Hi guys

I am after some advice re feeding my new gsd pup, he is now 10 weeks old and has been home for 2 weeks, his breeder was feeding him a mixture of kibble and raw mince as she knew i wanted to change him to BARF as soon as he got home. The problem i am having with him is that he will not eat his chicken wings, he pulls of the meat and then plays with the bone, he has a little chew but he is not consuming the whole wing and i am worried that he is going to be lacking the nutrients he should be getting from the bone itself. He is currently having 4 feeds a day and he weighs 10kg, so i am giving him 10% of that over the 4 meals. His breakfast, lunch and tea is rmb's and then supper is turkey or lamb mince, i haven't introduced anything else yet as i don't want to upset his tum. He isn't too skinny although the vet did mention this morning when he was getting his jab that he was a bit on the ribby side. He has had a nibble on a lamb rib and again he pulls off the meat but leaves the bone, how can i encourage him to eat the bone as well and should i be concerned about the lack of calcium etc.

Look forward to hearing your advice

Mine was slow initially to eat the bone  as well - give it time - practice makes perfect!

could you not try hitting the wing with a mallet to break the bones up inside and that may encourage him to eat it   don't have any ideas other than that!

I don't feed raw so might be speaking out of turn but when my dog was that age I was still soaking her kibble to soften it.

Hi Cheryl

No, you are not speaking out of turn, however a 10 week german shepherd is more than capable of eating chicken wings/carcasses etc.

Mich x

I fed a litter of pug puppy raw chicken wings from 5 weeks old they loved them and managed them fine!!

A raw egg fed whole - shell included - can be fed. If you are using commercial mince such as AMP which is stocked at Pets At Home as well as other places then the mince contains 5% bone as well so your pup will be getting some calcium from that.

Hi Harley

I get my mince from Landywoods, i will check the bone content my older shepherd has a raw egg twice a week but i haven't yet introduced eggs to the pup as i was trying to keep it simple to start with so i could identify any intolerances if they arose.

Mich there should be a big quantity in it if you use the chicken as they mince the whole chicken :-)  I use this and my doggies look fab (or am I biased :-P)

landywoods do whole minced chicken and lamb :)

I asked Landywoods about this before The chicken mince and the turkey mince are literally the entire bird ground up so would nutritionally be the same as feeding a rmb. The lamb mince however only has a very small amount of bone.

Hi
We used to mince chicken wings for our puppy using a kenwood chef - we did it more for our peace of mind rather than anything to do with Jasper's preference, so maybe this would be a way of making sure your pup eats the whole wing?
Good luck :)
Maria

Hi All

Thanks for all your advice - great as usual.

Well what a difference a week makes, puppy who was last week turning his nose up at chicken wings is now happily gulping them down and chewing the bone really well - phew