Feeding your dogs chicken (bones)

Conchman

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I have been feeding my Dominican dogs (street mutts) chicken bones for 10 years, without a problem. I do keep them away from my Rottweilers.

My mother (who does not live here in the DR) warned me again, that this is very dangerous for the dogs, that the bones can puncture the stomach etc.

Does anybody have any factual experiences, where their dog had serious medical issues from eating chicken bones?
 

rendul

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Feb 24, 2002
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Years ago we had our little mutt get a chicken bone stuck in her throat. The Vet had to do immediate surgery as it had lodged very deeply into her throat and was too far down to pull out by hand. She was also a small dog. Never again with any bones. We have had two Goldens as well and one of them had issues with bones in his stomach. We don't even give steak or beef bones now. Nada to the bones!
 

lisagauss

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Feb 16, 2011
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This is a fact that you shouldn't feed dogs you care about bones, ask any vet. I had a dog which we fed bones for years. When he was 10 years old he developed a hernia. I had to take him to the vet when he was backed up for days and couldn't "go". Cost me $1400US to get an operation. He gave us 3 more years of joy.
 

Acira

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I feed my dogs once in a while chicken bones or a whole chicken but raw. Cooked chicken bones are pretty fragile and can splinter so I do give some of those at a few of my dogs from which I know they handle them and certainly not to young dogs. Raw no problem for any dog, cooked only the experienced ones.

Acira
 
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@ Acira - why would cooked bones be more dangerous? Aren't they more "tender" as opposed to the raw bones?
 

Tamborista

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I feed my dogs once in a while chicken bones or a whole chicken but raw. Cooked chicken bones are pretty fragile and can splinter so I do give some of those at a few of my dogs from which I know they handle them and certainly not to young dogs. Raw no problem for any dog, cooked only the experienced ones.

Acira

I guess salmonella is not a concern for canine amigos?
 

Conchman

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I make a distinction between my street mutts and the Rottweilers, as it is my belief (not based on anything scientific) that Dominican dogs have developed over time, maybe even genetically, to be less susceptible to any damage from chicken bones. Thanks for any feedback on this theory.
 

Acira

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@ Acira - why would cooked bones be more dangerous? Aren't they more "tender" as opposed to the raw bones?

Try breaking a chicken bone raw and break one cooked and you will see the difference. The raw bone bitten through by a dog has no real sharp edges. A cooked bone is very fragile due to the cooking process and gives long sharp splinters.
If you have a dog with an appetite to swallow everything, I wouldn't give them bones either, raw or cooked.
 

lisagauss

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Feb 16, 2011
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I make a distinction between my street mutts and the Rottweilers, as it is my belief (not based on anything scientific) that Dominican dogs have developed over time, maybe even genetically, to be less susceptible to any damage from chicken bones. Thanks for any feedback on this theory.

I highly doubt it. The reason why people usually make the comment that Dominican street dogs are more resilient to stomach ulcers or other affects from eating bones is probably cause no one cares for them so nobody cares or notices what they die of. Ive seen plenty of street dogs in DR with visible sign of damage such as hernias; its just that no one cares so no one knows.
 

Criss Colon

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I give my 6 dogs,ranging is size from "Tiny" to "Big" bones of all types,from cooked,to raw,to ground.they are all doing just fine.
I believe,correct me if I am wrong,"GOD",but they have been eating bones since the "Stone Age",and before????
Dogs digestive systems handle "Bones",as well as "Bacteria",very well!
They are not,"Little People".
Love them with all your heart,but they are still animals,NOT PEOPLE!
We do animals a dis-service when we "Humanize" them.It's condecending!
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Acira

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I guess salmonella is not a concern for canine amigos?

No, not really. A dog can get Salmonella but it is rare and most cases are with dogs who live in very poor condition or have a very low immunity system due to poor nutrition. If infected, the symptoms are not so worse as in humans, they have some fever and a few days of diarrhea and after that they are fine again.

The only thing I do not give raw is pork but that is because there is the slight danger of an infection with the Trichina worm in pork meat.
 

Givadogahome

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Sep 27, 2011
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Dogs eat animals, animals have bones in them, I do not know of any dog to this day that can take a knife and folk and butcher its preferred cuts for lunch. Some vets even tell owners not to feed their dogs meat, I have one answer to those vets and it comes out of my bum and smells (unless their is a genuine sickness in the equation).
It is true that boiling bones make 'bird' bones which are hollow more brittle and likely to splinter. Whack a chicken leg bone raw and you will cut straight through and get a clean cut, cook it first and then whack it with the cleaver and it will fracture somewhat rather than cut clean.
Bird bones are hollow, to make them lighter so they have less weight to fly about. Pork bones are solid as they do not need to fly, yes I know Pi2 will probably have a back yard full of them flying pigs, but for us normal people we tend not to come across that many flying pigs or cows.
So, the general consensus on feeding bones to dogs and wolves, tigers and lions is, yes, but be careful with bird bones.
Wolves/dogs did not evolve on eating birds of flight (as dog can't fly either), land animal bones cooked or raw are great, as the saying always goes, 'fit as a butcher dog. Simple logic really.
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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Feeding any kind of bones especially chicken is risky. You are looking for vet bills. Dogs dont need em nevermind thousands of years etc. A hungry dog will "wolf" his food without chewing it. Dogs dont know. The street dogs that die from eathing chicken bones and poisonous substances just disappear from view. Dried dog food is complete nutrition. They do not need anything else. Canned dog food is a waste of money. Feeding raw meat is also asking for trouble. Why risk it ? By the time my dog is in his teens I have thousands and thousands of dollars and training hours invested in him. My dogs live long healthy lives. They do not wander the street or get out of my yard. I protect anything in which I have a great deal invested. Why take un-necessary risks.
 

Acira

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Take any kibble with a few exceptions and read what's in it. A lot use as starch beet pulp which can cause with many dogs skin problems. A lot use corn as filler which is in no way digested by a dog, even a human has problems with digesting corn.
A lot use chemical additives which again can cause severe skin problems in dogs.

That is why I have fed my dogs raw until we moved to the DR. A Barfen raw diet for dogs is completely specific designed for that dog and a diet is set out over a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Each of my dogs had a different eating patern because each of them had different levels of energy, were different in age etc...
Not easy to start with but once running, it really goes very well.

Of course its handy to give a kibble, a dog does not 'need' anything else? There is lots more a dog needs then he can get from a kibble and when feeding raw at least you know you are giving fresh things and no artificial additives.

I cannot make a complete Barfen diet for any of my dogs here at the moment to my regret, but a few times a month they get some raw eggs as snack or a whole chicken to eat as dinner (every time I do that, I see the gardener go check on his chickens, uno, dos, tres, :)
They skip once a week a meal, all of them which gives the body the time to detox. I feed them pine apple which is good for the digestion (no smelly poo), some garlic, carrots, livers raw or chicken stomach, oh they love those!
Raw fish, sardines on oil and especially I am after the oil, full of good minerals.

My dogs live long healthy lives too. Did you know that one of the top players in Belgium for Belgian Ring and who has a massive success with her male Malinois, is a Barfer? She will not put a price on him but generally speaking, that dog would cost you to purchase at least a half million dollars. He is not for sale ;)
 

frank12

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Sep 6, 2011
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This subject alwasy crack me up. Dog food has only been around since the mid 1800's, but then the only people who would have been able to afford it would have been rich people. it wasn't until after WWII that dog food took off and become popular, so much so that it became a 200million dollar business in the 1950's for guess who? what segment of the world? Yep...Americans and rich Europeans.

Dog food became available to the masses only after the 1930's. By the 1950's, it was a huge business. What did dogs eat for the previous million years? Yep, raw meat and bones.

Look around the world...Who are feeding dog and cat food to their animals? Few, if any Africans, few South Americans, few Asians--outside of Japan and South Korea, Tawian; only the very rich Chinese. Basically, it's mostly North Americans, including Canadians, Western Europeans, and only the very rich in Russia and the baltic states. I live with two Russian women and they have never fed dog food to their animals when growing up. Face it, nearly all dogs around the world are fed animal bones. Maybe chicken bones aren't the best but, all the dogs on Cabarete beach seem to be doing allright with them after decades of eating them.

My father and uncles have always had dogs--big dogs, lots of dogs--and they always survived on what? Yep...rice & beans and animal bones. Nothing else. there is no way in hell you're ever going to convince a dominican, african, asian, polynesian, or a host of other cultures to start wasting money on store bought dog food when there are left-overs for the dog to eat.

Frank
 

Acira

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The wave of Barfen or feeding raw started in Holland and slowly found its way to Belgium. A lot of breeders/trainers and a lot of just plain dog owners are switching these day's from kibble to raw.
 

belgiank

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Jun 13, 2009
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This subject alwasy crack me up. Dog food has only been around since the mid 1800's, but then the only people who would have been able to afford it would have been rich people. it wasn't until after WWII that dog food took off and become popular, so much so that it became a 200million dollar business in the 1950's for guess who? what segment of the world? Yep...Americans and rich Europeans.

Dog food became available to the masses only after the 1930's. By the 1950's, it was a huge business. What did dogs eat for the previous million years? Yep, raw meat and bones.

Look around the world...Who are feeding dog and cat food to their animals? Few, if any Africans, few South Americans, few Asians--outside of Japan and South Korea, Tawian; only the very rich Chinese. Basically, it's mostly North Americans, including Canadians, Western Europeans, and only the very rich in Russia and the baltic states. I live with two Russian women and they have never fed dog food to their animals when growing up. Face it, nearly all dogs around the world are fed animal bones. Maybe chicken bones aren't the best but, all the dogs on Cabarete beach seem to be doing allright with them after decades of eating them.

My father and uncles have always had dogs--big dogs, lots of dogs--and they always survived on what? Yep...rice & beans and animal bones. Nothing else. there is no way in hell you're ever going to convince a dominican, african, asian, polynesian, or a host of other cultures to start wasting money on store bought dog food when there are left-overs for the dog to eat.

Frank

Frank,

I disagree here. Not about your historical discourse, but about the fact who feed their dogs kibble.

Acira and I are into sporting and/or working dogs, and in no way is the diet that you prescribed enough for those dogs to perform.

So are a lot of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people who compete with their dogs. A dog, just like a human athlete cannot perform on a simple diet. We have witnessed this first hand, when we took dogs to perform at the World Championships, and had to give them local food, simply because we were not allowed to bring our own. Their performance went downhill in a matter of days.

Of course a dog can survive on a couple of bones, and some rice a day, but this will not mean you have a high performing dog. A well balanced diet will help you to ensure also he will not accept anything from strangers.

Will have to take you up on that free beer offer though, one of these days. You sound interesting... whoehaaaa
 

Criss Colon

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Jan 2, 2002
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My dogs,and cats too,eat it RAW.
Dried dog food costs about 26 pesos a pound.I get raw "scraps" at supermercado national at about 8 pesos a pound.Bones ground into a paste with the consistancy of mashed potatoes,chicken skins,and coarsely ground beef and pork trimmings.For a treat,I get chicken livers at 20 pesos a pound.trimmings.The dogs and cats come running when we pull into the driveway!
Dogs don't eat,or need,"grain".and they surely don't need fruits and vegetables, that have been dried,powdered and mixed with "sawdust"!
My animals are never sick.they have beautuful coats and skin.And "Real Meat" costs only 25% of what "powdered" dog food costs.
"Win,Win????
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frank12

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Sep 6, 2011
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Dog food refers to food specifically intended for consumption by dogs. Though technically omnivorous, dogs exhibit a natural carnivorous bias, have sharp, pointy teeth, and have short gastrointestinal tracts better suited for the consumption of meat. In spite of this natural carnivorous design, dogs have still managed to evolve over thousands of years to survive on the meat and non-meat scraps and leftovers of human existence and thrive on a variety of foods.
In the United States alone, dog owners spent over $8.5 billion on commercially manufactured dog food in 2007.[1] Some people make their own dog food, feed their dogs meals made from ingredients purchased in grocery or health-food stores or give their dogs a raw food diet.

History
Before the advent of commercially made pet foods, most dogs lived off of grains, meats, table scraps and homemade food from their owners. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that the world saw its first food made specifically for dogs. An American electrician, James Spratt concocted the first dog treat. Living in London at the time, he witnessed dogs around a shipyard eating scraps of discarded biscuits. Shortly thereafter he introduced his dog food, made up of wheat meals, vegetables and meat. By 1890 production had begun in the United States and became known as "Spratt's Patent Limited".
Canned horse meat was introduced in the United States under the Ken-L-Ration brand after WWI as a means to dispose of deceased horses. The 1930’s saw the introduction of canned cat food and dry meat-meal dog food by the Gaines Food Co. By the time WWII ended, pet food sales had reached $200 million. In the 1950s Spratt's became part of General Mills. For companies such as Nabisco, Quaker Oats, and General Foods, pet food represented an opportunity to market by-products as a profitable source of income.

Commercial dog food
Most store-bought dog food comes in either a dry form (also known in the US as kibble) or a wet canned form. Dry food contains 6-10% moisture by volume, as compared to 60-90% in canned food. Semi-moist foods have a moisture content of 25-35%. Pet owners often prefer dry food for reasons of convenience and price. Despite modest prices that are associated with many brands, dog owners (and there are over 43,000,000 households in the United States with at least one dog) still managed to spend over $8 billion on dry dog food in 2010 - a 50% increase in the amount spent just seven years earlier.[3]
Dog food - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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HumbleHindu

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Jan 14, 2010
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My neighbor here, a stingy guy has one big dog, Labrador cross, I think. It is tied all the time and he feeds just the scavenged raw chicken intestine.

In India, i see many people feed their dogs with vegetarian diets. Rice with milk or Yoghurt. So it is all about adaptability.