Quote: Anders Yuran

I am convinced and never discuss with the owners. They provide what food they want and reading on the table of content I many times get tempted but no.

But of course I also understand that accidents can happen, I am only interested in how common it is that dogs get hurt by raw bones, especially from chicken

Anders

I have never had a bone problem, after several decades and many dogs. But I have read and heard of such problems.

I have read and heard of more kibble problems, particularly when we look at the huge across-the-board recalls of 2006/2007, which involved many deaths,


Neither is foolproof.

 Quote: Anders Yuran

.... also with chicken quarters and backs.

IMO, Anders, if you are concerned about RMBs, you can skip the weight-bearing bones like legs/thighs and thereby eliminate most of the potential blockage problems (as small as the risk is, IMO). You can rely on backs, which have no "knob" part.

I'm not saying this is necessary ... I'm simply saying that you may feel more confident using backs as your RMBs.

And of course, you could grind if you really wanted to.

JMO!

The act of eating anything comes with some amount of risk. (choking, obstruction, poisoning, contamination, nutritional deficiency, obesity...)

Everyone must weight the risk vs. reward with every decision in life.

I think whatever risk is present in feeding a raw diet is outweighed by the nutritional benefit, and the comfort I feel in having more control over what's in the food. (among other reasons.)

Yes. A dog *could* choke on a chicken bone. It's not likely. But it's possible. A dog could also choke on kibble. A dog *could* be sickened by pathogens in a raw diet. A dog could be poisoned by contaminants in kibble.

This isn't an either/or choice. There are prepared kibble diets that are just as good as the raw diet I make. Lots of people feed crappy, unbalanced raw diets.

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BARF...stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food.

This basically means what a wolf type candid would find to eat in the wild. This translates to some to a prey model diet.

We raw feeders try to imitate that diet as closely as possible with RMBs muscle meats, organ meats, vegetation (that would be found in the gut of the prey items in our feeding green tripe) & other vegetables. This diet is supplemented with some berries, other vegetable ( as prey also is only able to have what it available to it in their range area), fish etc.

Wolves are first: meat eaters...but they are also scavengers & opportunistic feeders. They will eat a fish if they find it & some berries & fruits etc if they are in there area.

It is our job to balance this all out with the best of all of these foods. In the wild wolves do not always get to have the variety at all times that we can supply to our dogs. They have to depend on the supply of 'game' in their area depending on the season of they year. Different packs live in different area & will have different supplies of food available to them. We can provide a greater variety to our dog then the wild wolves. They are greatly benefited health wise by this great variety.

Hope this helps clarify some of the BARF/ prey model questions.

There are always risks no matter what you choose to feed you dogs. But I would rather take the small risk of a bone problem then to feed something that I have no control over what goes into the food or how it is handled. I have fen raw to 4 GSDs ...3 from 7 & 8 week old babies with never a problem. I'm happy with my decision to feed the way that I do. Everyone has to make their own choices.

When I had three small terriers, Two Border terriers and a JRT they each got a whole leg quarter (thigh and drumstick) as the foundation of their diet and none ever had a problem. These were 12, 15 and 16 lb dogs.

I know that Ed and Cindy also have zero problems with weight-bearing poultry bones for smaller dogs.

I did once have one dog (not that small, either) who didn't seem to digest the weight-bearing bones quite well enough. That thigh joint with the knob would come out nice and smooth and round, but not a lot smaller. So I simply stuck with non-weight-bearing bones for her. In fact, I got in the habit and still give mostly backs (and also those little "game hens" when I can get them). I'm not at all rigid about it, but I have a good source for backs so I might as well use it.

But many many people give leg quarters to all size dogs with no problems.