I found some turkey backs for .49c/lb. Fed one this a.m. and he just yakked up a few peices of bone (large marble size) and some bile. This is the first time this has happened since feeding raw (about 1 1/2 months ago). He's a big dog, so I thought this would be OK. Any input?

Hi Tracy,

Since you only switched to raw recently, you may want to give your boy a little more time before giving him really large or difficult RMBs to digest. Or, as is the case with my dog, the turkey back was just too substantial (from lack of serious chewing, or just thick bone) and the gut decided to send it back the way it came in!

Oscar has chucked up bone chunks nearly every time I've fed him turkey bones, including necks and backs - I've tried all the parts at one time or another. Maybe I got especially large birds, but my hunch is they're just stockier, harder bones than chicken... and my dog in particular obviously doesn't do well with them. The episodes didn't do any damage, but his stomach clearly didn't want to keep working on certain bits - I got 2 perfectly cleaned neck vertebrae back one night, pointy little devils!! Dogs that gulp without crunching a lot of bone may be more likely to throw up parts that are too big or hard to digest, but in our case, Oscar has swallowed chicken femurs - and passed them, WHOLE! - but turkey bones, even chewed a bit, tend to come back... so I think it's gotta be a difference in actual bone.

I don't feed turkey bones anymore because there's a 99% chance he'll throw some back up, and I personally would rather him keep it all down. If I find a deal on turkey, I'll take it off the bone for him, and OCCASSIONALY I'll feed very small turkey necks, but they're rare, and the last time I did he threw up the vertebrae...

Bottom line - raw feeding is a lot of trial and error for each dog. Throwing up little bone bits once in a while is normal, IME, but if you get a reliable cookie tossing reaction with a specific food, I'd either avoid it, or not feed it very often. That's just me though. At the very least, you won't have to clean your floors so often that way!

Cheers,
~Natalya

That is SO interesting.....mine have the same reaction to pork but turkey is one of our staples because they do so well with it!

I don't know anything about raw - you feed bones? I thought that was dangerous because it can get caught/cut up their insides? Where did you go to learn about raw diets and what did you notice after switching?

 Quote: Julie Wilson

I don't know anything about raw - you feed bones? I thought that was dangerous because it can get caught/cut up their insides? Where did you go to learn about raw diets and what did you notice after switching?

http://www.leerburg.com/articles.htm#feed

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

http://rawfed.com/myths/

http://rawfed.com/

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/

That should get you started.

Cooked bones are very dangerous to feed. Raw bones, on the other hand, are easily digested by dogs.

There is tons of info in this forum about raw feeding. Leerburg also sells lots of books on raw feeding.

Read, read, read, and feel free to ask.

This whole forum, too:
http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/12/page/1

and

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm

 Quote: Julie Wilson

I don't know anything about raw - you feed bones? I thought that was dangerous because it can get caught/cut up their insides? Where did you go to learn about raw diets and what did you notice after switching?

I learned most of my raw feeding info on Leerburg.
My dogs eat raw bones with no problems.
Since I started feeding raw I have noticed:
1)the dogs are somewhat calmer overall, but they get more excited about their food.
2)teeth are cleaner
3)less doggy odor
4)much less shedding, shiny coats.
5)body condition is more toned and lean.
6)about 1/4 of the poop and it has little odor and breaks down quickly.
7)they are naturally less susceptible to fleas (I haven't gone through tick season yet since they've been on raw).

We're kind of sliding away from turkey backs here, so if we are going into other directions, let's start new threads with non-turkey-back titles.