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Originally Posted by lara2913  Sorry your having a hard time, I know how it feels, it is important to get them eating some bone. The ground eggs shells are used by home cookers for calcium but as they are cooked they really are not anywhere near as good as raw bone.
Chicken bones are usually the most accepted at first, because they are the softest and easiest for them to eat. I remember when I started it took me a good couple of weeks of persistence to get 2 of mine to eat lamb bones. Turkey necks do have cartilage but also a decent amount of bone down the middle, you can tell that from my video of Indy crunching through them lol.
If they really don't want to eat them tonight then you can take a hammer to the chicken wings and basically smash the bone up and give them to them like that, they will then be softer. Its not ideal because there is then no dental benefit but its a way of getting bone into them. From there you could smash them up less and less until they are eating them properly. Hopefully they will take to the chicken tonight without you having to do that though.
There are always tough times when you start feeding raw, its a big change for both you and them, but eventually it will all fall into place. |
Maybe my problem is that I started off with a hard bone like turkey and lamb. They may just surprise me and gobble down the chicken tonight. I feel bad because Codie can't have any chicken. Hubby suggest that for right now I have the butcher grind down the lamb and turkey bones just to ENSURE that Codie is eating the benefits of the bones (not dental obviously but the nutrients he needs) until he's ready to actually crunch them up himself. I'm going to keep trying to get him to eat bone every night and hopefully he'll give in soon lolol
Thanks for the support. It can be frustrating but they seem so much happier eating this way.
The egg shells my friend was talking about were raw, not cooked. She doesn't heat them or toast them (althought she said some people do). She said she basically smashes them up into smaller pieces (mostly for her cats because she has a BIG dog and eating an egg shell is no problem for her) and mixes it in with their meat on days that they aren't getting any bone. Is that something I should do until I can get them to eat bone or should I just have the butcher grind up some bone for me?
Basically I just want to make sure that they are getting everything they need UNTIL they start eating bone on their own. Then I won't have to worry about all of this. I WANT them to eat bone. I don't want to have to worry about grinding damn egg shells lolol but until they do, I want to be certain that they're getting everything they need. Hubby said I am over-worrying right now but I can't help it.