I am on the search forum looking for a puppy,but have been reading other boards,and am confused by the advice to feed raw chicken wings Are these the one you buy in the supermarket? We always avoided giving our GSD's any kind of bones as we were of the opinion they were dangerous.They could demolish bones faster than a butchers mincer,if they accidentally got hold of one.They certainly never got raw chicken,as i thought that was dangerous too.I would welcome any advice on this as I hope to be buying a puppy soon,and if it is beneficial,i would like to try it,although I would be a bit apprehensive at first.

Hi Jean,

It is a bit confusing and would take a long time to explain the principles I would recommend that you search in one of the search engines " barf diet" this alone should give you information and much needed answers to your question.

Regards

Pamela

Thanks I will check that out,as I am intrigued.My previous puppies were never interested in the rubber bones or anything that wasn't edible. Giving them a raw chicken wing to chew on would have been ideal,but I always thought it was taboo. Ah well,you live and learn,as they say,and I am certainly willing to do both.Thanks

Key to bones is RAW - never cooked! Cooked are dangerous - raw are good for them. Chicken wings are great - good bone/meat ratio and easy for even smaller dogs to manage. Check out BARF and you will get the idea. Good luck
Janet

My dogs all love raw chicken wings, and that's the key, they must be raw.
Karen.

Cooked bones splinter :(

Raw bones munch!! :D

Hi I have 3 gsds and have always given chicken wings, the youngest being 4 months old, I feed a 1/2 barf diet that is just a small amount of arden grange and the rest of the daily allowance in the form of raw meat ie chicken wings. organ meat and vegtables, my dogs are thriving this way

Janines

My oldest elkhound was 'sucking' on raw chicken necks from about 5 weeks!!All my 3 dogs love raw chicken bones but I tend to give them drumsticks as they take more time chewing them!!When I go shopping my boys search the bags to see if I've bought them any!!
Archer
P.S. don't worry if they bring them back up again at first..they soon get used to them.

I would be interested in feeding 1/2 barf diet as you do ,having had GSD's and know what their stomachs are like.What is Arden grange is it a complete food?

All my dogs have the raw chicken wings from the GSD's and the Afghan down to the Chinese Cresteds and they are also great for helping keep their breath sweet and teeth clean

My Rat Terriers LOVE raw chicken wings. They much them down quickly.

Like others have said, its cooked bones that are bad, they splinter and can be sharp, raw bones just munch away...

A GREAT puppy treat!!!

Hi arden grange is a complete food, saying that they only get about 150grammes of this per day, the rest of the diet is made up of raw meat, I have always fed this way and never had a problem combining the two diets together, if you type in arden grange in a search it will fetch the site up for you, I also give hokamix 30 and salmon oil on a daily basis, and the dogs are in really good condition with coats to die for

Janines

the hokamix, is it true that when you first start giving it the dogs shed their coats like crazy? and the salmon oil is it in capsule form, sorry for being so nosy but am having problems with one of my dogs coats at the moment and am trying to find something to help

yes hokamix makes them shed their coats like crazy probably best to start when there are no important shows but you have to keep giving it to them all the time dont think its one of those things that you can use when the coat is crap in order for it to work it must be continuos, I have seen a tremendous difference to my shepherds coats since I started using this 12 months ago the shedding period is also much shorter and the salmon oil. is in liquid form heres the link http://www.activepetfeeds.com/. I find this one much easier since its in liquid form added by a pump action much easier than trying to get capsules down their throats also dogs love the taste of it, I also used this dog food when u click the link, u will see it, a big difference in coat condition there as well, but I couldn,t get it for a while and put them onto arden grange but use the salmon oil as well

hope this helps
Janines

Thanks Janines you have been most helpful. When they have thrown all their coat and gone bald so to speak ,roughly how long does it take to start coming back.

Hi it takes about 6 to 8 weeks to get their coats back but if you keep them on it long term, what a difference you will see, Jordan is out of coat at the moment but we were at a show yesterday and the judge remarked about her coat its gleaming the moult does not seem to last as long as normal and the quality of the new coats is fantastic, it takes time to get work and rid the body of toxins but you will see a difference in coat and condition, this is one product that definetly does work heres a link to learn more but its only available from the animal health cohttp://www.hokamix.com/
Janines

Sorry if i sound thick here but can you give defrosted raw chicken wings/drumsticks as in the kind you buy at iceland or asda. Would it be ok to give the odd one or two as well as feeding Naturediet Lite.
Budmag

Yes thats fine providing they are defrosted properly. At the moment i am using the Asda chicken wings that you get in the chiller cabinet

Don't defrost them in a microwave - they must be naturally defrosted or the bone will cook even if the meat isn't.

I know you probably know this, but I didn't want to assume.

Wendy

Hi I was intrigued about raw chicken wings and decided to let Morse try them. He ran about with the raw wing and dropped it in the lobby where my lord and master ( ha, ha) stepped on it this evening and asked if we were practicing voodoo. Can I chop it up and try again with wee bits or is that dangerous?

Shouldn't be a problem. I actually hold them for mine - I have one that gulps them if I don't (we now have a method whereby she now doesn't eat my hand in the process of me holding them LOL) and I have one that likes me to hold so she can have a good grip and chew. You can try bashing it so the bone is in smaller pieces or you can try holding it for him and see if he's okay that way. I think the first time they are so shocked you are letting them have what is normally taboo that they don't know what to do!

Wendy

fHI Wendy the little toerag has just scoffed my wing bits having dropped them in strategic places in the kitchen first:) I think he's pretending to be a wolf hunter today - the kids were hiding liver in the garden for him thismorning so he could be a drugs dog:D

Sounds like a sweet boy!!

Wendy

Gave Buddy his first raw chicken drumstick tonight. Boy he looked and acted like a dog with 2 tails. He was so excited i could'nt stop laughing at him. He immediately ran off with it, dropped it and ran around it, barked at it, jumped on it then took it behind the sofa and scoffed it. I took it off him at one point to try and get him to eat outside but he sneaked back in behind the sofa.
Is it just me or do you all get as much pleasure from seeing your dogs enjoy themselves.
God love him.
Budmag

:D:D It makes all the repeat SIT, DOWN, COME worth it. Buddy sounds like Morse - I'm sooo cute just let me.........ha,ha she didn't notice!

Since I started making one of their meals a day a raw meaty bone meal I just LOVE to see them eat. They are sooo happy and excited when dinnertime comes. They are excited about their food, and then when it's finished they come inside (I feed them outside for this meal) they each go to their bed and roll for about five minutes - wiping their faces having a good roll - almost like 'yeah, that was good, now time to stretch and enjoy' or something like that.

They KNOW when I bring home their stuff as opposed to ours, and when I bring out their knuckle bones they go bonkers!! All sorts of bouncing and bounding until I get them out of the bag and then each takes theirs to their respective blanket. And yes - I am such a saddo that they have blankets outside to chew their bones on! They didn't like getting grass on the bones (it would stick and was really yukky) so they would keep trying to bring them in the house. As soon as I gave them each a blanket outside to eat their bones on they stayed outside. Go figure!!

Wendy

They do love their "real food" don't they? One of mine only picks at his 'commercial' breakfast but loves his meat & biscuit dinner.
:)

Mine were eating their kibble breakfast, but weren't too happy. I decided I liked the ingredients in another brand better, so switched their breakfast 'cereal' and all of a sudden breakfast was good again too! We changed kibble brands to James Well Beloved. They dive in in the mornings (well except this week with the heat). But they still don't show as much enjoyment as when eating the meat! WOW

Wendy

Hi Wendy

What exactly do you give your dogs for this meaty bone meal, because I would like to try and give mine some sort of different meal now and again just for a treat, but I dont know what bones to get?

Hi - my dogs are a whippet-mix and a whippet. After some experimenting on amounts this is what I feed them for their evening meat meal. They either get 1/2 a chicken carcass each (I've got a supplier here, but I can also get carcasses from my butcher), OR 2 chicken wings each OR 5 oz AMP freeflow meat OR on occasion when I've run out I've grabbed back ribs and given them 2-3 back ribs - they eat them ribs and all.

If you want to chat more about it please feel free to email me.

Wendy

I always thought chiken bones were bad for dogs due to the bones but i have learnt they are now good. I have two GSD one 6yr the other now 18 weeks, do you think it would be a good idea to start giving them a chicken wing as a treat once in a while. My only concern is that my older gets the runs as soon as she looks at anything rich, which this happen with chicken wings as shall i just give it a go?

As you've probably read, but I just want to be sure you are aware, COOKED chicken bones are definitely Dangerous for dogs as cooking makes them brittle and that's when they can cause serious damage. RAW bones are safe (though you still want to be sure they chew as big pieces can still block the intestines) as they are softer and aren't brittle when broken down.

If you aren't sure that your dog will crunch them enough to be safe you can always hit them with a hammer a few times first to ensure that the bone pieces are small enough.

I started off by giving them a couple of wings 2-3 times a week and they had no tummy trouble. The bone actually tends to firm up their poo's rather than making them runny, and chicken isn't rich - remember boiled chicken is what the vet recommends for poorly tummies. In this case your just giving it all raw.

Wendy