[Kristin C]

Has anyone fed raw beef ribs? If so, HOW? I regularly feed chicken backs and necks, duck parts and necks, turkey necks as part of a weekend morning meal. Would the beef ribs be equivalent? I can’t imagine they eat the bone? Is it more like eating a beef marrow bone where I give it as a snack?

[pugmomsandy]

I’ve fed pork ribs and they eat all of it. The beef ribs are too hard for my small dogs. They just eat the meat and gnaw on the bone for days. GreenTripe dot com sells calf ribs and they are even smaller in width than pork ribs.

[theBCnut]

One of my dogs eats almost all of a beef rib, but the other 2 just gnaw them. My old Goldenx used to easily eat beef ribs, so it depends on the dog.

They all eat beef short ribs easily.

[Nancy C]

BC Nut – What is the approx length of the beef short ribs? I have two beautiful long beef rib bones with LOTS Of meat. Getting nervous about my GSD trying to EAT it and then pieces getting stuck somewhere INSIDE HER. Your dog that eats almost ALL the long beef rib — how big is that dog? My GSD is 75 pounds and he has some TEETH! I’m still a little worried…. I relate to Kristin above and am just needing a little hand holding.

Thank you for whatever else you can say….

[theBCnut]

Short ribs are about 6 inches and mostly cartilage, easy to chew up bone. Full ribs are between 8 and 12 inches. One of my 45 lb Border Collies can’t eat even half of the thing. The other 45 lb Border Collie eats about 3/4 of it. A German Shepherd should get a good chew out of it, but have no problem eating the whole thing. My old 85 lb GSD chewed them up pretty well, but he wasn’t inclined to gulp and the ribs were big enough that I wouldn’t have considered it a problem. If he is a really voracious chewer then you can have the butcher cut up a rack of ribs so that they are in groups of 2. That’s what I do with pork ribs.

[Kristin C]

The beef ribs I have are the longer ones. I have a 35 lb and a 25 lb dog. Am going to try them this afternoon and see how it goes. They are pretty big bones so I’d like to think it will be like giving them marrow bones where they just eat the meat and the bone is recreational, not ingested.

[Nancy C]

Kristin, thank you! I am anything BUT an authority but my Fear has pointed me in the direction of getting info. For starters my RMBs are LONG too. Measuring the curved side they are 8 inches long from end to end which means they are really longer than that. My dog is 75 pounds w big jaws and teeth… however, I have just moved him in the last 2 weeks to raw and I have changed vets to a homeopath vet to whom I am adapting. My regular vet for 12 yrs is a fine clinician if the dog needs surgery (was #1 in her vet class) but as for holistic she is NOT there. She is the one who drew titers on my shepherd back in Sept, called to say parvo was negative and I needed to bring him in for REvaccination. The vaccine her animal hospital uses is a combo of parvo and distemper. She was willing to REvaccinate him for distemper even though his immunity for it (according to the titers) is very strong. THAT is when I found the homeopath who was willing to ONLY vaccinate for parvo. (Singles ARE available). That homeopath RE tested him for titers recently and sent the blood to the Univ of Col Vet Sch for lab work and the parvo was very strong. Go figure. Anyway, if there is trouble w this bone then I will have to make a decision betw WHICH VET and I do not want to do that!
Also – FYI from the NON EXPERT ME — According to my reading marrow bones are not recommended for dogs because they are from the load bearing bones (leg – femur) and dogs can easily break a tooth on those bec they are particularly hard. Dr. Tom Lonsdale DVM is a very respectable vet in Australia who has written two books worth seeing and one is titled RAW MEATY BONES. Can type that in and read more. He has a website. I think it is http://www.rawmeatybones.com. There is another website where his second book is ON LINE FOR FREE. It is RAWMEATYBONESMYTH.com (I think). Google that in and see if it comes up. Otherwise I will go find the exact title…. it gives a little info. Knuckle bones are also bad for tooth breaks.
Let me know how it goes this afternoon. I am thinking about giving mine today or tomorrow. I just gave the GSD his first BEEF last night, continued this morning. And I might wait till tomorrow just in case there is a probl so I can call the homeopath and not the Emergency Vet – they charge so much esp on weekends!
Good luck. Will wait to hear. WHAT I WANT TO KNOW is what happens AFTER the meat is all chewed off. !!! Thanks.

[Nancy C]

PS Crazy4Cats says she gives her dogs SHORT RIBS — might be good esp for starters. Thank you Crazy!!

[Nancy C]

Sorry you two — I did not see CRAZY’s great response til AFTER I wrote the above. Thank you C4C!! Helpful details.

[theBCnut]

Most vets need to revisit how to interpret titer results. A low titer does not mean the dog needs to be revaccinated. It means that the dogs system has not had a challenge against that particular disease in a while. In other words, a low parvo titer means your dog has not been exposed to parvo so has not produced antibodies against it.

A dog with immune supression might have low numbers, but they should be low across the board because the vaccines never did that dog any good, and revaccinating a nonresponder doesn’t help, since they are not capable of responding to a vaccine. These dogs get sick from everything , never thrive, and usually die from something young.

[Kristin C]

Will do Nancy, I’ll post after they are done gnawing away. Also, thanks for the info but I no longer feed marrow bones. One of my girls did break a tooth and my older dog got aggressive with the younger dog even after the bones were picked clean. So this beef rib thing might be a one time thing if I see the slightest aggression.

[Nancy C]

Kristin — I bought 3 turkey necks from HARE TODAY and they are in the freezer still. HOW exactly did you feed them? They look big. Hare Today says they are 1 1/2 pound each. According to the 2 -3% body weight my GSD can eat approx 2 pounds of raw a day. so it would seem to me that ONE neck would be a meal in that he eats two meals a day — but perhaps I should cut it in half?
Were your dogs able to chew it up easily? Did they eat it frozen? Did you feed it outside and just lay it down on the ground (as some say to do) ? I sound so stupid — I just have NO experience and I do not know of anyone around here who feeds “basic raw raw” (meaning raw pieces as in the wild – not “prepared commercial raw’ like Darwins, Primal etc). What I am scared of is choking and the possibility of biting off more bone than can go through the “tubing” in the body.
I think I have read that beef bones are comparatively hard whereas goat, lamb, duck, chicken are softer bones and that would infer easier to chew up. Thank you for what you can say.

[crazy4cats]

Hey Nancy-
You are so welcome, but I’ve never fed my dogs ribs! Lol! Maybe you read a post from the crazy 4 dogs poster somewhere? I wish I would have written one due to your excitement over it though. 🙂

• This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by crazy4cats.

[Kristin C]

Nancy, you don’t sound stupid. It’s trial and error. I feed turkey necks the size they come in, no cutting it up for me but mine aren’t as big as yours. I’ll weigh the necks just so I know how much they are eating. You might want to adjust the next meal accordingly but I don’t bother because I only give RMBs once a week. I do feed them outside, thawed, and they sort of chomp down the vertebrae pretty easily if that makes sense. Use your best judgement, and I get a little panicky whenever I feed something new FYI. Also, my 25 lb dog has a tendency to swallow chicken necks without chewing them and she’s never developed a problem. She’s young and a little anxious but she’s learning!

[Nancy C]

Sorry — was BC Nut !! I’m getting OLD!!!

[Nancy C]

BC– just saw the above. Your post was well received. I was very irritated to learn that she would actually REvaccinate against a disease for which the dog showed strong immunity. Have to realize what that reveals. My over all assessment is that she is thoroughly endoctrinated in allopathy and if she has even read about the dangers of vaccines, even the POSSIBILITY of the dangers, of vaccinosis, of all the side effects — I am astounded that she did not respond more consciously when even I QUESTIONED THE VERY ACT OF REVACCINATING FOR DISTEMPER. Our actions speak loudly. So now I know. Thank you again for your response.

[Nancy C]

Oh no I am so sorry about the tooth! I guess there is truth in that marrow bone info. I hope it won’t create problems. My 11 yr old golden cracked off part of her tooth and I do not know how (have not fed bones at all) but she’s fine. HOpefully yours will be the same.

[Nancy C]

BCN
My old 85 lb GSD chewed them up pretty well, but he wasn’t inclined to gulp and the ribs were big enough that I wouldn’t have considered it a problem.

So it’s about watching them gnaw and chew and decide WHEN and IF to take the bone away? The real cleaning value is over and done once it’s just a bone, right? So until I get more comfortable about it I COULD just take the bone away when it’s clean.

[Kristin C]

So I am giving the raw beef ribs a thumbs down. Yes, they gnaw off the meat and the bone is clean. The problem I had today is that both my girls didn’t want to give up the bone afterwards. I was running around the yard trying to get them to drop it. Even my youngest one grumbled at me, but they weren’t aggressive just playful and protective. Once I got them into the fenced area I took out one of their chicken dinners and they both came running inside. So they will be sleeping it off in the garage for a while:) And I will be sticking with consumable bones and treats! I feel like the ribs are more like the marrow bones where they could break a tooth, another reason I am only trying this once.

[theBCnut]

I feed either one dog at a time in the yard or in their crates, so there is no chance of a fight over their precious bones. Watch your dog at least until you feel comfortable with his chewing style. My dogs clean off a rib and then lay there and chew it for quite some time, so there is definitely some cleaning going on after the meat is gone. With turkey necks, sometimes I cut them in half, sometimes I give the whole thing and adjust the next meal. They crunch down on them and break the bones very easily. They do seem to know the difference between types of bones, they don’t crunch down on the big ribs, they just gnaw them to break small pieces off the edges. Turkey neck bones are not big enough, even whole, to block up a full grown GSD, but they really are soft and easy for a dog to chew up. Even my 12 lb JRT doesn’t have and trouble with turkey necks.

[Kristin C]

BC-I separate them when I feed them mid-day so one was outside the fence, one inside. But neither was willing to give up the bone after the meat was gone today which was the challenge.

Nancy-my turkey necks are smaller because I get them from the grocery store, I think they cut them in half, which works for our smaller dogs (than yours). My husband and I each take a dog and feed them outside one day over the weekend and that’s their RMB breakfast for the week.

[Nancy C]

Interesting. I guess I need to put him in the crate and watch him by shining a flashlight in there!! And I should have something else he LOVES waiting, just in case I need an enticement. His mouth looks like a wolf – BCN you do know if you had an 85 pound GSD. Knowing your dog is what is so important. You all have been so helpful! Many thanks! I will let you know how it goes once I get up the nerve. Might try the turkey neck first. I watched some You TUbes today and the necks are really pretty safe it appears. Thank you both.

[theBCnut]

I’ve actually had something close to 20 GSDs. Yes, I do know what you mean. I used to train for the local police department, so I’ve seen those from in front doing what they were made to do. I’ve had more than 1 GSD who bit through a bite sleeve, powerful.

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