Quote:

 Quote:

....So far, she has 1 pound of chicken legs/thighs per day, with
a switch up of red beef or deer meat (while the deer lasts).....

You know what? I have posted twice to this thread and didn't notice until today that you might be giving no bones but leg/thigh bones.

If you check out the raw sites, I think you'll want to consider more soft bones (or eggshells) because of the weight-bearing bones being less chewable and less fast to digest as other poultry bones. Nothing wrong with them, IMO, just maybe not the exclusive bone source.

Thanks Connie!!!

Yes, I remember the talks about the weight-bearing bones.
I didn't think (Now THAT'S my problem!) chicken legs counted
as weight-bearing, b/c of how light chickens are. I'm a dork!

Would chicken wings be more beneficial than the legs, bone wise?

I'm thinking cost effective... And I do give eggshells 4 times/week.
That cool?

martin,
try whole chickens, chicken necks, chicken backs, chicken wings. whatever you can get at the least cost.

the key to success with raw is to give the dog as much variety as you are able to, within your budget. all one thing is never good, no matter what it is.

you might try talking to the butcher counter manager at your local supermarket and find out what "off cuts" they can order for you by the case lot in your price range. (my cutoff is i don't buy anything that is more than .99 cents/lb.)

some things to ask for:

turkey necks
turkey wings
beef hearts (muscle and organ)
beef liver
pork necks (can be constipating so don't feed often, or alternate with organ meats or veggie pulp.)
beef ribs
lamb riblets
lamb necks
manager's specials on about to expire hamburger
whole salt water fish (frozen. i just got several bags of whole tilapia for only .59/lb.)

sometimes i just show up at the supermarket on saturdays and see what they have on unadvertised specials.

this is just the beginning. what is available and at what price depends on where you live. be flexible.

i would be very leery of feeding wild boar, mountain lion, and bear because of trichinosis. and don't feed any other wild game without freezing it at 0F for ten days to kill parasites.

 Quote:

I remember the talks about the weight-bearing bones.
I didn't think (Now THAT'S my problem!) chicken legs counted
as weight-bearing, b/c of how light chickens are. I'm a dork!
Would chicken wings be more beneficial than the legs, bone wise?

I think so, and so do NJ Boxer and other raw sites. I'm trying to do the ratios of meat and bone when you are using mainly leg/thigh pieces.

How about if you use necks and backs and wings for half of what you're now feeding in legs, and keep the eggshells?

I did this in my head, so please check out the %s on a raw site.