost all *very* food-driven dogs, so I can't go by any personal experience. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />