On reading about feeding on the message board I was quite preturbed by people asking when it was ok to feed a puppy chicken wings.  I would have thought never feed any puppy or dog (or cat) chicken wings or any other part of a chicken with bones in as they can splinter and cause all sorts of problems.  I am just a dog and cat lover and owner and have been for over 50 years, and have never given my dogs or cats bones from a chicken or turkey. I am sure if you ask a vet they would cringe at this idea, mine would.  I only give my dogs sterlised bones to chew on, the cats do not get any bones. 

Hi there :)

Cooked bones DO indeed splinter and can cause dreadful damage dogs and cats. Raw chicken wings, chicken carcasses and other raw bones are fine. Dogs eat them whole with no problems :)

In the wild, wolves and other canine types eat raw bones with no problems. You can do a search here on the forum for BARF and get further info :)

Hi iv'e never given my pups chicken wings but my cats i have the vet told me it was ok and he also said its a good way of cleaning plaque of a cats teeth

Guest - just ask yourself what your average fox survives on?  Do you think he fillets his chicken before he eats it?  Our dogs are much the same - the risky bones are cooked ones, which have been changed by heat so that they are prone to splinter - and this can include the bones purchased from pet shops - so called 'roasted' bones (which are normally infact deep fried......)

There is no way in the world i would give my dogs "sterilised" smoked bones from the pet shop! Those things are an accident waiting to happen :( Guest have you ever heard of the dangers of cooked bones? I think your'e confusing them with raw :)

I have given my dogs chicken wings,necks and carcasses among other bones all  my life,to teeny tiny dogs up to the big boys! I think if there were going to be problems like you suggested i would have seen them by now :) I am also giving the wee stray kittens i have adopted,chicken wings and necks daily :) Wings,and necks imparticular are very soft,more cartlidgy than hard bone,they would be very,very hard to splinter!

A friend of mine who feeds raw has worked out that over the last 5 years she has fed her dogs over 6000lbs(dont quote me on that,it could be more or less,havnt got time to check) of meat and raw bones,she also said that she would most likely have encountered a problem by now. HAve you ever given raw meaty bones to your animals and encountered problems? I prefer to go by my own and others personal experience,rather than what someone guesses could happen :) If i ever encounter a problem then i shall deal with it then,but because i am always careful and tailor the bone to the individual dog then i doubt i ever will :)

My vet uses my dogs teeth as an example for his nurses etc. to show how a dogs teeth SHOULD look like :D
He has no problems in me giving my pets bones.

I have never taken my dogs in for an expensive,traumatising dental nor have i ever brushed their teeth,i can only attribute that to giving them plenty of bones to gnaw on.

I am not a purist barf feeder,i also feed commercial and homecooked :)

Guest why dont you join,so we can have a proper discussion about this ;) :p  I would like to hear YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE on the travesty of giving dogs and cats bones.

I am with guest on this one ! I have been advised from various sources never to feed chicken wings or bones to dogs and cats. Indeed I had a terrible experience in Greece many years ago when I gave a chicken wing and parts of a carcass to a starving cat. The poor creature choked on the wing and was terribly distressed. I tried to help it but the cat ran away choking. I was later told to my horror that the cat had been found dead presumably from choking.It is something that stays with me to this day and I feel 'gutted' about it. Never again for me. Err on the side of caution , why take the risk ??

Because the benefits far outweight the risks :) Alot of people feed rawhide but both of my dogs have choked on the things,one had it lodged in her throat before i managed to rip it out,i wont feed them anymore as i've had bad personal experience with them,but i wont go around telling everyone else not to feed them!

It's terrible what happened to that cat,but a bone would also be the last thing i would give a starving animal,lettalone one i had no personal knowledge about! Before starting any pet on raw meaty bones you must first deduce what kind of chewer he is,gulper or nibbler.You must also supervise at all times,as with everything there is always a "just incase"  There is nothing you can feed your dogs that can mimic the excellent nutrition given from bones,clean teeth are just an added bonus. Someone from another website's dog has only recently choked and died from eating a piece of kibble,the dog used to toss the kibble in the air and then catch and eat it,1 piece of kibble and the dog is now dead :(

There are risks in absolutely everything!!

If everyone erred on the side of caution and listened to what he said,and i heard this happened to that dog etc. our dogs would be living on air, as there would be nothing left to feed them,dogs get problems from other things besides bones,there are much,much worse things out their that owners willingly feed their dogs :(

I've been feeding  my dogs and cats bones for 20 plus years,my mum also does,and for twice as long as me! I think in all our time i would have seen a problem by now :)

Actually Rose , I said I wouldn't feedn't these and advised 'err on the side of caution' which you seem to have interpreted as me telling people what to do. We were asked for our opinions and I gave mine as you have given yours. We are all entitled to an opinion , be it deemed right or wrong by others. ps. I didn't know or have enough time to observe the starving cat in Greece' eating habits as to what type of chewing motion it used. It was starving and was fed a chicken carcasss /bone amongst other food items. This was unfortunately all available at the time!I think it is unlikely we all end up feeding our dogs fresh air, we love them too much ! 

Actually taggartgolf i was referring to the op when i said :i wouldnt go around telling people not to feed them:

I understand you couldnt have studied the stray cats eating habits first! Once again i was referring to something different,i was talking about our pets :)

What i meant about the fresh air comment was,if we listened to everything other people told us was dangerous,we would have nothing left to feed!Some people say a kibble diet is dangerous,that doesnt mean you should automatically stop feeding it???

I dont know if i'm not writing my posts clearly enough,or your'e having trouble understanding them?? Infact i only directed 3 things to you taggartgolf,the other points were in general :)

My opinion is from years of personal experience. It just annoys me when people bag something solely on what someone else has said or because they had 1 bad experience which was caused through their own negligence :)

Ofcourse everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but for me it all depends if it's based on hearsay or their own personal experiences for me to take it seriously or not :)

Thank you Rose for clarifying that. You obviously have invaluable experience and I hope to be able to call upon it in the future if needed.
Regards
Taggartgolf

Well I haven't had a problem and nor have all of my BARF friends & breeders who have been feeding this diet since time began ;)

My dogs mean the world to me, certainly as much as my daughter means to me and I certainly wouldn't put them in any sort of jeopardy, but life is full of risks, even taking them for a walk.  But I haven't found any evidence that contradicts my beliefs. Unless of course, you speak to vets, most of them won't have any reason to endorse feeding raw, they work to their own agenda.

I used to live in Spain and there were a lot of regular stray cats around, especially at the back of restaurants where all of the raw bones and carcasses were and they were healthier looking than the pet ones! :P. I can honestly say hand on heart that they were thriving. Perhaps the cat that you fed was ill and weak anyway.

I'm not on here to convince anybody, as each to their own :) just sharing my experience.

Edited to say: My friend lost her Wheaten Terrier 2 years ago, he choked on a rawhide chew :( Unfortunately it's not the first dog that I have heard of to have gotten into difficulties with these things, they should be banned!