[Amanda D]

As much as I would love to feed raw I don’t have the freezer space, nor the floor space for a chest freezer. However is it okay to give the occasional meal as raw or treats, like instead of a store bought dog bone, maybe a chickenbacks ,couple chicken thighs or a handful of feet or hearts, turkey necks, eggs.

I’m planning on feeding either Castor & Pollux Organix Puppy Recipe, or Fromm Gold Puppy both in kibble form.

If such items are okay, what is best to start a small to medium breed puppy on?

• This topic was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Amanda D. Reason: Forgot to say what I'm planning on feeding

[Cannoli]

Hi Amanda,

It is hard to advise whether thighs with bones or chicken feet or turkey necks are safe to feed your pup. In my opinion you need to analyze and train your pup first on how to eat these bones.

With my pup I stay away from small bones as he tends to be a gulper and when I was hand feeding him these type of bones he still had a tendency of gulping his food so I stayed away from any whole bones. No need to create a choking hazard.

Otherwise since the base of your diet is a puppy food there is nothing wrong with introducing your pup to these foods. Once your pup has stopped growing than it is safe from a nutritional perspective to experiment with more raw or home cooked foods.

But I must stress that you really need to pay attention to what type of an eater your pup is. If he is a gulper like mine than whole bones, regardless of whether they are soft or not, can create a choking hazard

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Cannoli.

[Acroyali]

Many people I know do one raw meal and one kibble meal per day, and have had no problems. Like Cannoli mentioned, know your dogs chewing style and choose appropriately. A good rule of thumb is to feed larger than (the dogs) head size to avoid them swallowing things whole. For a small/medium puppy, poultry necks and feet I would personally stay away from until they learn how to slow down and chew (things like oxtails scare me to high heaven).

[Amanda D]

Awesome thank you so much! I don’t have my puppy yet, will be getting one this year, going to see some Mini Australian Shepherds tomorrow! I just want as much information as I can get a hold of 🙂 I forgot to ask about raw veggies. I regularly dog sit for a 8 yr old Border Collier who absolutely loves her raw veggies, and bananas. Baby carrots and green pepperscreen are Misty’s favorites, are fruits and veggies a safe treat? Taking the chew style into account of course. Also I seen a horrid video on FB recently about how rawhide are made, are their other busy chews that are safe?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Amanda D.

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