I have a question on chicken bones. I would like to feed them to my 10 week old pup (RAW of course), but I recently had a bit of a scare. I bought my pup chicken wings and I was a bit concerned about if they were as soft as I've read. So I hammered the drum part of the wing to break up the bone for him. When I took the meat off the bone to check out how the bone looked, there were splintered bones that were extremely sharp and would hurt when I poked myself with them and I could not bend them even the slightest. I was afraid they would get stuck in the pup's throat. So I cleaned up all the splintered parts and gave my pup the large part of the bone that wasn't smashed cause in my readings it was said that the dog would crush and mash the bone. Well, my pup didn't read that, he swallowed the bone whole without gnawing on it at all. He then proceeded to try and bring it back up again, but it didn't come up, he didn't seem to mind, and was calm. I was a bit freaked cause there was this 2 inch bone in my GSD pup and I never read anywhere where it said not to worry if the pup swallows the bone whole. Everything I've read says the pups/dogs gnaw on bones to break them down. And what about the splintered parts? Are those ok to give him? They don't seem any softer or mashable than cooked chicken bones, that's what scared me. The pup is fine, this was 4 days ago so I'm assuming his digestive tract did the work on the whole bone? Could I get some advice on this? I'm very reluctant to give him any more. His breeder said to give him raw turkey drumsticks, but I know those have several thin long bones in them. I'm feeding him Omaspride which says it has ground bone in it, but I would like to actually give him a bone without worrying if it's going to cut up his insides. Thanks for any/all input.

all i can tell you is my pup was weaned on raw chicken wings, fed whole, not smashed up, and he never had a problem. people worry too much about this.

i wouldn't feed him smashed up bones. you've created a problem that wasn't there before. i don't feed cut bones, either. only whole bones.

and turkey leg bones are too big.

Sandy,
Do not worry with breaking the bones up, just give them to you pup whole, if you are giving them wings, give them the whole wing, nothing done just give it to them. That way it is way to big for them to just swallow down without having to chew. Another thing that folks do is freeze them, that way the pup can not just swallow them as well adn they break off little pieces at a time to eat. Another advantage to that is that when you pup goes into full blown teething the cold of the frozen chicken wings/necks/backs will help them with their little mouths being so darn sore. So do not break them up yourself, as far as sharpness goes, if your pup breaks them up they may have some edges, but nothing like breaking them up with mallet or anything else. So feed them whole to your pup they will be too big to just swallow and your pup if you freeze them will enjoy the cold on its mouth.
As far as turkey goes, I know that my pup was not able to fully eat the turkey necks and other parts they will still a bit big for him to chew through (at 6 month though no problems at all). I kind of held off bigger pieces of bone and meat until my pup was closer to 5 months old. Hope this helps.

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all i can tell you is my pup was weaned on raw chicken wings, fed whole, not smashed up, and he never had a problem. people worry too much about this.

i wouldn't feed him smashed up bones. you've created a problem that wasn't there before. i don't feed cut bones, either. only whole bones.

and turkey leg bones are too big.

Ditto. Many dogs tear and swallow. Enzymes digest the bones. Their systems are set up for bones, meat, and fat.

Weight-bearing bones take so long to break down that they aren't a good choice (and, in fact, I have read, are the part of the carcass of the wolf-kill that is most often left behind after being gnawed clean, other bones eaten), so I either grind or skip big poultry legs. Turkey drumsticks: No, not for me. JMO.

Thank you so MUCH, Alice, Jay, and Connie. What a wonderful relief for me to hear what you all posted. It's about my pup's lunch time and I'm going to treat him to a chicken wing, whole, not smashed, and the best thing about it is I can feed it to him without any fear. I thank you for that, it's priceless.

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....... It's about my pup's lunch time and I'm going to treat him to a chicken wing, whole, not smashed, and the best thing about it is I can feed it to him without any fear. I thank you for that, it's priceless.

Now and then I stop and think and laugh about this: After a ton of research and a million questions, tweaking and trying and reading some more, heading off the people who told me I was going to kill my dogs or create "blood-lust" in them <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />, and easing my way into feeding raw food (long ago), what is it that I've learned from all this?

I've learned (surprise!) that what my dogs thrive on, from GSD to Pug and everyone in between, is what dogs have evolved eating: raw meat, bones, and fat, with a little produce.

<img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

We humans are so funny. We fell for the idea that only Purina et al knew the "secret formula" for feeding a dog. All I can say is, yahoo for the pioneers a few decades ago who rejected that and spoke up.

and what i find even funnier is how much i agonized over this, worried myself half to death, and wasted countless hours trying to "prepare" and package and complicated a diet that is ridiculously simple and uncomplicated.

i mean, just hand the dog a whole chicken wing. what could be easier than that?

i don't even bag stuff anymore. i have the butcher wrap individual portions in trays for me so that i don't even have to touch it. it just goes straight into the freezer from the back of my car, and then straight from the freezer to the dog's mouth (well, sometimes i defrost <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

I never fed any of my dogs anything but kibbles mixed with can dog food, albeit usually the more expensive brands. This is my first experience feeding my pup raw meats and bones, etc, as you all could tell, I'm sure <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />. As a sidenote, my last 2 dogs died of disease, one cancer, the last one kidney failure. My deep regret is I didn't feed raw to them both. To be honest, it never crossed my mind. My last dog, my beloved GSD, had tartar built up on her teeth the last 2 years and vet wouldn't clean her teeth because of having to put her on anesthesia (already showed kidney disease then). The tartar just kept building and building and no amount of brushing her teeth with enzymatic toothpaste did any good at all. Of course since her teeth were in such bad shape the bacteria was contributing to her kidney disease, poisoning her body. My vet was no help at all, no suggestions, no options, just wanted to sell me his low protein kibbles and got huffy when I brought it back saying my dog would NOT eat it at all. I wanted her not to starve herself to death and to be as happy as I could make her in whatever time she had left. She did live 2 more years after being first diagnosed with kidney disease, and she did live happy, she was dearly loved and she like her Chick Soup for Dog Lover's Soul kibble and Merrick's canned chick wings, thighs and breast meat, but probably would have been happier with a raw diet. I regret my ignorance deeply.

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......My deep regret is I didn't feed raw to them both. To be honest, it never crossed my mind........I regret my ignorance deeply.

It's universal. As we know better, we do better. How can it be any other way?

Thanks Connie. You're right of course. Not reasonable to have regrets over something you didn't know to do at the time.