Evening all, hope you are having a good week.

I looked at Landy's but think that I won't have space for a large chest freezer to fit all the food you say you get. (Had visions of a mountain of meat in your last posts!)

My lot are getting  a nice mix of food - veg,friut,sardines,eggs,cottage cheese,tripe,beef chunks,kidneys,liver (yuk),lamb chops (not often they are expensive),chicken wings and chicken drumsticks.

However I'm worried that they aren't getting a good variety of bones and although bil is a butcher his supplier doesn;t do bones per se because people don't want them. Except me!

What should I do? Is chicken enough?

Thanks

Karen

I don't have enough space to keep large stores of bones either :) It's difficult getting marrow bones round here and when we go to Norfolk we try to pick up a few bags of bones which we freeze :) Ours don't suffer from not having a regular supply - they get chicken wings/legs etc and other bones when we can get them :)

Daisy

You could try lamb breast? Cheaper than chops and just as good, at least my lot think so. If they get a whole one then that is it for the day so you could try trimming the meat off and giving the bone end as one meal and the meat as another on another day. Mine get chicken carcases from my butcher more than they get wings.

Most of the RMBs in my dogs' diet come ni the form of chicken wings, thighs and legs simply because they are cheap and easy to get. They also get pork belly ribs once or twice a week, lamb breast and turkey legs.

Thanks for this - would it be worth buying a couple of chickens whole and cutting them up for the ribs etc?

Saw a lovely rack of lamb ribs but at over £11 I thought not...........

Oooh, I 've just had rack of lamb for tea :) Mmmmmmmm Kept the dogs a little bit but they'll have to make do with lamb breast for their tea!!

see if your supplier can get you carcases,  if not then cheap chickens cut up would be fine, it's just that I wouldn't give mine lamb chops, they are for me! LOL Far too expensive. The butcher that I get my meat from gives me a bag of lamb bones that have come from meat that he has trimmed (if that makes sense?) I know that one of mine can't have beef bones and as these don't have a lot of meat on they get them just to have chew on, their main bones are from the carcases and some chicken wings and of course the lamb breast, I am hoping also to get some rabbits for them, just gotta wait and see....

Oh just remembered....my butcher sometimes keeps beef ribs for me. They keep the dogs munching for ages but they are a nightmare to fit in the freezer as they are so long!

Hi

Tescos have had a great deal on there chickens recently buy one get one free.

I have stocked up. We as a family eat a  lot of chicken so I have been cutting the breasts and legs of and giving my GSD the rest. I take a wing of for my JRT as she is a small eater. There is still quite a bit of meat still left on and he really enjoys it. The whole family and dogs fed from one chicken lol

Wendy

Thanks for your tips. Got back from Asda a while ago with a bargain - 2 med chickens for £4 and will cut off the breast and meaty bits to do a curry tomorrow. I'll chop up the rest and let my 3 have them...........

I think I will pester bil a bit more about bones...........he owes me a few favours!!

Hi Just wondering about feeding my two raw bones, in the past I,ve only ever given them a knuckle bone to chew on mainly to help keep their teeth clean,
I,m now wondering about giving them raw chicken wings but not sure how to go about  it ie how many at once or how often , I,m also a bit concerned they may get them stuck in their throats as they have never been fed chicken wings before .
Do other people with large dogs manage ok with chicken wings without them getting stuck I,m just a bit worried the dogs may swallow the wings whole.

Hi

My GSD has no problems with a chicken wing. He is a slow eater though and does crunch them. He didnt get them till he was 4 years old.

You can give them as a treat if you dont want to change over there feeding. It wouldnt do any harm. Some people suggest holding the end at first so the dog has to chew it but I havent had to do that.

Why dont you give them a try

Wendy

The worst that happened to my older dog (who didn't know what to do with a chicken wing the first time) was that he swallowed it - and then promptly brought it back up again :D He's only 18kg and has never had a problem with them in 6 years :D Mine get two as part of their normal meal.

Daisy

Never had a problem here with my two big dogs eating chicken wings, or any bones for that matter. They crunch up the bones before they swallow but I have seen them go down whole on occasions with no ill effects :)

My setters manage fine - even my old 11 year old who is missing a few teeth.  One of mine also swallowed whole and then bought it back up.  My puppy has had them from 8 weeks and manages just fine too.

Never had a problem with getting stuck or choking.

Makes there poo's nice too!! :-D

thanks I think I might give them atry I,m all for anything that makes pooh nice:

When I swapped over to raw, about 2/3yrs ago, I spoke to every single person in the meat trade that I could think of.

I ended up getting all of my RMBs from our Butcher who happened to be an abbotoir as well ;) So we got all of the offal on as well as the carcasses.

Since I've moved up the other end of the Country I have had to rethink. My butcher supplies me with lamb racks, beef end bits, chicken carcasses (Which, annoyingly I have to pay him for and never used to in the South) the local gamekeeper for Pheasants, rabbits etc.  Butcher now tells me that chicken is in short supply because of Avian bird flu :rolleyes: so he can't guarantee chicken carcasses anymore.

I buy the Tesco value frozen chicken wings as a short term supplement and I'm lucky as the local loch fisherman gives me whole trout and salmon free of charge.

I also get a months delivery from my local supplier of whole tripes and heart & mince tripe which I keep in my old standard size fridge freezer that we have put in our shed. You'd be amazed as to what you can get into a standard size F/F We can also keep anything that we pick up on the off chance in the freezer part of it.