At what age can a puppy begin gnawing on raw beef bones? So I need to wait for his adult teeth, or all sets of vaccinations? Sorry if this seems like a dumb question...I'm a newbie!!

Chap:rolleyes: :o

You can start pretty well anytime. Always supervise bone time and you may want to trim any excess fat and marrow from the bones as diarrhea is very common in dogs that are just starting this new adventure. A friend of ours is a butcher he also breeds Chessies he bring bones home for the pups at about 4 wks of age to start them off.

I fed Jake his first raw chicken breast at 12 wks (he's 16 wks now all baby teeth still) and he ate the entire thing, bone and all. He did get diarrhea the first day after that, but now I give him whole raw chicken and he eats those bones and all, with no problems. If I give him other meats like ribs, beef, pork chops he will pick the bone clean, but doesn't eat the bone like he does the chicken. I tried pigs feet once and he would have nothing to do with those .The only 'problem' I have now is he doesn't really like his nutro. He is very healthy and I would love to go to the full BARF diet, but I can't find a butcher in my area to buy scraps from. And while chicken is cheap, other meat isn't, and I don't want to feed him just chicken all the time. I usually pick him up a couple of whole chickens and a couple pounds of what ever meat is on sale, and feed some meat one day and dog food the next. He seems to like that diet and his teeth are whiter then mine .:D

I would recommend doing some more research on BARF before you do to much more. Since your pup is very young you want to make sure he is getting adequate nutrients for good and even bone growth. If the combination is not right either with total BARF or when doing combo BARF and kibble bone growth can be affected. Your best bet is to pick up one of the guru's books Pitcairns, Lonsdale or Billinghurst's - grow your pup with bones - this one you would get from the BARFWorld site. The other 2 you can get through Amazon.

I always heard that chicken bones were bad because they splinter.
On another note - Zeus swallowed a prok rib bone. The vet said to just watch him and wait for it to pass. So far no ill effects but we are worried. Anybody have any info....

Bones are generally only harmful if they have been cooked. If the chicken, or pork rib, bone is raw then usually your dog has a strong enough bite to chew it up before digesting it. Only cooked bones will splinter when chewed up. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. 40 yrs ago dog food wasn't all to common and most family dogs were fed the left overs from that nights dinner. And in the wild, the majority of a dogs diet is raw meat and bones. Jake seems to have an instinct on what bones not to eat. He will eat a chicken bone and other smaller bones, but large or hard bones he just cleans the meat off and leaves the bone. I am sure Zues will be not only fine, but probably enjoyed that pork rib bone.

This qoute came from this link:
http://www.barfers.com/barf.html

qoute:
Q: But aren't chicken bonesdangerous?!!!

A: This is one of the biggest myths of all time! Raw chicken bones are fantastic for your dog. They are soft enough so that they bend easily, and break well for the dog to digest.

On the other hand, cooked chicken bones can be a problem, and I recommend that you DON'T feed COOKED chicken bones.

I saw your post and its amazing how crazy they are over raw food! Bones as you have learned are great for teeth. Too bad you cannot find a butcher. We feed both our dogs BARF (I hate that term) and the butcher gives us HUGE femur bones for FREE. Fresh at that!. He breaks them up, have to be about 5 lbs a piece and no charge. I will give them to other dogs in my family and they go nuts for hours and days!!!!!! Our lab's nose goes up and kangaroo and some other game. We used to give them whole meat as dogs likes to chew but they are picky when we give them their veggies and they spit it so we grind the meat and mix with veggies in a meat grinder that does grind bones. Found a good one for $100.oo. They love sweet potatoes, squash and stuff like that but nothing green!!!!! Definately going through a butcher is cheaper and for us fresher!!!! But I agree with Labracorn's post....don't go back and forth. They get ill. I did a bad thing one time b/c I was desperate on a holiday and bought them a can of regular food. I was a bad mom and felt horrible. I learned nothing was better that alpo. However you can find a good menu for this type of diet at

http://********.com/index.htm?[url]http://********.com/diet.htm~mainFrame

This guy raises GSD's but it is a great site and knowledgable and talks about training etc. for all breeds basically!