Hi guys,

Luka got his first chicken thigh today, I spoke to him like he was human before giving it to him, told him to take his time and not gobble it up in a hurry, well... he started slow but once he got into it all i heard was a crack then another and it was all gone!!

How much bone is there in a thigh and how long should they need to work on it before swallowing for it to be safe? I've been giving him big beef bones to work on and practice his chomping and on occasion i find small pieces in his stool, if he eats too many small pieces he just throws it back up!

I want to slowly increase the raw he gets along with organs etc but i'm worried about hurting him with the bones. I think ultimately, he will still be on a partial raw diet.

I do not do raw diet for my dogs but are you suppose to give them the bone? I have always been told never give dogs chicken bones.

I think the thigh may be too small if he's swallowing it that quickly. Have you tried holding it and letting him gnaw on it so he takes his time? I did that with Mickey at first because he used to suck down legs like nobody's business. Rodeo too. It also may be a bit small for him. I feed mostly chicken quarters to my dogs as bone-in meats. If that may be too big you can always cut off the leg (there is a sweet spot which allows for almost butter like cutting) and feed the larger portion. You can also try feeding it when it's just a tad bit frozen so it requires them to chew it a bit more and they are less likely to suck it down.

Edit// Raw non weight bearing bones are fine Raw chicken bones are very soft and won't splinter and cause injury to the dogs digestive tract.

arooroomom wrote:

Edit// Raw non weight bearing bones are fine Raw chicken bones are very soft and won't splinter and cause injury to the dogs digestive tract.

Oh ok never knew that... Thanks

Yeh, I suspected they may be too small! I will invest in some chicken quarters and see how he gets on with that! Thanks Kristina.

Deb, I think any bones, when cooked, can splinter. So it is best to feed them raw! With big beef bones etc, I hate the smell that they leave on his fur so I boil water in a kettle and just pour it over and leave them in it for 5 minutes to eliminate most of the odour.

Holding the raw chicken in our hand, only exposing a small amount also worked for us. Every once in a while, we'd get a bit of a nip on accident, but taught our dogs to slow down and just munch on it.

Also, after a couple weeks of raw every day, they understood it was their meal and not a once-in-a-while treat, so they nautrally slowed down with it.