Hi Ceara,
I think Patty answered your questions better than I could have. I didn’t have too much of a problem with my Bailey choking. Even when she got down to a piece the size that I thought was too big for her to swallow, and she tried to swallow it, she made sure to chew it a few more times and then swallowed it. I don’t think you have to worry too much about your dog choking. The bones in chicken crunch right up and once they get the hang of using their teeth the way they were meant to, they’ll have no problems. Oh, and, like Patty said, when I started, I did remove the skin from the chicken. Even now, sometimes I’ll take most of the skin off.
They say to fast for one meal before starting on raw. I feed Bailey twice a day, so, when I started, I fed her dinner one day, skipped breakfast the next morning and then started her on raw for dinner. As you may have read early on I had a few concerns, but I feel silly about all the concerns I had. Your dog’s gut just has to get used to eating & digesting food that it was meant to have. You may see pieces of bone in his poop some, that’s normal, and he may even throw up some. Don’t give up, just hang in there. You’ll be doing the very best for your dog feed him a species appropriate diet and he’ll thank you for it! 🙂
