# Raw bone/feeding Question



## meli_ssa4 (Aug 19, 2014)

So I don't feed my dogs raw or B.A.R.F but I bought my dog a Raw frozen knuckle bone for a treat. He loves bones, but I hate giving him the smoked/cooked ones because he gets big chucks off them along with slivers of bones which scare the crap out of me. 

Anyways the bone like I said came frozen, should I thaw it out before I give it to him? 

Another question, if I am going to give them the odd raw treat such as a bone or just raw meat in general is this OK for them or will it cause digestion issues considering they are on kibble? they do get cook pieces of meat along with fresh veggies/fruit without issue. 

reason I am asking is my husband is thinking of getting them some beef to eat and am wondering if we should cook it and just give it to them as is? What about fish we catch out of the stream is there any fish they should not have?

Is it ok to just give them raw chicken? like say I am making a chicken dish and am cutting up a whole chicken can I give them the leftover bone with meat still attached raw?

Sorry for all the questions. I find reading about the raw diet confusing. 

Thanks for any/all information


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

Most dogs can handle raw treats on a regular basis while on a kibble diet

For knuckle and marrow bones I always give frozen, makes them last longer and encourages them to work. Too much marrow can cause diarrhea so it doesn't hurt to limit them to a 20-30 minute session

Even when I was feeding kibble when trimming any meat I'd toss them a scrap or two, they loved it. As long as the bones are raw and not cooked any chicken bone is ok

Fish if fed whole you should freeze for at least two weeks to kill any parasites, personally a fish caught out of a pond if it's public or unknown I wouldn't bother feeding.


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## meli_ssa4 (Aug 19, 2014)

Thanks for the information.

Darwin has eaten some red squirrels that he caught, crunched them up and down they went fur and all. He didn't have any issues. Rylee just looked at him like he was crazy. She can be very fussy so I guess I will just have to give her stuff and see if she will even eat it. 

the fish would be caught in the river that goes by our house. Not 100% sure what types are in there yet, since we just bought the land that accesses the river last fall. I know there are trout and some silverish type fish that appears to be quite bony.

So fresh rabbit would be ok too then. We have all kinds on our property that we hunt instead of tossing what we don't use (very minimal) do you think it would be ok to start supplementing their diet with raw?


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

Gryffon is raw fed - he has eaten the odd wild rabbit with no issues. Also caught a Grouse once and ate it. I think if your dog is not used to raw, to start small and give the dogs time to adjust to raw. Usually when people switch raw cold turkey the dog will have some runny poops for a few days. 

I would start with just adding raw to their meals, or doing one raw, or one kibble meal for them to get used to it, before giving them entire raw rabbits. Not sure about stream-caught fish - most people freeze raw fish first to kill parasites. You may need to research to see if the local fish have any potential parasites that could cause issues if fed fresh.


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