Feeding Plan For Goldie At 11 Weeks - Dry And Bones?

[Snowball]

Hi

My goldie is on Eagle Pack - puppy, which she happily eats. her breeder was on a BARF diet and I slowly switched her over to dry food. I have kept up with the bones (chicken necks from the breeder) and give her 1 lot of chicken necks (3-5) per day, and the rest dry food. Is this too much chicken necks/bones?

What else can a goldie eat at this age bone wise? Is it a good idea to keep on giving her bones daily? I would have thought so, but I am no expert, any help much appreciated.

Snowball

[Aziah]

What made you change her to dry? I'd have stuck with the BARF diet for sure, what a wonderful start she's had I'd be decreasing dry and increasing raw.

She can eat chicken wings/necks, lamb flaps, turkey necks etc.

Edited November 25, 2009 by Aziah

[First Time Puppy Owner]

Hi Snowball

When I was feeding dry to my boy I gave bones daily - but a variety - drumstick, wings, necks, small brisket bones and soup bones especially as a pup. Then when she's older you can increase the variety even more with turkey necks, lamb shanks, lamb necks, chicken marylands chicken frames etc etc! What I use to do was see what the dry food packet recommnds and then divide it by 2 and feed just a little less approx by 1/4 or 1/2 a cup plus the bone - but keep a feel of her ribs and make sure you can feel them or otherwise reduce the amount your feeding!

Hope that makes sense!

FTPO

PS you can feed any bones to her at her age but bear in mind the size of it and how much dry you are giving.

Edited November 25, 2009 by First Time Puppy Owner

[Snowball]

thanks for your replies.

Aziah, Realistically, a BARF diet was not going to be a working solution for us now for a whole range of reasons, a super premium dry food mixed with some bones/raw food is a working solution for us. Yes, I would love to do the full BARF, but it just wasnt practical.

Lamb flaps, are they the rib area, do they have the rib bones in them, I asked for some from my butcher and she said lamb flanks, so I thought maybey I had my pronounciation wrong?

First time puppy, drum sticks with meat on them I am assuming? and brisket bones? what animal is that from ? Oh,dear, I am really displaying my bone/raw meat ignorance here. Can cook a mean chicken soup made from raw bones for humans, but all this dog bone stuff I am a complete and utter novice

Thanks for your help, this is a wonderful site.

The vet today was totally against bones, so that didnt help me at all

thanks

Snowball

[tyra20007]

thanks for your replies.

Aziah, Realistically, a BARF diet was not going to be a working solution for us now for a whole range of reasons, a super premium dry food mixed with some bones/raw food is a working solution for us. Yes, I would love to do the full BARF, but it just wasnt practical.

Lamb flaps, are they the rib area, do they have the rib bones in them, I asked for some from my butcher and she said lamb flanks, so I thought maybey I had my pronounciation wrong?

First time puppy, drum sticks with meat on them I am assuming? and brisket bones? what animal is that from ? Oh,dear, I am really displaying my bone/raw meat ignorance here. Can cook a mean chicken soup made from raw bones for humans, but all this dog bone stuff I am a complete and utter novice

Thanks for your help, this is a wonderful site.

The vet today was totally against bones, so that didnt help me at all

thanks

Snowball

Realistically - BARF is the best diet you can feed a dog and by changing over to super premium expensive cardboard dry poison food you are not going to be doing your dog any favours.

Your breeder didn't give this dog the best start in life for you to just change back to feeding cardboard. Feeding BARF IS NOT difficult (especially for 1 or 2 dogs!) it just requires a little bit of planning and preparation and befriending your local butcher. In my opinion it is people like you who buy from a good breeder (a breeder who does their best to raise animals that will have a healthy life and good diet) and promise the breeder the world with a whole lot of "oh yes, I will feed whatever you recommend!" only to get the animal home and take the LAZY option. Perhaps you really shouldn't have sought out such a well bred dog in the first place - because changing over to processed pet poison is cruel - yes I will get slammed by all those who feed dry, but at the end of the day I have spent time changing the diet of friends dogs to BARF and helped to improve health and dry skin problems even mange with a good balanced BARF diet. You know you can get BARF patties premade and a Vets all Natural BARF meal in a bag from good pet shops so their is no excuse to not make the effort to feed the best you can.

As for bones -

chicken wings and necks are best - not legs as they can be too sharp if not chewed well/

lamb necks / lamb chine (spinal bone) / lamb flaps (ribs or breast part) are great

avoid beef marrow bones as they really cannot be eaten and you want bones that can be totally consumed not gnawed at for a while then buried.

If you want help with a BARF diet plan let me know and I will bend over backwards to help you and make it easy to do - a couple of hours once a month and you can have a freezer full of dinners and then just get good bones to give for brekky.

I know I come across as a BARF NAZI but I believe in giving my animals the very best in the hope I will be rewarded with long living healthy happy animals.

[Snowball]

OK,....

Tyra

First, I never promised the breeder anything, she was open to her puppies going on either

BARF or a good premium pet food. I do not lie, nor mislead people about my intentions.

Secondly, you do your cause no good, by your first part of your post. I want to know how to feed my dog bones to supplement his dry food diet. I take offence at being "e-mailed" so vehemently (I am neither lazy nor feeding my dog posion). Again, it wont convert, because if there is a time I may have the option to switch to a BARF diet, you have certainly scared me off from getting help from yourself.

I hardly think I even remotely count as being a horrible dog owner. Realistically, we should all eat organic, home grown, pesticide free, low food miles, and local produce, but my family eats healthy budget home cooked meals, and my dog eats the best I can afford time/cost wise at this point in time.

Thank you for your reply about bones, that is helpful and I will look at that, had you left your e-mail with the last bit, and your offer to help with a BARF diet, when it is appropriate, I would have been very grateful and happy, but now, I feel unsettled about being accused of lying to the breeder ( not the case), being lazy and feeding my dog poison. Totally uncalled for.

Snowball

[Tiggy]

He'd be ready to change to bigger bones than chicken necks. He's probably started swallowing the chicken necks whole, so he won't be getting the benefits of chewing. Start with chicken wings and go from there.

[Snowball]

He'd be ready to change to bigger bones than chicken necks. He's probably started swallowing the chicken necks whole, so he won't be getting the benefits of chewing. Start with chicken wings and go from there.

Oh, that is interesting, i would have thought chicken wings would be more dangerous, so it is OK to feed them to her. She loves a good chew.

[Tiggy]

Chicken wings are fine to feed they're pretty soft .

[Sandra777]

Bones - literally any are fine with the exception of bacon/pickled pork/ham bones

Try to source whole chicken carcasses - you're probably familiar with those if you make chicken soup - and even the "broiler" chooks sold for commercial use - 1/2 a broiler chook is a meal all by itself. If the budget extends to whole supermarket chickens then 1/3 of one of those is probably about the equivalent.

Turkey necks are much better than chicken necks for a dog that size. Wings are good because they're an odd shape so not a lot of dogs can swallow them whole. Drumsticks yeah maybe, probably too small - thighs or marylands would be a whole meal too. Beef brisket bone is frequently in bags in Woolies, only problem being that they cut them soooooo small these days (sign of the times I guess, a lot of people have small dogs) probably be OK for a Goldie pup but a bigger one would be better when she's older so make friends with a butcher.

Lamb flaps are the fatty rear rib/flank cut, used to be able to buy it rolled and stuffed but I guess it's gone out of fashion. They have short ribs and a large hunk of fatty meat, some dogs might need this trimmed.

Pork spare ribs (not marinated ones) are a good change, but get a big portion not one all chopped up small, and start with a small amount because some dogs don't do well with pork (hard to digest, just as it is for a lot of people)

Edited November 25, 2009 by Sandra777

[First Time Puppy Owner]

First time puppy, drum sticks with meat on them I am assuming? and brisket bones? what animal is that from ? Oh,dear, I am really displaying my bone/raw meat ignorance here. Can cook a mean chicken soup made from raw bones for humans, but all this dog bone stuff I am a complete and utter novice

Brisket bones are bones from the rib cage area and are softer than load bearing bones (leg bones) and can be entirely consumed. Mind you chicken/turkey legs are entirely comsumed as they are no where near as thick as beef legs (marrow bones).

[Aziah]

Aziah, Realistically, a BARF diet was not going to be a working solution for us now for a whole range of reasons, a super premium dry food mixed with some bones/raw food is a working solution for us. Yes, I would love to do the full BARF, but it just wasnt practical.

I'm not sure how feeding 1/2 a chook frame or chicken wings in addition to the bones you want to give a couple of times a week is not a working solution for you...raw feeding isn't difficult and if you're going to feed bones etc. a few times a week, you may as well feed them every day of the week and scrap the dry?