buying bone in chicken. best buy? which part and where?

LeakingLava

Hi everyone. I'm looking for places to buy chicken for my dog. I kind of dont want my dog to just eat mince as there's not much exercise compared to bone in chicken. Where can i buy them cheap? Ivr been looking at chicken thighs as I 'think' it could be the easiest as the bones are about 30% of the part(so ive read somewhere) so i can just feed my dog half the bone or something for the 80-10-10 meat-bone-offal percentage, right? Comes to 15 percent but meh .

Aldi and lidl have chicken thighs for about 3 a kilo. Anything better?

toadfly

I get chicken legs for €2/kg in my local butcher and chicken/duck necks around €1.60/kg from dogsfirst.ie, there is a min spend on DF of €40 I think.

LeakingLava

toadfly wrote: »

I get chicken legs for €2/kg in my local butcher and chicken/duck necks around €1.60/kg from dogsfirst.ie, there is a min spend on DF of €40 I think.

How do you do the 80-10-10 partition with duck necks? How many kilos is your dog? I dont think I can do much adjustments as my dog is only about 13kg and I feed around 5-10 percent as he's a puppy so max of 1.3kg in a day. So on the days that i give a small amount, i wouldnt know how to fit in the chicken/duck necks having too much bones.

Also, legs has even more bones than thighs right? So i would get a little bit less meat? Or am i doing my calculations wrong 0.0

Thanks a lot

toadfly

I don't really stick to that. She's 15kg but fully grown. Never had any issues with not sticking to that ratio. I feed her mainly necks & legs. I also give her oxtail occasionally.

What she had today was brown rice, scrambled egg&sardines. I just mix it up for her and she's doing great.

LeakingLava

toadfly wrote: »

I don't really stick to that. She's 15kg but fully grown. Never had any issues with not sticking to that ratio. I feed her mainly necks & legs. I also give her oxtail occasionally.

What she had today was brown rice, scrambled egg&sardines. I just mix it up for her and she's doing great.

Ok that's sooo good to know that it's not like an absolute rule. I'm still just adjusting to the daily calculations of his food so I'm trying to stick at one thing but I have given him sardines before and no problems. Tried to give him a whole egg and he put it in his mouth and brought it outside. The same thing that he does to my socks when he wants to play with them -.-

Thanks again. At least now I can branch out to look for other options and not just the thighs. I tried doing the aldi thighs once and pork liver for a day but his poop were bad. Dont want to put any images in your head so ill leave it at that. I know he's fully adjusted to Raw as I had given him mince from dogfooddirect and he was fine. I wad thiking maybe he needed more bones but i keep trying to stick to the ratio. I will definitely try to give him a bit more now. Thank you so much.

I will be searching around butchers for other chicken parts. Thanks again.

tk123

toadfly wrote: »

there is a min spend on DF of €40 I think.

That's just the min spend to get free delivery and if you're in Dublin you can collect from Clondalkin OP I mostly feed duck necks/duck mince with veg. Like toadfly I don't get too hung up on the ratios anymore either.

toadfly

tk123 wrote: »

That's just the min spend to get free delivery and if you're in Dublin you can collect from Clondalkin OP I mostly feed duck necks/duck mince with veg. Like toadfly I don't get too hung up on the ratios anymore either.

Oh yes I forgot you can collect. I was so precise when I started feeding raw. Weighed out the veg and all! Not I dont even weigh the raw, have a fair idea from looking how much she should get a day.

LeakingLava

tk123 wrote: »

That's just the min spend to get free delivery and if you're in Dublin you can collect from Clondalkin OP I mostly feed duck necks/duck mince with veg. Like toadfly I don't get too hung up on the ratios anymore either.

Thank you so much for your input guys. Thanks a lot.

irish_goat

You shouldn't feed your dog chicken thighs with the bones, they can cause all sorts of problems in the mouth, throat, internal organs, can cause peritonitis, septicaemia and blockages..amongst other things. Don't see why you would risk that.

tk123

irish_goat wrote: »

You shouldn't feed your dog chicken thighs with the bones, they can cause all sorts of problems in the mouth, throat, internal organs, can cause peritonitis, septicaemia and blockages..amongst other things. Don't see why you would risk that.

Cooked bones can cause problems - the OP is feeding the chicken (and bones) raw...

irish_goat

tk123 wrote: »

Cooked bones can cause problems - the OP is feeding the chicken (and bones) raw...

Raw chicken thigh bones can still cause problems, particularly the fibula.

tk123

irish_goat wrote: »

Raw chicken thigh bones can still cause problems, particularly the fibula.

Any links to back this up or are you just scaremongering? Dogs can choke on kibble and get salmonella from it too.. Also the fibula is in the drumstick..

borderlinemeath

irish_goat wrote: »

Raw chicken thigh bones can still cause problems, particularly the fibula.

Rawhide chews can cause problems, kongs can be chewed and eaten, tennis balls can get lodged in the throat, sticks can break and splinter...there's a risk with anything that dogs put in their mouths, chicken bones are actually very soft compared to other poultry and meat bones, once there is proper supervision I don't see the extra risk feeding them. Great for clearing out anal glands too.

irish_goat

Here's a few links to back up what I'm saying.

http://bunkblog.net/foods-safe-for-dogs/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones
http://www.pawposse.com/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones/blog-358/
http://thethreedogblog.com/dogs-eating-chicken-bones-facts-and-fables.html
http://www.vetblog.net/2013/07/dog.swallowed.chicken.bone.problem.html

Thigh bones are not considered safe for dogs. The reason this thread caught my eye is because I drove my gf to work at 11pm last night so she could admit a dog that had a raw chicken bone lodged in his intestine. Nearly killed the poor thing and left the owner with a hefty bill. Why take the risk?

DBB

irish_goat wrote: »

Here's a few links to back up what I'm saying.

http://bunkblog.net/foods-safe-for-dogs/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones
http://www.pawposse.com/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones/blog-358/
http://thethreedogblog.com/dogs-eating-chicken-bones-facts-and-fables.html
http://www.vetblog.net/2013/07/dog.swallowed.chicken.bone.problem.html

Thigh bones are not considered safe for dogs. The reason this thread caught my eye is because I drove my gf to work at 11pm last night so she could admit a dog that had a raw chicken bone lodged in his intestine. Nearly killed the poor thing and left the owner with a hefty bill. Why take the risk?

Jayney Irish-goat, whilst I think it's fair enough to issue caution to people about feeding size-appropriate raw chicken bones to dogs, the back-up blogs you're using I find really hard to take seriously.
For starters, they all say that raw bones are fine, if fed with caution. They also specfically say that removal of the fibula renders the bone safe. Posters here are also always advised to supervise their dog, and feed size-appropriate bones.
Secondly, three of those blogs are basing their advice on one another... There's no independence between them.
Thirdly, who the hell are they? Are we really going to start a scaremongering campaign based on anonymous blogs written by people who don't appear to have any relevant qualifications? I'm assuming the vet blog is written by vets, but the other three have no professional substance to them whatsoever.
Which brings me to me final irk. The thigh bone is the femur. The shin bone(s) is the tibia and fibula. I find it perturbing that these unqualified, anonymous bloggers, who evidently don't have a grasp of basic animal anatomy, are being held up as appropriate expert support to put people off feeding raw chicken bones to their dogs!
As for your experience last night, well, it happens. For every dog that runs into trouble from eating raw bones, you'll find another who ran into trouble from eating rawhide chews, size-inappropriate Kong toys, pig's ears and noses... Indeed I've known dogs that choked on kibble!
It's a cost-benefit analysis, and feeding raw chicken bones under supervision, that are size appropriate, is indeed a risk, but no greater a risk than feeding many other heavily marketed dog chews and toys.