ya coz she is wearing the shirt. if not she look like carpet after brushing her. swt
oh by the way swt = sweat    <<<

Rayne...actually the purpose of giving frozen meat is to avoid the germs and bacteria? am i right?

my dog is a HE...lolx...
i am very sure he going to use his paws if i give him bigger piece!!!
imagine all the white fur of his front legs with "blood water"....i will pengsan XD

I beg to differ. I feed Scottie wings and drumsticks all the time with no problems. But I do add additional meat when I'm feeding wings coz wings by itself are too boney and too much bone can make the stools crumbly. If a person is just starting out however, it's a good idea to start with easy bone-in parts, like breast and keels. After they're used to it, just start feeding the other parts of the chicken.

hmm....i just thought chicken wing is good as I just started to feed my baby raw...

My shih tzu doesn't use her paws to eat raw chicken, if the piece is too big, she use her jaws to sort of fling it left and right while chewing.

yup especially drumstick bone is very hard to chew for beginners, and it is harder to digest. so it risks the dogs. My BARF never add these parts.

Hehe...it sounds like Kenji's way of eating (fling left to right), but he sometimes use paws to hold down the food while he tears the meat apart Scottie mostly just chews and chews until he can swallow...he's a good chewer.

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Added on February 11, 2009, 1:03 pm

I think it depends on the size of the dog lo, IMO. If the dog is a big dog (like Golden Retriever, etc), drumsticks shouldn't be a problem...in fact, it could be too small for it! But for smaller breeds, yes, it can be a bit hard. Some people in the group smash the bones with a hammer to make it easier for the dogs to chew.

For Scottie's first raw meal, I gave him a drumstick... He ate it fine(but slower than when he ate kibble), and when he pooped, no bits of bone in the poop...probably coz he really chewed the bone up while eating.

yaya, i have forgot not every dogs are small breeds
i feed my Golden drumstick, he is ok with it also. My Jack Russell is ok too, but a bit slow. That time my friend's poodle came i dare not feed drumstick, only feed him grinded BARF, coz he often swallow without chewing. All of their poo poo are very nice, in powdery form. sometime i touch it then poo poo become like loosened soil. no bone inside. The Golden even had broken intestine due to his previous owner lack of experience giving it boil bone.

I found drumstick is sharp even after my dog chew it into small pieces. i hope it wont scratch their intestines. But so far no problem.

Another point is drumstick is expensive lah, feed carcass cheaper lah  

Bones And Raw Food Diet

As per title, besides what most pet owners normally providing their pets - Kibbles. There is another interesting diet for us to discover about - BARF.

Personally, I'd been feeding my dogs on BARF diet for quite some months already. Thanks to my gf, Ying. At first, I was quite reluctant to switch from kibbles to BARF, just as any normal person, I thought that feeding BARF is a troublesome + expensive thing to do. BUT if you were to ask me to switch back to kibbles now, I would say NO!

BARF, also known as Biologically Appropriate Raw Food by Dr Ian Billinghurst - vet who originated the BARF (Evolutionary Nutrition) feeding program worldwide, is an interesting subject to wonder upon. We admire him a lot and gotten a bundle of books written by him to munch about. We share the books among our friends and puppy buyers, trying to find out the best we can provide our dogs.

Well, through out the readings, we do noticed that BARF is not as simple as we imagine. BUT if we are willing to study more and research hard, we will actually able to make our pets healthier, and we do learn a lot on why feeding BARF will makes our pets better off. None of us are nutritionist or experts but we hope that through reading the books from the professionals, we would be able to provide the best for our pets.

Let's put aside the very much details and allow me to express what I'm able to observe as a normal owner. What are the differences after switching from kibbles to BARF.

1) The amount of poo is much lesser, as in very much lesser! Some of you guys might know, I do own quite a substantial amount of dogs. It is a disaster for us to clean up their big pile of poo poo many times a day! After feeding BARF diet, it is incredible. The poo poo size is much smalleer, very less smell, also they only poo once a day! I do believe that this is very much due to the enzymes in raw diets. Enzymes is an agent to help dissolves and digests the food and nutritions. During processing, heating and packaging to last for long shelf life, most enzymes in most kibbles are lost. Which means that if we are feeding diet losing the enzymes, what enters the stomach will only FILL the stomach, then most of the food will come out as poo poo! But when feeding BARF, the food and nutrients dissolved and digested appropriately, hence very litttle remaindings will come out as poo poo, also our pets will get healthier since the nutrients are better digested.

2) Water consumption lower, lesser wee wee. Unlike kibbles which are very dry and dogs will always thirsthy and need to drink a substantial amount of water, which makes them wee wee very frequently, BARF diets basically are not heated nor dried, hence the liquid remains. Eating do not make them thirsty, they will drink  as needed.

3) Skin and coat and overall health being improved. We can see a very big different comparing our dogs when they are fed with kibbles and after they are fed with BARF for some time. We do brought back dogs with poor health condition and see obvious improvements. We are also glad to see by providing a suitable diet, our pets skin and coat is actually getting better, inside out!

The purpose of me opening up this thread is to share, i'm happy and satisfied with BARF and wish to share more. I'm not an expert but I do hope to share some of my experience and I believe that there must be many of you guys here are able to share some valuable knowledge with me too! Let's learn together.

But remember, a BARF diet has to be a "COMPLETE" one if we want our pets to be better off. For instance, let say you are feeding only RAW Meat but not with the bones, you will face problem. It is not a simple subject but it is interesting while we learn more! So, if you want something better for your pets, do study hard and drop by here frequently to enganged in our discussion.

Let's just ends here for the first post, and we shall share together for many posts to come.

FAQs



FACTs

so maybe after 1 or 2 weeks only i start to give drumstick? meanwhile i may stick to chicken wings and other part....

Sure, or if you're really concerned, just de-bone the drumstick lo Not every meal has to have bone...

Cool...but you have to take care that the poop is powdery, though. That means there is too much bone in the meals already. The stools should be firm but not too hard, a LITTLE bit moist kind...if the dog has loose stools, it could mean too less bones or too much of something(organs / meat), but powdery stools mean there's too much bone ady. Scottie had those stools before (when the poop drops, it crumbles into bits and powder), and then the next two meals or so I would feed him boneless meals and the stools will be back to normal again.

Nope, raw chicken bones won't harm the dog... And no, I don't just feed drumsticks... I buy a whole chicken and whack it into pieces before feeding. Definitely cheaper than just buying parts of the chicken

Oh thx for the info, i have to observe again. My Golden's poop is more powdery, but JRT poop is like you said, firm and not too hard. both dogs eat same recipes of BARF

Maybe their digestion difference?