I was just wondering what raw would be considered suitable for a medium sized gundog. I know chicken wings are suitable but my butcher has offered me other bones and I don't know what would be ok? Or even if they would make a suitable diet, giving them enough nutition for what they need, or even be safe for them?

My dogs live indoors and are my pets, but I also show them and work them (picking up) and they have fun with a bit of agility and general training too.

Any other advice or suggestions about raw most welcome.

Hi Dancer

I also have a medium-sized gundog (Vizsla bitch - 22kg) and feed raw.  Here is a list of things she gets fed in no particular order:  beef, liver, tripe, chicken wings, chicken carcasses, chicken drumsticks, mackerel, rabbit, other game, venison, fish heads, prawn shells, cottage cheese, whole raw egg, yoghurt, ground up veg w/ a bit of oil in, chicken necks, turkey necks, pork, pork trotters, pork ribs, lamb, lamb ribs, hot red thai curry (one of her favourites), various other table scraps.

I feed as wide a variety as possible and don't supplement.

Here are some things I don't feed:  onions, potatoes, any grains, rice

I recently had to diet her as she got a bit fed (she's a bit lazy) - her maintenance diet is:

Breakfast:  1 chicken wing or an egg, a couple of dollop of veg (if we are training she doesn't get any breakfast as she gets treats)

Supper:  150g meat, dollop of veg, dollop of cottage cheese

If her supper doesn't have any bone in it, then I often give her a bone snack of ribs of some sort.  She isn't a mad chewer so if she doesn't eat the whole bone then I consider that to be a recreational bone (usually anything beef), if she eats it - then it's part of her diet.  So in terms of which bones are suitable I would say if your dog is not a manic chewer, then give whatever you like.  If he/she is a real chewer then I would either give things which he/she might catch (ie; anything from a chicken, turkey, small deer, fish, or lamb) - plus very big recreational bones

I've read a fair bit about raw and have decided to follow the rule of thumb "60% raw meaty bones" - plus as much variety as I can get.  I'm not crazy about the pre-prepared raw as I really like to create my own meals and arrange the food in blobs so I can see what she goes for first.  However, it's a good way to start.

I hope this helps.

My smallest dog weighs 2 kgs, my largest 34 kgs -they all get raw meaty bones. :)

I've recently made the switch over to a raw diet. My first order was only 20 chicken and 10 turkey minces as I planned on 'weaning' Nando onto it, however he had other ideas and I just made the switch all together to raw. Now half way through my first month (I plan to collect raw monthly from a local DAF distributor) I am caught short so I've had to buy half a month's worth of Prize Choice. I've got a few of each variety so that he gets quite a variety throughout the week.

I'm not too keen on the  PC stuff compared to the Durham Animal Feed's minces, however if you're just starting out I think they'd be ideal so long as you top up with Raw Meaty Bones.

I find it really easy at the minute that he gets a mince in the morning, a mince in the evening. In addition to these, once every three days he gets liver, and once every other day he gets about 30-40grams of veg. This is as well as some raw meaty bones, too.

I've only really given him mixed poultry necks so far but I have a bag of chicken portions ready to try him with a wing or thigh. I did think of keeping him on chicken mince for a while but I soon learnt that the chicken minces are very high in bone content and as such gave him quite bad constipation.

> my butcher has offered me other bones and I don't know what would be ok?

The key is to balance bone with meat and offal and, although there are some very good guidelines around, some of it depends on your dog as to what they can easily digest and what suits them.  You will get a lot of very good advice here as many of us do raw feed BUT it's critical to do your own research first.  Have a read of authors such as Ian Billinghurst, Tom Lonsdale and Kymythy Schultze for good background advice then you can start working out what best suits your dog.

In the meantime if you can tell us what your butcher has offered you we can tell you how it works for our dogs so you can start to plan, however you may well find that each dog (and raw feeding owner) is a bit different!  For instance I don't feed pork bones as they give mine upset stomachs, although I know others have no such problems.  One of my dogs also broke a tooth on a beef bone, so they are out too...   I tend to stick to poultry (duck, chicken and turkey) as it's the easiest for me to get and is the best tolerated in this house :)

Thanks for all your replies. All very interesting. My dogs do get marrowbones as recreational bones (I know some people do not agree with this).

I'm not sure what all the different bones were. Some were definitely other beef bones.

I been led to believe by friends that feed raw that if feeding chicken wings the bones are soft and also the flesh surrounds the bones, but the bones the butcher showed me just looked like bones (similar to large chop bones) with little flesh on them.

I have also fed some Natural Instinct to my dogs at times when it is on special.

I just can't seem to get my head round giving the dog any old bone which is why I value your views and experiences.