Raw bones to clean teeth

[Joelf]

We are so fortunate in that I have found this absolutely super butcher.

Not only are the joints, sausages & chops he sells delicious & are locally produced meat ( I sometimes pass the pigs he uses on my way to the dogs' fav. walk & can see them out together in the field with their 'Anderson' shelters grubbing around & doing lots of piggy things!!) but he has also given me some lovely lamb & pig bones for the dogs (I always buy quite a lot of items from him so I don't feel too bad asking for bones.) He also sells chicken wings & has given me a beef bone but both dogs had a bit of a job getting through it.

I must admit that I have bought chicken wings from Tesco's & Sainsburys for the pure convenience if I'm not going past the butcher but I never buy meat from them for us as compared to my butcher the quality of the meat is c**p!!

This is the 1st time Max has had a bone.  Should I try & chop it 

I would probably saw that bone in to smaller pieces with a hacksaw,Maxine; Domino can't manage too big a piece in one go although Spike will give it his best shot!!

[sarahp]

Cor your Morrisons sounds good Joules - I must go to mine again soon.

I was just thinking how good it sounded - shame they haven't got this far south yet 

[Hypnopoison]

I DID IT!!!

Ive just bought some chicken wings & Lamb breasts from Morrisons and have just given Megan her first encounter with BARF!

It was so funny.  I decided to try her on the chicken wings first.  I put one in her bowl & watched.  Megan wandered straight up, had a sniff and a couple of licks and then looked at me as if to say 'and what am I supposed to do with that'?  I thought maybe I needed to cut it down for her to start with.  I walked up to take it and my little madam grabbed it and went over to the middle of the kitchen with a look that said 'I may not know what to do with it .... but its mine!'

I tried again to take it but she ran into her crate, right at the back with a definate look of defiance.  I threw a toy outside the kitchen to get her away from it, grabbed it, cut it into two pieces and put it back in her bowl.  Megan then took one piece, sat in her crate and happily chewed on it.  It took a few attempts before she got the hang of it.  In about 10 minutes both pieces had been merrily chewed and devoured.  One happy puppy!

I can see why they are so good for their teeth.  She really had to chew on it and I could clearly hear the bones against her teeth.  Hopefully this will help Megan's bowls as she regularly has loose movements.  She hasnt had any problems with her anal glands but I feared this would not be far away at this rate.  Thank you all for the wonderful advise.  I would never of had the courage to try this without it.  Ill keep you posted as to how the lamb breast goes down tomorrow 

[Max X 2]

Max is just on his first bone now too 
We hacksawed it up but OH thought we'd better throw the rest away. 
Max took it outside then just looked at it too.  I picked it up & he started to eat it then scampered off to his kennel with it & now gives a small grumbling growl if anyones goes near him. 
So that's bu$$ered my plans of a grooming session this afternoon then

ETA He let me have it with a "leave it" had a quick grooming session, gave him the bone back & then he went a buried it 

[Max X 2]

Thanks Ben's mum for starting this thread & for everyones advice 

I thought I'd have a quick look at Max's teeth as he's almost finished his bone, not really expecting to see any difference after just one bone - and well I'm shocked          his back teeth which had quite a bit of plaque are almost pearly white 

Thanks everyone, I'm soooo chuffed.  Hopefully now we can keep ontop of it with the odd bone & the regular tooth brushing.

[Ben's mum]

Well - I did it too!!! after all your positive messages I took the plunge and went to our local farm shop and asked for a marrowbone.
I took it home and with some trepidation I gave it to Ben  he just looked at it from a safe distance, his little back legs were shaking like they do when he is scared  then he sniffed it and lay down next to it!!!
He circles round it and licks it but thats all - so much for me worrying he would get all posessive, he won't touch it!

I took it away after he abandoned it in the garden and gave it to him again today thinking he might be more excited 2nd time round - he just looks at it - HELP what shall I do now?  If I leave it do you think he will get round to it in his own good time?

we're not off to a good start........!

Bens mum

[Joules]

Maybe it's too big and he just doesn't know where to start    Why don't you try him with a bashed up chicken wing first??

[Jan/Billy]

aw poor Ben, bless him 

He wouldn't have survived in the wild would he 

[Penel]

It's been a bit of a BARF weekend then hasn't it    perhaps it was all a bit much for Ben  I'd try him on a chicken wing too    was it a huge great big marrowbone ?

[GillS]

I have never fed my cocker raw bones, but have recently changed his complete food from bakers to Autarky  natural food,to try and get his poos a bit firmer!  They are always sloppy! Nightmare to pick up.  This food seems to have helped, but I am definately going to try him on raw bones. 
Would it be ok to feed him the Autarky food with a bit mince and veg and sometimes raw egg?  I could also give him the raw bones a couple of times a week.
Can anyone advise me  on this?
I also have to clean his lipfolds daily with tcp.  Does anyone know any other way of keeping them from smelling?

[Nicola]

I have never fed my cocker raw bones, but have recently changed his complete food from bakers to Autarky  natural food,to try and get his poos a bit firmer!  They are always sloppy! Nightmare to pick up.  This food seems to have helped, but I am definately going to try him on raw bones. 
Would it be ok to feed him the Autarky food with a bit mince and veg and sometimes raw egg?  I could also give him the raw bones a couple of times a week.
Can anyone advise me  on this?
I also have to clean his lipfolds daily with tcp.  Does anyone know any other way of keeping them from smelling?

You're ok to add mince, veg and eggs to the Autarky. This is what my 2 year old girl Tilly eats. Alfie is on a barf diet but she won't touch bones so she has Autarky as the base of her diet with added NatureDiet, chicken mince, fresh green tripe, eggs and sardines with some veg as well (I don't add all these at once though, it's a selection throughout the week!!)    I find Autarky an excellent food, she's doing brilliantly on it 

No advice on the lipfolds, sorry. Workers don't tend to have this problem a lot but if you do a search you may find some old threads.

[sarahp]

I have never fed my cocker raw bones, but have recently changed his complete food from bakers to Autarky  natural food,to try and get his poos a bit firmer!  They are always sloppy! Nightmare to pick up.  This food seems to have helped, but I am definately going to try him on raw bones. 
Would it be ok to feed him the Autarky food with a bit mince and veg and sometimes raw egg?  I could also give him the raw bones a couple of times a week.
Can anyone advise me  on this?
I also have to clean his lipfolds daily with tcp.  Does anyone know any other way of keeping them from smelling?

Personally I wouldn't have one meal consisting of a 'complete' feed (like Autarky - or any of the others) mixed with raw mince - cos they are digested at different rates by the stomach and this may cause tummy ache. 

As for the lip folds - tcp  - that must sting a bit  - I've heard some people saying they use hibiscrub, an antibacterial wash available from most chemists, or failing that my personal stand by for most things is aloe vera or Colloidal silver 

[Nicola]

I have never fed my cocker raw bones, but have recently changed his complete food from bakers to Autarky  natural food,to try and get his poos a bit firmer!  They are always sloppy! Nightmare to pick up.  This food seems to have helped, but I am definately going to try him on raw bones. 
Would it be ok to feed him the Autarky food with a bit mince and veg and sometimes raw egg?  I could also give him the raw bones a couple of times a week.
Can anyone advise me  on this?
I also have to clean his lipfolds daily with tcp.  Does anyone know any other way of keeping them from smelling?

Personally I wouldn't have one meal consisting of a 'complete' feed (like Autarky - or any of the others) mixed with raw mince - cos they are digested at different rates by the stomach and this may cause tummy ache. 

Tilly's never had any problems with this, although she is a bin 

[Cob-Web]

I have never fed my cocker raw bones, but have recently changed his complete food from bakers to Autarky  natural food,to try and get his poos a bit firmer!  They are always sloppy! Nightmare to pick up.  This food seems to have helped, but I am definately going to try him on raw bones. 
Would it be ok to feed him the Autarky food with a bit mince and veg and sometimes raw egg?  I could also give him the raw bones a couple of times a week.
Can anyone advise me  on this?
I also have to clean his lipfolds daily with tcp.  Does anyone know any other way of keeping them from smelling?

Personally I wouldn't have one meal consisting of a 'complete' feed (like Autarky - or any of the others) mixed with raw mince - cos they are digested at different rates by the stomach and this may cause tummy ache. 

Tilly's never had any problems with this, although she is a bin 

I think it depends on the dog - the one time I fed Molo raw and processed to close together Molo produced poo's that looked as if they should have a bio-hazard sign 

[GillS]

Thanks for the advice.  I gave dylan ( my cocker) and molly(my jack russell) a piece of chicken wing each.  Molly managed to crunch hers up no bother, but dylan was licking it and spitting it out and chewing it a bit.  I must admit he seemed to swallow it without chewing much!!!  Seems to be ok though!  I also bought mince, and bones from morrisons.  I will have to think of what to feed when to give them some variety.  I might try a bit of mince in with the autarky so they enjoy it a bit more and see how it goes.  Dylan seems to have a sensitive stomach so we have to be a bit careful, whereas molly is hardy and seems to be able to eat anything.  I will report back!

Re the lipfolds - my vet told me to used diluted tcp and I mentioned hibiscrub to him but he said no.  If I dont clean them every day they get very smelly very quickly!!