Whole Chicken -- How To Feed

[LNsBeatles]

Our local grocery store is celebrating their anniversary with lots of store sales -- including buy one whole chicken get the second for a penny! Yay!

Louis is currently eating Nature's Variety -- but I try to supplement with RMBs. I would like to feed him some chicken parts. Currently he's about 5 months, around 15lbs.

Does anyone have any meal suggestions? I'm just a little hesitant about how much to feed (surprise, surprise) :rolleyes: I've read about feeding necks, "innards," backs, wings, legs, etc. but now that I've got the chicken, I'm not sure where to start. Louis has only had chicken wings before.

Also, I read somewhere that chicken wings might be too much bone for puppies -- any thoughts?

Now I'm off to learn how to cut up a chicken! :lol:

[gmacleod]

Just butcher the chicken into component parts, and feed an amount that's appropriately meal sized at a time. A leg, for example, is probably a good sized meal for a frenchie.

You're right about the wings, btw. Surprisingly, that's the most dense bone on a chicken (far more so than the legs). They're often fed by people just starting their dogs out on raw, especially adult dogs, because they're a handy shape and size for teaching the dog to chew without getting your fingers chewed as well. But beyond that, they're the least useful part of a chicken. You can still feed them, but your pup will probably do best if you include some meat with the wings. Feed them with breast meat, for example.

[tati]

I learned how to cut the whole chicken from here: http://www.rawfeddogs.net/PhotoGalleries/ViewPhotos.php?recipe=2 And I fed my dogs like that. :cool:

Tuffy loves to eat the leg quarters! :)

I cant fed only the wings to my frenchie, it is too dense for him. Like gmacleod said, it has to be attached to a chicken meat. My other dogs can handle very good with wings only but with Tuffy ... no way, he gets sick! :eek:

[J20]

Most Vets and breeders in the UK do not agree with giving any Dog chicken with bones, as they splinter. I find because of the shape of a Frenchies mouth
mine like things cut up or minced. I was looking at the Cut up chicken web page and was scared by the type of dogs on there!:lol:

[gmacleod]

Really? LOL - I must just be lucky with mine then. He wasn't a raw proponent until he received my four raw fed pets as patients. Instructions now are "don't change a thing".

There are actually quite a few vets in the UK who're very pro-raw feeding. And several veterinary-backed websites devoted to the topic. Here are a couple of them: http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/ and http://www.holisticvet.co.uk/canine_nutrition.htm

The dry dog food available in this country is, overall, of a very low standard. The best two commonly available are Burns and James Wellbeloved. But those are barely more than mid-range foods compared to what is available in many other countries. The meat content is only around 26% - that's awful. But we are blessed with a multitude of very good pre-made raw dog food suppliers at very reasonable cost. Clearly, the demand is there ;)

[tati]

Since I adjusted my dogs to the RMBs diet they do not scared me anymore! :) It is a pleasure for me to see them eating happy as real dogs! :D But before when I feeded grains (kibble)I was really very scared. :eek: Oh God!! that smell bad from their teeth, from theirs bodies, the skin issues, itchs, VET bills, antibiotics, anti allergics and... that bad mood to eat. I was really very scared then! And now they are just happy! :)

Not long ago I did realize that many Vets are quite ignorants about appropriate diets and I can understand why, they are not nutritionists. When I did decide to leave the VET I had I did try to find someone capable, well educated and open minded for all sort of discussions I wanted about dogs, including the raw diet. I am very glad that I did find a nice Homeophatic Vet and my dogs blood tests are showing to my VET and I the good results they are getting from the RMBs. ;)