Are uncooked chicken bones safe.

Dodd

I am sure it is safe but I have been sure of things before and been wrong.
I am on a phone and to do a search could cost me loads so...

Thanks.

Lawrence1895

My feeling says no...because they won't be safe for humans either, salmonella springs into my mind.

andreac

Raw chicken, bones and all, are perfectly fine for dogs.

andreac

Lars1916 wrote: »

My feeling says no...because they won't be safe for humans either, salmonella springs into my mind.

Sorry but that is incorrect.

Hooked

Lars1916 wrote: »

My feeling says no...because they won't be safe for humans either, salmonella springs into my mind.

Long story very short... Raw bones, chicken, meat, fish, etc etc... Are perfectly fine. A dogs stomach, ph level, digestion rate, etc is very different to ours.

Do a search in this forum for 'raw feeding' or google the BARF diet. Bones and raw food.

I feed my dog raw mixed parcels that I make and freeze, fish off cuts and heads (frozen first to kill anything nasty), organ meat, brisket bones, whole chicken legs on the bone. Eggs. You name it.

Raw feeding all the way. Just don't mix it with kibble or dog food. Different rates of digestion.

Timfy

Found this online from a reputable breeders site...

1. Dogs don't have the same digestive systems that human beings do. They are much more tolerant of bacteria. Dogs eat disgusting things all of the time without getting sick. Eating fresh, raw chicken shouldn't harm them a bit.

2. Most people who feed raw chicken are feeding stuff they buy in the store -- i.e. human-grade chicken that has been inspected and gone through quality control inside the plant. This doesn't always ensure that the chicken is completely safe, but in this day and age it's pretty likely.

My dogs get raw wings, thighs, and meat on a weekly basis, especially in the winter when they are working in harness. I have not seen an issue with feeding raw chicken in 10+ years of feeding raw foods. As long as the chicken is raw, the bones are like cartilage, easily ground up and digested by the dog.

Havermeyer

Would chicken bones, raw or cooked, not be dangerous in the sense that they are small and sharp?

Hooked

Timfy wrote: »

Found this online from a reputable breeders site...

...I have not seen an issue with feeding raw chicken in 10+ years of feeding raw foods. As long as the chicken is raw, the bones are like cartilage, easily ground up and digested by the dog.

Easily ground up is right. My lad eats raw chicken legs like they're cocktail sausages. Crunch, crunch, crunch, swallow. Still amazes me to see him make short work of brisket bones and chicken legs.

andreac

Havermeyer wrote: »

Would chicken bones, raw or cooked, not be dangerous in the sense that they are small and sharp?

Raw bones are fine. Cooked are not. Cooked can splinter so cause problems. Raw ones are digested.

DBB

But just to add the caveat, that no matter what your dog eats, be it bones, rawhide chews, pig's ears, jumbones, dentastix, apples, carrots, whatever, once it goes into the mouth, it's a choking hazard.
A very small hazard, but a hazard all the same... But just to make the point that raw bones are no more a choking hazard than anything else!

Hooked

Havermeyer wrote: »

Would chicken bones, raw or cooked, not be dangerous in the sense that they are small and sharp?

Cooked... Yes.

Raw... No.

Raw bones are a lot softer and less jagged (sharp) than we think they are. Cooking them makes them splinter and puncture a dogs stomach when eaten.

Dodd

Thanks.
I was sure it was fine but did not want to take a chance if I was wrong.
She loves it.

fatmammycat

Hooked wrote: »

Easily ground up is right. My lad eats raw chicken legs like they're cocktail sausages. Crunch, crunch, crunch, swallow. Still amazes me to see him make short work of brisket bones and chicken legs.

That's almost exactly like my fellow too, crunch crunch, onto the back molars, gone. I gave him a raw rabbit carcass recently and he devoured it in minutes, have to say he REALLY enjoyed that.

Dodd

Update.
My dog is a JRT and I think I gave to much wings or it is that she is not used to them.
I gave her about 350g over a few hours maybe 400g.
She eat every bit but today her stools were so dry it can't be good.
I will feed her less in one sitting from now on.

Thanks for all the answers and input.

DBB

Dodd wrote: »

Update.
My dog is a JRT and I think I gave to much wings or it is that she is not used to them.
I gave her about 350g over a few hours maybe 400g.
She eat every bit but today her stools were so dry it can't be good.
I will feed her less in one sitting from now on.

Thanks for all the answers and input.

That'd be sufficient food for a dog of about 12-14kg Dodd! Is your JRT that big?
The rough guidelines are to feed about 2-3% of the dog's body weight per day, so a 10kg dog should get 200-300g per day, and this should be a mixture of meat, offal, bones and maybe some veg. But dogs not used to raw food need to build up their systems to be able to digest it well, so giving too much bone as an opening gambit is not a good plan. You'll need to be a little more gradual.
Were I you, I'd be dividing chicken wings into their 3 sections, and give your dog one section every 2nd or even 3rd day, for now.
Their poops dry up a shocking amount on raw, especially with bones, and the ideal is for dark orange coloured pellets, which are very dry. However, it's easy to go overboard and for the dog to become constipated, so go easier on the bones, and if necessary, give her a small bit of cooked, mashed veg.

TooManyDogs

Dodd wrote: »

Update.
My dog is a JRT and I think I gave to much wings or it is that she is not used to them.
I gave her about 350g over a few hours maybe 400g.
She eat every bit but today her stools were so dry it can't be good.
I will feed her less in one sitting from now on.

Thanks for all the answers and input.

As DBB says that's an awful lot of food for a JRT, my 8kg JRT gets 200g a day. It's also an awful lot of raw meaty bones. You'd want to aim for 10 - 20% raw meaty bones a day and make the rest up out of mince and optional veggies/eggs. Too much bone content will make a dog constipated. Dry poos are fine as long as the dog isn't straining trying to pass them (don't you have the most lovely conversations on API )

So you could maybe give your fella half to 1 chicken wing a day and add lamb/chicken/turkey mince or meat for the rest

Wibbs

andreac wrote: »

Raw bones are fine. Cooked are not. Cooked can splinter so cause problems. Raw ones are digested.

Not quite at least not in my experience. I was feeding my pup raw chicken wings early on and when blood started to show in his stools I thought eh no. I also saw sharp bone shards in his stools, which didn't instill confidence. So your milage may vary. I found legs to be fine, but wings no. Depends on how fast your dog eats too. A chewer is going to have less of an issue than a gulper. Breed, more size of dog, may come into it too. A small dog may take it's time on say wings, but a large breed might wolf the lot down in one go.

I'd be even more careful with puppies. One issue I have with the barf diet is the comparison to the wild dogs and how this is a good thing. Yes Barf is a far better diet than the glorified meat flavoured cornflakes dry food, but wild canids don't tend to eat raw bones when young. Their food is "cooked", pre chewed and pre digested by the adults who regurgitate their kills for the pups back at home base(all the way up to yearlings). Wolf and dingo pups will certainly gnaw on bones when teething, but would rarely eat fully raw bones. Adult wild canids also have thicker tooth enamel and larger teeth(as a ratio of body size) compared to domestic dogs.

Plus dogs have been with humans since way before the dawn of agriculture so have evolved alongside us and our diets. So while cereal dry food isn't the best they can tolerate it, whereas captive wolves and other wild canids will get a dose of the trots from the same food. Clearly there have been adaptations to the diet because of human cohabitation. Changes we ourselves have made as the vast majority of earlier humans would have been gluten and lactose intolerant.

Personally I look on the Raw/Barf diet, much as I look on the so called Paleo diet for people. Great idea, is certainly far better than the processed crap we might eat, but the science is murky at times and it's likely best to moderate our views and seek a middle ground.

I would say though that the drier stools of the raw diet is far better for the dog. When you see roughage, especially plant based roughage being touted as a major plus for dogs I have to ask WTF? When vets suggest this my response is more GTFO*. Yea for us it might(and I say might) be a very good thing, but for a much more carnivorous animal with a shorter gut and far higher gut transition time it's beyond daft. No wonder some people have to have their dogs anal glands drained so often. The anal glands are supposed to release pheromonic fluid when defecating, no chance if the stools are loose. Hence the problem.



*then again I'd bloody rarely take any dietary advice from your average vet. NOt when so many of them are pimping processed dry food in their waiting rooms. Would you take dietary advice from a doctor who had a McDonalds outlet in the waiting room? Eh nope, you wouldn't.

Blondes have more fun

I have been feeding my 2 Chuhuahuas raw & cooked chicken wings & legs for years. They love them and have never had a problem.

I would agree with the comment about the diet advice from vets, not good. No one, human or canine can expect to be healthy eating ONLY processed food all their lives