My pup is 4 and half months old now and has quite a few gaps in his mouth - chewing on everything of course!  He has gone off his dry food this week a bit so I wondered if he would like a bone to chew on.  Looking at the natures menu site it says that pups can start off on chicken carcasses - should I just give him something like chicken wings?  It would at least give me a chance to work on food guarding by being able to offer him a swap - he does not guard his food bowl but I am betting that fresh bones will be a different matter.  Any suggestions what I should give him to start? 

My 3 month olds get lamb bones and chicken wings..they love them.

Found some fresh chicken wings in Tesco's.  Meg ate 2 (one of them not hers!) and now Eddy is sitting in his pen licking his!  Don't think he quite knows what to do with it :-) 

I am pleased to say that he made no effort to guard his either - such a different personality to Meg.

ceejay, my last pup was raised on raw from 9 weeks, and had pork ribs, chicken wings and lamb ribs from then.

I am afraid I weigh out his dry food every morning to make sure that he is getting the right amount.  When Meg was the same age I was not feeding her enough - the instructions gave the amount to feed per kg - which wasn't very helpful if the pup was underweight!  Meg has got somewhat overweight in recent months so I have been giving her a strict diet too - weighing out her food.  So you see I am afraid to raw feed in case I don't give them the right amount of food - I am worrying now about what else I should give them tonight.  Meg has had half of her dry food and 2 chicken wings - I know she would eat her food too!    Also when I am off at competition for the day - dry food is easier to take as is when they go into kennels - I supply their food so they don't get any changes!  How can you do that with feeding raw.  Besides that my friend who is an experienced veterinary nurse was horrified that I was giving my dog bones.  So I worry about it all anyway!!!!  I just felt my pup needed something to have a good chew at - rather than this old rug which gets smaller every day!!!  (he does chew on bits of wood from the wood pile and his toys - also just bought some antler to chew on too)

And yet it was vet who advised me to raw feed in the first place. :)

Please be careful with Antlers and knuckle bones, as they can damage teeth. One of mine sheared one of her large back teeth. This caused an abscess and she had to undergo a GA to remove the tooth, plus antibiotics and painkillers. Total cost £380 and some insurance companies do not cover any dental work.
Have a look at this link as this type of tooth trauma injury  is becoming more common.

http://www.dentalvets.co.uk/news.html

> Please be careful with Antlers and knuckle bones, as they can damage teeth.

and yet I have fed knuckle bones to up to 8 dogs for the last 20+ years and had no damaged teeth at all. in fact they have benefitted from strong plaque free teeth. All life carries risk. We cant avoid everything

Antlers are much safer than marrowbones; they're softer and don't splinter. The knuckle end of a fresh marrowbone is forgiving enough on teeth, but once it's dried out after a couple of days it becomes much harder and that's when the teeth can shear. The sawn middle part is never really safe for teeth.

I'm getting a GR puppy soon and had wondered about antlers, they have been 'invented' since I last had a pup. I had read some types are hard and could sheer teeth. Are there any particular types I should use for a pup?

> How can you do that with feeding raw.

My kennels are happy to feed my dogs raw - I just bag it up and give it to them frozen and they thaw it out every day. No problems :)

My GR has had antlers from when we had her at eight weeks I just bought the smaller ones now she's one she manages very well with the big ones.  I also cut chicken wings in half and froze them now she has a full frozen one every so often and bones from the butcher

http://www.dentalvets.co.uk/news.html

About antlers.

Thank you both, very helpful.
Going to look at a litter this afternoon. They will be five weeks old and will try very hard not to let heart rule head. Having said that they do sound perfect, just want to check everything out and review all the health tests etc. wish me luck.

Interesting article - note this bit that says exactly what my friend warned me against - ie damage to the alimentary tract from bones  - 'These range from broken teeth , oral injuries and foriegn body imapctions all the way thought the alimentary tract from oesophagus to rectum.'  - not my spelling mistakes by the way - I copied and pasted - umm will check that out not very good for an article to have such mistakes in.

yet a dog is a carnivore and designed to eat bones.I suppose we ll never know how many wild dogs had problems though.

True - but would they live as long in the wild?

yes but do they live as long on kibble and what illnesses do they get that they didnt get before on a raw / natural diet

There are agruments for and against as a general rule vets and vet nurses are often horrified at the thought of raw especially bones but given their training is often fairly limited on this and the food companies also push their products its not surprising.
As you may have guessed I am a raw feeder and wouldnt chage back yes there are riskz but there are risks with  kibble feeding too. To me the benefits outweigh the risks. It doesnt suit everyone but for some it is brilliant and most have found positive changes in their dogs health coats teeth and oten the reduction in longstanding health problems.  

Good point!  I certainly need to do something about my adult dogs coat - I know she has been spayed but in the last year (she is now 8) it has become a lot coarser.  I have heard it said spaying can cause a coarse coat but that certainly wasn't the case for most of her life.   My pup is not rushing to eat his kibble right now - I know it is hot but I think he is missing some teeth - he isn't chewing things quite as much as he was - and given a biscuit treat he turned it around in his mouth for a while. 

Just another thought people often look at you in horror at the thought of bones. Usually because the general public dont differentiate between raw bones and cooked. Cooked is where the problem lies and not raw bones supervised until you know your dog isnt a gulper and eeven then they can be taught to chew.
As for large weight bearing bones I no longer use them as feel the risk of a broken tooth is too high. If my dogs get a large bone I remove  it when they havce taken off the meat and the scrape out the marrow for them. Now a noce raw chicken carcass or drumstick for little one or lamb bones, ribs etc completely different