# Raw bones and a spoo puppy



## McAwesome (Jan 23, 2019)

Admittedly, we have only ever fed our previous dogs (including our senior standard schnauzer) rawhide, bully sticks, ect. I've read some interesting threads on feeding raw bones and would love a bit more guidance. While google is a plethora of information, not all of it is accurate. I'd love some advice, trusted website links, ect. 

My questions:
- what age do you start introducing raw bones?
-how do you determine what type of bone and size?
-how often should a dog be given raw bones?
-what is proper feeding look like? How can you tell if there is an issue?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I personally don't raw feed anything because of not wanting to inoculate our floors with microbes. I prefer buffalo ears and Himalyan yak cheese as chewie stuff, but I don't think I would give yak cheese to a puppy since it is just about as hard as a rock. Also don't let your dog have any of these things without being able to watch them with it. Additionally I would play a lot of trade it games with your pup over these things so he learns to willingly surrender the chewie. This will translate to being able to take treasured but forbidden items (think stuff stolen off kitchen counters, sock, shoes and such) away from a naughty pup. My Lily is a big one for wanting to eat used napkins, paper towels and tissues, but because she is trained to understand that she has to give me anything I want to take from her I can put my hand in her mouth and grab such things even as she is starting to swallow.


As far as regular diet, I think there are plenty of decent commercial foods, but I feed home cooked. If you go for a home constructed diet (cooked or raw) make sure you do the research to know you are feeding a nutritionally complete diet.


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## Maggied (Sep 6, 2018)

I read recently that chicken necks are a source of bad bacteria. I had read before that they were ok. I use organic chicken, but don't give the necks. She loved them.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

All poultry potentially is contaminated with _Salmonella_ and other potentially pathogenic microbes (not just necks). This is why one should cook poultry.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I don’t fed raw either. All raw meat is contaminated with various pathogens and I don’t want to deal with decontaminated my dog’s fur, the floor and anything else the meat/bones come into contact with. My dog has done therapy visits in nursing homes and tons of people petcher when we’re out running errands. I wouldn’t want someone to become ill because they picked up E. coli or salmonella etc. touching my dog. I know I can’t protect against everything, but something like this I can by my choices. 

Feeding necks has the additional problems that you may be feeding your dog excess thyroid hormone. You can google it but I found this article explains it. 
https://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/ken-tudor/2014/july/raw-diets-and-hyperthyroidism-dogs-31873 

My minipoo suffers ulcerative colitis when eating commercial foods, even the special diets from the vet so I make a balanced home cooked food which keeps her digestive track healthy. For chew treats I use bully sticks and stuff some of her food in Kongs. No rawhide as that can cause choking.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

I don't feed raw, because of the risk of bacteria, and possibly swallowing some bone shards. I also don't give rawhide. Asta gets SmartBones which you can get in any size. There are also SmartSticks. Another prospective for rawhide, raw alternatives is DreamBones. I juts tried their stick version and Asta seemed to like them, although not as much as he loves his SmartBones. Available on Chewy.com and also Amazon, tho I think Chewy has better prices. https://www.chewy.com/s?query=smartbones&nav-submit-button=


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

I feed raw, have trained Milo to stay in one spot. Disinfect area after he eats, but I don’t have any immune compromised family members.he started at 10 weeks, been giving him bones a couple of times a week. He gets a bully stick some days. Mine is a mini, so I portion accordingly. He gets a variety of raw bones, chicken backs,wings,drumstick, duck wings, (very rarely)duck necks, turkey wings. I don’t give pork or beef bones or raw fish,though he gets the pork baby back ribs tips. This is where there’s lot of soft bones, almost cartilage,quite rarely since he only gets it if I am making ribs and it has tips.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

I also feed raw, or my spoo would probably be dead. He gets human grade fresh food. My dog is 9 now and no one can believe it, either from the way he looks or acts. He just finished his dinner of a beef chunk and blueberries 

He too eats in one spot only. It is very simple to wash the floor after he has eaten there. And he is trained to not even drink from his water bowl until he has had his face washed 

His friends have messy sloppy water bowls with food from their mouths, and the ones with white faces have discoloring around their mouths. My spoo has not a spot of food in his water bowl, and his white face has no discoloring.

Have you seen how many recalls there are on processed kibble for salmonella? Just wondering.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

For those of you who raw feed, how do you decontaminate their hair, their face, their paws....the parts of the dog that comes in contact with the raw food? 

It’s shameful that our food system is so contaminated and not enough testing and other changes are instituted early on to eliminate or minimize contaminated food reaching the public.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Buck came home already accustomed to eating chicken necks at 10 weeks. I stopped feeding necks after that article came out. He gets the occasional organic wing. He wears a snood, eats from a metal tray on top of white towels and the raw is gone instantly.


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

Milo wears a snood as well because I am growing out his ear fluff. He usually don’t because it’s trimmed short or shaved. His face is almost always clean shaven. I must say he is quite dainty with bones. And he doesn’t use his paws at all, it’s almost like he doesn’t want to touch it..lol I just wipe his mouth with a wet towel, I am not really a germaphobe. I also use human grade meat primarily because it’s easier to source. I haven’t had any issues thus far.


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