Inka3095 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Do any of you guys feed your dog these "Healthy Naturals Beef Spare Ribs" treats? http://www.masterpet.com/Vitapet/Vitapet-Treats/Healthy-Naturals-Dog-Treats/Beef-Spare-Ribs/ You can buy them in Safeway or Petstock so readily available, and the website says they've been air-dried, not 'cooked' so they're safe for a dog to eat. However, I was watching Cinder munch hers to pieces this morning and saw it was breaking up into REALLY sharp looking shards that she was then eating.... I'm no expert but they didn't look like they were GIT friendly.... Am I being paranoid? Do these shards just get digested quickly so they won't cause problems? I was happy feeding them to her because she loves pulling all the meaty bits off and then chewing the bone bit; takes at least 20 minutes of happy chewing time so I'd be sad if I couldn't feed them anymore, but I certainly don't want any intestinal problems due to pointy bone shards.... I also feed her the chicken bites variety which just looks like dried chicken necks to me. Are these ok? Any opinions? Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mim Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I bought a pack a little while ago (along with the kangaroo ones) and my dogs ate them with no issues (and absolutely loved them!) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann21 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) I bought an air dried deer shank from Ziwipeak thinking it would be okay but my dog has vomitted up a piece of the bone twice. While it was not sharp I will be throwing the rest of it away. Pity as it really cleaned his teeth. Will look into deer antlers or raw marrow bones next perhaps Edited December 10, 2012 by ann21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becks Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 i wouldn't - fresh ones have more flexible and easy to digest bones - sharp pieces would be a warning sign to me to not use them again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I bought an air dried deer shank from Ziwipeak thinking it would be okay but my dog has vomitted up a piece of the bone twice. Dogs regurgitate what they cannot digest. That is normal canine behavior. Weight bearing bones of animals such as shanks/marrow bones/chicken drumsticks are not as digestible due to their density and growth pattern, hence a dog will vomit them up, usually black too. What your dog can digest depends on their diet. Dogs on a raw diet will regurgitate less often as they should have the stomach acid to handle raw bones. Dogs on processed diets that do not eat them regularly will have trouble and they're usually the ones that have them get stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) I prefer to give my dogs fresh raw bones, but I am fairly selective about what kind. I give bones of animals I believe my own dogs could probably kill if left to their own food gathering abilities. The most easily accessible of those animals at my butchers are lamb and chicken. I try to steer clear of pork, it gives them the farts. I generally dont give them beef although I suppose if they went feral and found a dead cow they'd chew on it. I sometimes give them the lamb leg bones but I prefer the ribs because they're more meaty and my dogs eat all the bones. The only time I ever had a problem was when I fed Feather a thinly sliced peice of beef spine. It was too much bone and not enough meat, but because it was sliced thin she was able to eat it. She got an impaction but I syringed lots of fluid into her over night and she managed to pass a normal poo by morning. Edited December 10, 2012 by Kirislin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddy Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Dried is dried, not cooked so not too much different to feeding raw bone. Having said that.. much lower water content means that you do have to be sensible about the amount fed. We sometimes give our dogs dried ox or roo tails as treats and have never had a dog choke or even retch on them. Compare this to rawhide chews- choking seemed to happen so often that I developed a technique for pulling pieces of rawhide out of throats quickly and with pretty minimal fuss (although obviously don't feed them at all anymore). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tara8430 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Abbey likes the dried chicken necks in that range cause the nice and crunchy, i wouldnt give her a raw chicken neck as she would just swallow it, but these she will chomp chomp chomp oh and she only gets like 1 or 2 a week. She gets raw chicken frames and beef bones too though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffyluv Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I bought an air dried deer shank from Ziwipeak thinking it would be okay but my dog has vomitted up a piece of the bone twice. Dogs regurgitate what they cannot digest. That is normal canine behavior. Weight bearing bones of animals such as shanks/marrow bones/chicken drumsticks are not as digestible due to their density and growth pattern, hence a dog will vomit them up, usually black too. What your dog can digest depends on their diet. Dogs on a raw diet will regurgitate less often as they should have the stomach acid to handle raw bones. Dogs on processed diets that do not eat them regularly will have trouble and they're usually the ones that have them get stuck. I love this forum - I did not know that they bring it up because they can't digest it.. I know Zig has issues with to much fat in his diet, so brings that back up. Just a quick question (sorry to go off topic a bit) - would this also be for certain raw meats? For example, Zig eats chicken, turkey, roo and beef on the bone and off the bone and has no issues. I have tried him on lean lamb and he vomited it back up within about 15 minutes of eating it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakway Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Anything that is dried, smoked or processed, consider it as cooked and don't feed it. The manufacturer of this food only considers what the income will be. Its just like the manufactures of dog roll meat with the roll full of filler vegetables that dogs can not digest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddy Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Anything that is dried, smoked or processed, consider it as cooked and don't feed it. The manufacturer of this food only considers what the income will be. Its just like the manufactures of dog roll meat with the roll full of filler vegetables that dogs can not digest. An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakway Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Anything that is dried, smoked or processed, consider it as cooked and don't feed it. The manufacturer of this food only considers what the income will be. Its just like the manufactures of dog roll meat with the roll full of filler vegetables that dogs can not digest. An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it. Well you can feed it to yours, but I'm not feeding dried out bones that can splinter to mine and I would advise others to follow suit. :) Anything that has gone through a curing process is considered to be cooked. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantis Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Anything that is dried, smoked or processed, consider it as cooked and don't feed it. The manufacturer of this food only considers what the income will be. Its just like the manufactures of dog roll meat with the roll full of filler vegetables that dogs can not digest. An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it. Sorry I disagree. Bones that are left out in the sun actually are liked cooked bones, they are too brittle & dangerous. I only feed either chicken frames, wings or lamb flaps. I have a great butcher, today I got half a kg of wings & 6 chicken frames for $3.25, Cougar is a very happy girl. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ams Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I bought an air dried deer shank from Ziwipeak thinking it would be okay but my dog has vomitted up a piece of the bone twice. Dogs regurgitate what they cannot digest. That is normal canine behavior. Weight bearing bones of animals such as shanks/marrow bones/chicken drumsticks are not as digestible due to their density and growth pattern, hence a dog will vomit them up, usually black too. What your dog can digest depends on their diet. Dogs on a raw diet will regurgitate less often as they should have the stomach acid to handle raw bones. Dogs on processed diets that do not eat them regularly will have trouble and they're usually the ones that have them get stuck. I love this forum - I did not know that they bring it up because they can't digest it.. I know Zig has issues with to much fat in his diet, so brings that back up. Just a quick question (sorry to go off topic a bit) - would this also be for certain raw meats? For example, Zig eats chicken, turkey, roo and beef on the bone and off the bone and has no issues. I have tried him on lean lamb and he vomited it back up within about 15 minutes of eating it.. Staffyluv to answer your quesiton, lamb has a higher fat content that the other meants so if he has issues with fat in his diet then avoid lamb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffyluv Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Thanks Ams. I do now I know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddy Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Anything that is dried, smoked or processed, consider it as cooked and don't feed it. The manufacturer of this food only considers what the income will be. Its just like the manufactures of dog roll meat with the roll full of filler vegetables that dogs can not digest. An air-dried bone is not much different to a bone left out in the yard that dries out naturally in the sun/wind- and these are perfectly safe. The only difference between a dried bone and a fresh bone is the water content, same as with most dehydrated foods. Drying something does not cook it. Sorry I disagree. Bones that are left out in the sun actually are liked cooked bones, they are too brittle & dangerous. I only feed either chicken frames, wings or lamb flaps. I have a great butcher, today I got half a kg of wings & 6 chicken frames for $3.25, Cougar is a very happy girl. :laugh: You're welcome to your own opinion but that doesn't make it fact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poochiemama Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Please don't feed airdried/smoked bones - my dog used to have them as treats then ended up with a major bowel obstruction; he was very unwell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I would not feed anything that had sharp edges. My dog nearly died from having a bone perforate through her intestine. It was a freak accident- just the way she had chewed that one piece but she no longer gets bones. Although it is quite rare for this to happen, it does happen frequently enough for vets to be aware of it and recognize the signs (luckily for us). There is no way I'd be feeding dried/smoked bones especially if the were already visible sharp edges. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inka3095 Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 Wow, thanks guys. I think I'll just throw out the packets I have because I really don't want to even risk anything happening to her. Would you guys have any safer, natural treats that take them a long time to chew? She loves chewing but gets sick of the bully sticks/pizzles I give her so I'm looking for other (SAFE) ideas! Rawhide treats ok? She seems to chew the flavoured straps into a gooey ball then swallow it, then regurgitate it back up and repeats that a few times before eventually swallowing it and then burping ferociously... elegant hound... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuddleDuck Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Deer antler and cow hooves are the go around here, and if their teeth need a clean we use dried beef tendon as they can't eat whole bones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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