As Tracy mentioned, the bone-in-breast is more meat and the backs are more bone.

If you go with the backs, you would have to add meat, as they are considered a perfectly rationed RMB (Raw Meaty Bone) and you need to add some meat to the diet(perfectly portioned means 50/50 meat to bone). If I am doing Backs, I go 3 parts backs to 2 part meat (any type). Others have different ratios that work for their dogs. This one gives my dogs perfect poops.

With bone-in-breasts I don’t have to worry about it, as they are pretty balanced with the correct final percentages needed. Same with quarters. But again, as Tracy mentions, buying a whole chicken and cutting it into meals is the easiest and most proportioned one can get. I cut it in half and then into quarters. They are almost always on sale somewhere for $0.50 - $0.77 a pound and I buy one chicken a day for two dogs (on average&hellip.

As for the eating on a mat, start big, and make it smaller over time. A tarp, towel or sheet works great. Teaching the dog to stay on a mat separately from feeding would also be helpful. I feed in a crate or outside 99% of the time, so it is rarely a worry for me. The big dog will swallow a leg quarter in 2 or 3 chomps with no mess, so I will sometimes just toss him one at a time and not even worry about where we are.

I may get my nerve up to cut up whole chickens. I prefer to buy the parts cut up already because I like easy. I can find breast at 99 cents a lb. on sale, but if it is better for my pup to get different parts of the bird, I may have to get the whole chickens....thanks!

As for a mat, I have her eating on a big indoor-outdoor carpet I put down by my patio door inside the house. This had a two -fold fuction, eating and coming in from outside when it was wet.

She ate fine on the carpet before the bones. I haven't feed her the bones today yet, dinner last night was the first time. She just took off with them and looked to me like she was trying to hide while eating them! Acting kind of crazy, like someone was going to take them away from her???? Not sure why other than a "dog thing". When she takes things I don't want her to have, I never grab them from her, I ask her to give them to me and reward her for coming and putting them in my hand. So I thought it was kind of funny she reacted to the bones like that!

Anna

By the way Jessica,

I love the "perfect poops" idea!!!!!!!

Anna

The small handheld pruning shears are your friend for cutting poultry bones. But a strong, sharp knife will slice right throught the backbone lengthwise and then across with little problem.

Good luck!!!! She must really love the to hide themlike that from you!

small handheld shears are a great idea! Cutting raw meat and bones with a knife kind of gags me a little. That is one of the reasons I rather but pieces. Cutting with shears are like pruning my plants!..Funny how the minds works!

Do u have a butcher near you ? If you do, you can go ask them if they can get you backs or necks. Or an Asian market ?

With Kaiser, on of my dogs, I have to be extremely careful with adding more muscle meat. He stools get loose quickly if I'm not paying attention to bone/meat ratio. When I feed him breast, I cut off 1/2 - 3/4 of the meat and use it for myself later OR hold on to it and feed it with some of the backs or necks.

Many good ideas here that you can take advantage of.

As for eating out of a bowl - I really don't see that happening. They will grab their food item and take it out and eat it. Mine either eats in the kitchen (easy cleanup with a swiffer) or outside.

If you cut the food into smaller pieces to try and keep him eating in the bowl you will loose one of the many nice things about a raw diet - they ability for them to keep their teeth clean by tearing and munching their food. I would keep it whole and let them have some fun with their food. Let's face it - even we humans like to play with our food from time to time!

I can look for a butcher, but in the area of southern ca where I live, I haven't seen a butcher shop, kind of a memory from the pass. But I can drive a couple of towns away and there are a lot of Asian markets.

Ok, I am getting from everyone that the bone to meat ratio is important to poop! and the poop is telling me if I am doing feeding right or wrong.

I don't know about her not eating from her bowl. Like I said, I am not always home and I want her to be welcomed in my families homes. We are all kind of neat freaks. I am thinking I rather cut up the meat and bones in small enough pieces for them to stay in a bowl, most of the time, and maybe when she is home, I will let her eat large pieces of meat and bones outside.

I have marble flooring downstairs, so a swiffer will not cut it. I use a marble cleaner on my hands and knees....this is why she is only allowed to eat on the large indoor-outdoor carpet.

Thanks Peter, good suggestions...maybe if I can find a butcher, I can get him to cut up his whole chickens for me!

 Quote: tracy collins

... As for eating directly from the bowl--It kind of depends on the size of the pieces of food, and the dog's eating habits. I'd suggest you get a mat of some kind (my dogs eat off a large doormat that I can hose off when it gets too cruddy) and teach the dog to stay on the mat with the food. I don't care if a piece of food is taken out of the bowl, but it has to stay on the mat. I've heard of people using a door mat size piece of plastic table cloth or even an old towel to define the eating area and facilitate cleanup.

I have only one bowl guy. And I would call that unusual with RMBs, actually. I don't know if I would reasonably expect it, which is why many feed raw in the crate,

However, I find it relatively easy to teach one area: one has a big sheet pan (large cake pan) and one has a piece of a shower curtain that I roll up after meals for next time.

It just took a few days of policing the meals, returning the RMBs to the desired place over and over.

Both of these "portable dining areas" are easily carried to someone else's home if needed, and I also have ground whole chickens stored in the freezer for any time that I might need a tidy meal for some reason. (If you tell the butcher to use "chili grind," the meat and bones still have some chunkiness.)

But in general, Tracy sums up my POV perfectly: I don't care if a piece of food is taken out of the bowl, but it has to stay on the mat.

 Quote: anna anderson

.... Thanks Peter, good suggestions...maybe if I can find a butcher, I can get him to cut up his whole chickens for me! ...

"Butcher" does not have to mean "separate butcher shop."

I have never had any request refused by the butcher at the natural-foods store where I shop. They know who their loyal customers are, and they want them to stay loyal customers. I have asked for the front end of a bird left "as is" while the weight-bearing bones were ground, and I have occasionally asked to have the liver ground in, and several other handling things, and they don't blink an eye.

I think that a huge help is to get to know the butcher, and then to start asking at the beginning of your shopping for the cutting you want done and picking it up after you have done your other cart-filling.

Then once s/he knows your name, ask if you can call ahead and give them time to do special orders at their convenience. You would be surprised at how little they mind special jobs if they are allowed to do them around their other work, during times of no customers, rather than while they have a line of people.

Thanks Connie,

I can live with the food staying on the carpet I provide, but not her running away with the bone and trying to hide it from me....If anyone saw the way she was acting, they would of thought I beat the puppy or something. I will take your suggestion and police the meals until that stops.

We do have a couple of large natural-food store down the street with a meat counter...I will start there.

Thanks again...Anna