not schooled? Not sure what you mean?
Originally Posted by HUNTER
After i made the mixture i portion it out and freeze it, then i just take out one serving and leave it in a fridge for few hours to thaw, or you can put in plastic wrap and soak it in warm water but never thaw it in a microwave, that defeats the purpose of feeding raw, thawing it in a microwave will slightly cook it and takes out some of the nutrients and will make the bones tougher to chew, if you're using meat with bones.
That's what we use...we eat a lot of eggsOriginally Posted by HUNTER
The box says cage free, all natural and vegeterians fed hens, i assume these are the best eggs to use.
As I said, I know a woman whose poor dog was injured by the bones she put into his raw meat. That's enough for me to realize that bones are dangerous.Originally Posted by Ravyn
I must, very respectfully, disagree. I've broken chicken bones in my hands and you couldn't cut anything with the edges (I tried on my hands, paper, etc. About the only thing that got marked was cold butter). Most vets WILL tout the dangers of any sort of raw feeding...mainly due to miseducation and the fact that pet food companies pay money to get a vet to 'support' their food (not saying that is what's happening here, but it is a common thing). I've heard extremely dumb things out of the mouths of vets.
Cooked bones are horribly dangerous. They're harder and splinter. Raw bones are soft and pliable and, as I mentioned before, I can break them by hand with very little effort (I regularly tear in half whole chicken backs by hand). Fortunatley, I have a very good vet, and I spoke with her candidly about raw feeding. She says she sees more incidents of pancreatitis from all the crap in processed foods than from any raw or even home cooked diet.
Dogs have the exact same digestive systems as do wild animals like wolves and coyotes. Kibbled dog food has been around roughly a hundred years (I think actually about 80). Before then, dogs were fed table scraps, scrap meat cuts, bones, and whatever they caught. Yes, if not taught to chew properly they can gulp a bone and choke on it. They can also gulp kibble and choke on it. There are rubber dog toys that can get stuck in their mouths as well. Any dog that vomits up anything and aspirates it is going to have serious problems. My dogs still eat bones and there are no longer even traces of bone fragments in their stools. My cats have the bones ground up with the meat to be fed to them, simply because otherwise they will drag it all around.
Yeah and humans choke on food all of the time that dosent mean we stop eating the food that every human has ever choked on!Originally Posted by elizwithcat
As I said, I know a woman whose poor dog was injured by the bones she put into his raw meat. That's enough for me to realize that bones are dangerous.
The vet who treated the dog also told that woman he sees many other dogs injured by bones in their raw food.
Weird occurrence: The other day, I gave some raw chicken to my cats. Both mom and dad sniffed at it and had absolutely no idea what it was, and just stood there, meowing in curiosity. They would not even lick it. The kittens, however, dove right in and scarfed it all between the 3 of them. Neither mom or dad had any clue what the chicken was, and they both were rescued strays (mom @ 4-6 weeks, though, but dad was considerably older when we took him in (about 6 or so months). The kittens have been indoor cats from the day they were born.Originally Posted by coaster
I haven't read every word in this thread, but just scanning it over (excuse me if this was mentioned) I don't think I saw an explanation of what exactly the danger of raw bones is. We know the danger of cooked bones -- they splinter, resulting in sharp edges. Raw bones don't. But there are still twin dangers of 1) choking and 2) intestinal obstruction -- both from trying to swallow something too large to swallow. Both fairly low dangers, but both can be minimized if the cat chews the bone correctly before swallowing. Now, this is something that isn't immediately obvious. A cat that doesn't know how to chew bones? Yes -- a kitten learns how from momma cat. But many cats today have no experience dining on prey, or raw meat and bones, having eaten cat food their whole lives.
I've fed raw chicken on bone to my cats several times. Two of the three cats don't know what to do with it. The other cat, who was a stray in former life and probably survived killing prey, knows how to tear up the meat and properly crunch the bones before swallowing. So, my advice is, if you're going to try feeding raw bones and meat to your cat, closely supervise the first few feeding sessions to make sure that your cat knows how to properly crunch up and chew those bones before swallowing. Then you stand the best chance of avoiding the primary dangers from raw bones.