Hi everyone

I need a little advice on feeding Hermione (4mnth boxer) I had switched her to raw feed 3wks ago as I had done some research and thought it sounded good and made sense. Everything was going well, ish, but she wasnt chewing her food just gulping so I changed from wings to necks. Same thing then she got one stuck. More research and I found an article about dogs getting their raw food stuck or it piercing on the way through. Anyway (sorry this is kinda long) I freaked a bit and thought I cant possibly take the risk of hurting my gorgeous girl so have switched to tripe and mixer biscuit, with added bone meal. I am still giving the veg mush and offal 1-2 times a week.  Is this going to be enough for her as she still has a long way to grow or should I just go back to kibble. Both the dogs love the tripe but I had read that it doesnt have enough nutrition to feed long term. I am quite confused about this, as I know people have been feeding tripe for years or do they all add supplements?

I would be careful about giving your pup bonemeal as this can cause more problems, ie, it can build up & gradually cause a blockage.  Instead of wings or necks for breakfast you could try chicken carcasses as your pup will quite happily manage these without gulping & you are then still getting some bone naturally into her.  Otherwise you could buy chicken mince that is made from ground up carcasses which again will give you your bone.

Some will say that feeding tripe with a good quality biscuit is unbalanced but you only have to look at some kennels who have been feeding this way for years to see how well it works & I wouldn't have thought they'd be adding supplements.

My youngest, now 5 months gets the following if it's any help; breakfast is chicken carcass, dinner is either beef/tripe/fish with a spoon of veg mush, supper is chicken & tripe.  She gets offal & eggs approx twice a week.  Her bone content from this is approx 45%.

I'm sure others on here will have other answers for you but that's mine :-)

Witchesmole can you please provide the link to the article where you read I found an article about dogs getting their raw food stuck or it piercing on the way through. And what do you mean it got "stuck"? did you have to pull it out or did the dog manage to swallow it?
Whenever i come accross a website that baggs a certain way of feeding,i try and find out their motives for doing so.Such as selling,afilliated with commercial dog foods or in some instances barf diets etc. :) It is always good to hear the pro's and con's of your chosen method of feeding,but try and find unbiased info,which is nigh impossible to find nowadays,everyone is always trying to sell you something and every other way except theirs will ultimately kill your dog,LOL!

You have slim to no chance of a chicken wing and especially not a neck "peircing" on the way through,chicken necks are made primarily from soft cartlidge,both wings and necks are usually from very young birds(around 6 weeks) which is why they are so popular with raw feeders(myself included) :)

My dogs rarely chew their chicken necks,sometimes they bring them back up whole and try again,but they have never got stuck,there is no 100% guarantee,but i can tell you the things you mentioned above should be the least of your worries.
If it's any consolation i have fed over 10,000lbs of raw meat and bone over a 6 year period,the majority of this being raw meaty bones and i have never had a problem,only once did i have a close call with a mammoth turkey neck that my dog tried to swallow whole and it got lodged in his throat,but i managed to get it out with no problems :) This one incident definately did not put me off of  feeding bones!

I would be very careful in feeding bonemeal,it is ground up and cooked bone,it really is only cooked bone,without the physical dangers,but with the all the nutritional problems of cooked bones,including the possibility of toxicity eg lead poisoning.
Bone meal used to be reccomended for women afraid of developing osteoporosis(sp?).Most of this bonemeal was was sourced from old cart horses which had spent all their lives in the city smoke,petrol fumes etc., concentrated lead from these fumes were found in their bones.Some of these women rotted away in mental hospitals until it was realised that they were suffering from lead poisoning!(reference:billinghursts-give your dog a bone)
I would much rather my dogs get their calcium from rmb's than artificial bone meal.I wouldnt have a clue how much bonemeal to add to my dogs food,i would be especially leary of adding it to a pups food as i would be worried about doing damage to his bones from giving too little or too much,chicken necks have the perfect amount of cal. ph.,they are a complete and balanced food in themselves. If you are still worried you could cut the necks and wings into smaller bite size chunks and feed them to your dog this way.I've done this plenty of times for the "commercial only" fed dogs who have come to stay with me,who didnt have a clue what to do with a bone :(

In the end you must do what you feel most comfortable doing,aslong as your dog still gets his required amount of calcium and the correct ratio of phos. :)

Good luck :)

Edie
XXX

Yikes I got a bit carried away and forgot to answer your question about the tripe!

Infact i can thelp you much there,some people say tripe is a complete food,others say it is not. I have seen a couple bad growth plate problems in young dogs who have been fed the majority with tripe.It is a good "add in" but not something i would make the basis of a dogs diet.
I'm big on variety,i try and feed as many different meats,veggies,fruit as i can get my hands on,feeding the same type of food day in day out week after week is bound to cause nutritional deficiencies.

My honest opinion feeding tripe is a good thing but dont use it as the main source of your dogs diet.

Just me 2 p worth :D

Edie
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She got it stuck in her throat, I managed to get it out and all is fine. It just scared me and I was looking for alternatives when I came across opinions from the otherside(so to speak). I still feel that raw is the right way to go but not sure how to go about it. I just dont think I can do bones again. Also she was passing them in her stools which I thought 'ouch' that might tear her bum.

The site I found against raw is
www.secondchanceranch.org -raw meat testimonies let me know what you think of it please.

Molly, my 5 month old leonberger, has chicken wings but after watching her pass the whole bone :O I decided to bash them with a hammer first at least I felt happier knowing it couldn't get stuck on the way out :D
I know this maybe defeats the object of her crunching the bone but she wasn't doing any crunching anyway.
I feed Maddie lamb & tripe with biscuits and they also have veg, not mushed just chopped smallish, baked or boiled potatoes, liver, kidneys (tho Maddie will only eat kidneys if they are cooked!), chicken mince, raw or scrambled egg (molly only as Maddie can't eat chicken or eggs).
I try to keep it varied, something different every day but the same every week if you see what I mean :)

Dee

I was going to say "you didnt get your info from that old gem the second hand ranch?? But i thought that place had been exposed for what it really is,by now!! Obviously not :(

I absolutely refuse to comment about this site

ok Frodo

That about says it all, but you know I am new here and prob lots of others and we can only learn by sites like this where people will give advice and knowledge. I tried to do research first but it really is confusing when you have not fed in this way before. I still really like the idea of raw food, but admit I am a little scared now. Which I guess is what the other site was all about. Like anything how can we know what is true? live and learn by our mistakes although I couldn't stand anything to happen to my pups as not my kids. So please advise away I need all the help I can get.

I liked the idea Missie of smashing the wings first!

All i can say is if you want to feed raw,find a mentor,join as many raw sites as you can,buy lots of raw feeding books,2 i can reccomend are "give your dog a bone" Ian Billinghurst and "natural nutrition for dogs and cats" Kymythy Shultze. I've found these two books the easiest to read :)

The most important piece of advice i can give you is Research,research,research,i seem to remember a post from you saying that you thought raw chicken gave dogs salmonella??  Too many people jump into raw feeding with no clue about what they are doing,i've heard of people chucking a hunk of mince into their dogs bowl thinking this was all the had to feed the dog :(
It's not rocket science,but it's not as simple as the above comment ;)

Edie :)

Sorry wasn't me about salmonella. I had been feeding raw and salmonella and bacteria hadn't crossed my mind as I had already researched this. It was just the choking and possibility of piercing their insides that concerned me as my pup just gulps her food down. Which is why I had changed to tripe, original post at top of this page :-). I wanted advice on what else to give with the tripe. I have spoken to the supplier where I bought the tripe and they do chicken mix tripe and beef etc so I am hoping this will give enough variation to just eating tripe. Including giving veg mush. I hope I haven't confused the issue, this wasn't my intention. I am very new to feeding raw and had read horrible accounts of dogs dying because of piercing bones, which concerned me with my little pup. I will research more and hopefully will return them to eating bones too. :-)

Sorry wasn't me about salmonella

Sorry :o I just went back and checked and the statement was written by someone below one of your posts,my very big bad!

Apologies :)

no worries :-)

just trying to do whats best for my babies and me :-)