Does anyone feed raw pork? If so, what parts do you feed? necks, backs, etc... The reason I ask is because I saw a hog butchering/slaughtering facility the other day and thought it might be a place to get bulk at a lower price.

Elliot

I previously fed my dog raw food. I did not feed her pork at all, because of the danger of her getting trichinosis. As far as I know, pork is the only (common) meat that can give them that. (There are others, but I forget exactly which).

My dog ate raw beef, chicken, turkey, and eggs for her protein. I personally stayed away from pork.

it's fine to feed raw pork. pork necks are usually the most readily available.

however, they can have too high a bone/meat ratio and some dogs do get intestinal compactions from eating them, so i feed them very sparingly. pork shoulder is good, too, and often available at supermarkets at a good price.

be careful that the bones are whole and haven't been cut. cut bones are very sharp!

Ditto what Alice said. You can also freeze the meat at 0 degrees F for a certain number of days if you are worried about trichinosis. I can't remember how many days, but it is somewhere on this forum and on the internet.

Interestingly enough, I just googled trichinosis & the CDC reports infestation occurs primarily with wild game, but there are still cases of contamination through pork.

Thanks for the replies. I used to feed RAW but switched back to kibble (innova) after it became too expensive and a little time consuming. I really want to switch back but would like to line up some butchers or food suppliers where I can buy in bulk and hopefully save money that way. Thanks again.
-Elliot

I feed pork, ground, fresh ham(pork roast) pork necks etc. I have not had any problems. It is my understanding the there is no cases of trichinosis in human grade supermarket pork anymore. Even restaraunts serve pork cooked still quite pink in the middle.

Here's what one site I like says:

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#pork

It pretty much goes along with the folks' replies here.

Hi Elliot,

I feed pork all the time to my dogs. They love it and they're both fine on it. My pup grew up on the stuff since he was a baby.

Pork riblets are some of the cheapest meats I can buy around here (about 1.20$ a kilo) and I buy in bulk.

I buy from a wholesale restaurant and supermarket provider, so the meats are all human-grade of course. In fact, the meat is of much higher quality than supermarket meat - far fresher and better looking. It's really quite beautiful... and if it's good enough to be served in restaurants, it's good enough for my dogs

It's a perfect meaty bone to feed because it's soft (good work for the teeth and jaws but not too hard for the teeth) yet not so small that it can be gulped. I'd recommend adding a bit of extra meat if you feed it so you don't get too much bone in, but my dogs do great on it.

Pork feet, pork legs, pork hearts, pork livers, pork kidneys... I feed it all. It's fantastic stuff!

I do freeze it as people have recommended, but I don't believe it's really necessary. I feed lots of wild game meats but they get frozen for a lot longer than the pork does. Don't want to take unnecessary risks.

Just remember to keep feeding variety. Sometimes it's tempting to stick to one thing when you find a super deal, but the more you switch around, the healthier and happier your dogs will be.

Good luck!

One more thing; when pigs are slaughtered the hide isn't removed as it is for other animals like beef.

Dogs can eat this of course, but it's very fatty. You should take this into account when deciding how much to feed.

If you have a very young pup or an older dog (or a fat dog that needs to lose weight), you can always cut the hide and accompanying fat layer off. It's a hassle, but better than making your dog fat