Went to the butcher's yesterday and mentioned I was looking for a supplier of RMBs and could he help. He gave me a great big bag full of chicken carcasses, lamb ribs, a few knuckle type bones and some scraps/offcuts including bits of liver/kidneys. Now being new to this raw lark I know the poultry and lamb ribs are OK and most of the books I have recommend these, but there were some bits of pork/bacon meat and some of the knuckle type bones were from pigs - are these OK to feed? I can't find much info. on feeding pig meat/bones.

I gave the dogs some of the lamb ribs this morning and even Winnie (who usually rolls on raw chicken and has been known to pee on it!) ate them with relish. It's still a bit scary to me and any advice would be gratefully received. Also can anyone offer any help as to how I can slow a couple of the dogs down when they have the bones.

What a great butcher :)

I find pork in any great quantity upsets my dogs tummies, they have the occasional rasher of raw bacon if it's went past its sell by date (Ihate to waste anything) but I wouldn't go out and buy them any sort of pork - I'll watch with interest to see what other people say :)

As for slowing them down - can't help on that either, don't think you need to though. Two of mine wolf down anything raw they are given and have never had problems. The only problem is mine, when I'm standing in the garden with a bowl of chicken wings trying to distribute them fairly. One dog takes about 5 minutes to eat a chicken wing before he will take another off me, his brother catches it in the air as I fling it to him, crunches it maybe once or twice and swallows it, then stands there slavering and staring at me while the rest finish till he can have another.

Hi
    I feed mine pork ribs and offal regularly and have been known to buy pork chops if they are really cheap at supermarket :)

I wouldn't give bacon regularly or in quantity because of the salt etc, though being a frugal Scot I'd go with the past sell by date occassionally!!

Mine have pork ribs about once a week and pork chops on occasion if I can get them cheap enough and it has never caused them any problems. They also get bacon if it's looking a bit iffy (although it's rare that bacon is ever in the fridge long enough to reach the iffy stage in this house ;) )...I cook it and use it for training treats. Our butcher gave us 5lbs of pork sausages last week for the dogs as he reckoned they were approaching the end of their shelf life. That should keep them in training treats for several months :)

Pigs trotters, dogs love em!

Mine just looked horrified even Zymi dustbin :D

Mine have a trotter each right now and they love them :)  They are Afghan Hounds and it takes them quite a while to get through the trotter (mind you there is a good amount of leg incuded)  I also get 'other' pork bones from my butcher that must be from higher up the leg.  When I first fed these I wasn't sure if the hounds would break them sufficiently to actually eat them but they had no probs and do eat the whole thing - I dont know if a small dog would be able to though!!!
Your butcher sounds like gold dust ;)  Try and get all you can out of him :D
Sarah

I feed my TT's pork rib bones quite regulary and, have also fed them pork knuckle bones, which they cope fine with. I have such a difficult butcher near me though. He will insist that raw bones aren't good and he cooks all his big marrow bones before I get chance to buy them from him raw. He looks aghast at me whenever I ask for any raw bones. Not that he ever has many anyway, well he says he doesn't have any :(
Best thing I ever did for my girls was start feeding raw meat and bones.
For anyone who knows about my Safi with her allergy problems etc. Changing her diet to raw has been a godsend. She is a different dog. No scratching. No runny poo's.  She can also now have things that she was reacting, to like lamb or beef, just as long as I don't overload her system with them. I just add a bit to her chicken or rabbit every now and again. Wonderful.
I can't thank everyone enough on here who actually got me started on raw and helped me out with her.
Anne :)

Thankyou all very much for the information. I just wonder why all the raw books don't seem to mention pork much. All the dogs, even the fussy Spaniel and the geriatric Goldie, are enjoying the bones, so I think another visit is due to my butcher!

I think this is because in the old days pork was not considered to be 'clean' meat in so much as it was notorious for harbouring worm larvae. I can still hear my granny saying to my mother "cook that pork well or you'll give the children worms". I think,(but I'm not absolutely certain), that for this reason it was considered inadvisable to give it to dogs. If you think about it, you never see tinned dog food with pork do you. I don't know if the worm larvae problem is still an issue as farming and aminal husbandry methods have moved on since then.

Yes, when I was at school (in the 60's) we were told in Domestic Science that we needed to cook pork well as it could contain tapeworm larvae ;)

Mine LOVE pigs trotters :D

I was curious and started googling for dog foods and pork, and one brand's website says this:

"Pork is hypoallergenic, is one the 3-most digestible animal meal proteins and today is parasite free. It is expensive so is not often used by other brands." 
   

Yet it's the cheapest meat you can buy. I suppose it's expensive inasmuch as there is very little waste compared to other carcasses. There is a saying amongst country folk "the only bit of a pig you can't use is it's oink".

Yes, there's very very little meat from a pig carcass that isn't used for human dishes, so the available supply to pet food manufacturers is very limited.

Apart from ears, trotters , tails :D :D all my Mals eat all of the above with gusto (and no, that isn;t a relish LMAO)

No, it's the name of a dog food! ROFL! :D