I've been looking at the BARF threads so I decided to get a meaty bone (i've got them before but they were ignored & i got rid of them) a pack of ckicken wings has gone in the bin. So got 1 meaty bone 3 days ago its sat in my kitchen until tonight when i came home @ 10pm I went to change my clothes ,bone on my bed (I should explain border terrier up to today by invisable wire attached to my foot) she's been guarding this bone all night and ignoring me, its in the dog bed she's on a very cold tiled floor.
I want both (I've got 2 BT's) to gnaw on the bone but it seems to me like she's like she's protecting it.Ccan anyone explain to me whats happening. I've no problem with this.

Ann,
I'm no great expert but have you only got 1 bone between the two dogs? I may have misunderstood but I would give 1 each as at the moment the on that has it is too busy guarding it and the other one could get very frustrated.
Mine are never left with their wings or whatever, they are a meal and are eaten while I am around. I haven't been able to get big recreational bones so far so I am around while they have wings etc.

When I used to give big roasted bones they always had 1 each. I would be worried about disputes over 1 bone.
Anne

Good grief Ann, you are lucky that you didn't end up with a mega fight on your hands! One bone per dog to start. You will find that after they have had their initial naw that they swop bones anyway. I always separate my lot when I first give them a new bone, because then you do not end up with any squabbles. After they have had the initial chew, they don't seem to mind swopping and sharing. :-)

Ann, not sure if you plan to change to the BARF diet or were just giving the dogs a bone. If you do want to change to BARF please do read up on it first. Feeding a balanced home made diet is quite complicated and there are both pros and cons. If you were only giving a bone, see what Anne and Leigh have said. I have very laid back dogs but a new bone is one thing they would fight over.

Ann

Only to echo what has been said about one bone + two dogs = trouble :D. You may well find that given half the chance one of them "gathers" the bones and guards them anyway - I know mine do. The answer if this is the case is to split them up and let them have their own bones seperately or not to give bones at all.

hth

Pam n the boys

Hi Ann
Sounds to like the bone is a hard `recreational` bone and not one for eating, my little ones don`t have them long enough to think about guarding them they are too busy eating them.They weren`t quite sure either what to do when I first gave them chicken wings but once I pulled the some of the skin away from the meat they soon got the idea and enjoyed them.
When I first gave a chicken carcas to the big dogs it was so funny they all stood there carcas in mouth stareing at me as if to say"Hey thought we weren`t supposed to eat bones"then they dropped them still not sure whether I had gone mad or not.I had to pick them up and put them into their mouths again,once I heard the first crunch I new they had got the idea.
there`s never a cross word between them and they really enjoy the variety of a natural diet.
Regards Carole

My shepherds each get raw meaty bones, but I agree with one of the other posts, one is probably guarding it, I dont leave my dogs until they have eaten all their bones, otherwise Tyler would snatch the bone away from Jordan, resulting in a mega fight, try giving one each and wait until they have eaten them, if they show no interest remove them and try again the next day, or try another meat, when I first stared feeding barf. Jordan looked at me as if I had gone mad, the other two will eat anything they didn,t really mind but I found that playing with the chicken wing worked wonders with jordan, the trouble is that we feed kibble and that to the dog is what its food is when we present raw bones they dont know what to do with it, but Jordan always kills her food before she eats it, tonite she had raw green tripe, which she violently shook from side to side before eating it

Thanks for the replies I feel very lucky as they have never fought ( she came to 2 mths after him and he immediately knew his place and stayed there since)its very funny they must have an agreement between them, my boy dog?? went straight to the shoe place at the backdoor this norning and came out with bone. I dont know how it got there he's had it all day .She's not interested at all.Right now he's got it on his paws resting his head asleep.He's not gnawed it either they dont like raw meat I'll try chicken legs the way suggested.
I only got the one bone as that was all the butcher had and he never has beef ones as his meat comes ready prepared as we have very few butchers here and my supermarket does'nt do them any suggestions?? Green tripe whats that never heard of it guess I've a lot to learn
I've read about BARF its not for me too complex
I'am toying with idea of changing their food they are on Advance now I've been reading about a disease called Spikes Disease has anyone heard of it??it sounds very scarey due to intolerance to protien

Hi green tripe is unprocessed tripe, my dogs love it and so does everyone elses dogs, probably, barf isn,t complicated once u get the hang of it, the other alternative is prize choice do a complete barf meal in either frozen or cooked , the frozen is in 2kg bags, u can get either chicken or meat with vegtables, seaweed, etch already included in there it takes a lot of the guess work out of preparing the dogs meal, they also do one called k9 complete, which come in frozen blocks or a complete food which contains no additives or preservatives, their web address is www.prizechoice.co.uk
this might be the alternative, u can also get chicken wings, fish,green tripe, raw beef chunks in fact anything
Tracy

Tracy, how much of the complete BARF meals should you give? By guessing weight of food much per dog I make the food bill for my crew £15.50 per day!

Sharon your figures must be way off! Pretty sure it doesn`t cost anything like that over there :) Now over here???? thats a different thing!!! No smilies added on !
Christine, Spain.

Hi Christine, could easily be way out. My mental arithmetic isn't great, I can't think dog/dog food weights in kgs and I was guessing quantities. Can you do a rough calculation?

We're talking 1 ancient castrated sheltie male; 1 large entire eldery wolfhound bitch; 1 large entire elderly deerhound male; 1 small entire adult deerhound bitch; 2 large entire deerhound adult bitches; 1 super economy size entire wolfound male, still growing; 1 entire bullmastiff male youngster, growing like a weed; 1 entire beardie male youngster, still growing; 1 entire med/large lurcher male youngster, still growing.
All of the non-elderly adults work hard, and the youngsters get plenty of exercise. All live indoors but the heating is rarely on.

Hi Sharon, mine isn`t too great either but heres what I give going by weight (approx) of dogs. My lot are diff. ages/wieight & males/females & are between 27kg/35kg but heres an example tonight they had 8oz tripe,half quail (approx 4oz) 2 chicken wings small piece ch. liver, 1 egg & dollops of mixed veggies and earlier on this afternoon a small beef RMB. I go on about 1lb 4oz per dinner food without the RMB, if I could see the dogs I would have a good idea but not much good otherwise sorry. With this diet it`s easy to see if the dog is losing or gaining weight & you can adjust it daily accordingly. Mind you my eldest who is not very active had only 4oz tripe 1/4 quail & 1 ch/wing with the veggies & a v small egg & the smallest RMB I had.
Christine, Spain.

Re read your post & have tried to get a mental image Sharon, so here goes. Elderly wolfhound/deerhound about 8oz-12oz meat & 1 quail or 2/3 ch. wings or 1/4 rabbit, if they have fish I would say about 12oz-1lb but thats it for the meal of fish. The youngsters about 10-14oz meat & around 3/4 ch wings. Fish about 1lb-1lb 4oz. The adults just a bit less and then I would also give a RMB each day & these I don`t weigh but know they are heavy! :) These are very approx weights as it deoends on the activity the dog but mine also have days when they just get a whole chicken or 1/2 a rabbit or 4/5 ch. wings. Why not join BritBarf & ask the more experienced, you don`t need to be feeding raw just have an interest. Not much help really was I? :)
Christine, Spain.

In the unlikely even you're ever tempted, don't take a house sitting job with us Christine :) If you give Lewis (the giagantic young wolfie) that allowance for a few days, he'd almost certainly decide that you'd make a nice RMB! :D

Did say my maths aint too great didn`t I ???? :) :) Now if I saw him I`d have a good idea what to give him but how do you explain a handful on here?!!! Or even 2 handfuls Or how about a piece this big?:) Doesn`t say much for my mental images either does it??? LOL :) Lewis can take his beady eyes of me as well!
Christine, Spain.

Not a chance that Lewis' eye will stray this evening Christine. :) He's in absolute disgrace and has been sent to bed without his supper! At dinner time he growled at Cal and when I grabbed him and told him to stop he kept on growling. Don't think he was actually growling at me, but he didn't get the benefit of the doubt. Won't tell you what I did a that point cos you wouldn't like me any more, but after that his dinner was removed. ;)

Picture of Lewis: stopped measuring when he reached 37½" at the shoulder (true height properly measured) but he hasn't yet read the graphs that say his upwards growth should have slowed dramatically 2 months ago. :) He's not as broad as he'll be but he's already built like a very muscular and very curvaceous tank. Oh and he has a beady eye and very big teeth! :D

PS: shall we resume our debate tomorrow morning after the weekend break? :)

Well he`s going to be a big boy when he grows up then Sharon :) You might say I underestimated just a little a bit then!!!?? So he`s in the dog house on bread & water rations...hmmm so my rations are a bit more than yours tonight :) poor feller. Think you`ll have to be careful of those big teeth & beady eyes now.!! Yes looking forward to picking up where we left off on the other thread.
Christine, Spain.