So i sat morgan down in front of the video to show her how to eat properly. She didn't get it :rolleyes:

Depends entirely on the dog, they are always slower at first, I remember Indy's very first one took her 2 hours, she got quicker until settling on about 15-30 minutes. Ben and Malachi are much faster, rarely spending more than 5-10 minutes on theirs. I wish they would spend as long as Indy on them lol. That variation depends on the type of bone and how big it is, lamb bones take my gang the longest and chicken is probably the fastest.

LOL, Morgan, crunch your bones! :D

I'm sure she'll get it.........eventually :p

she's very dainty. doesn't like to get messy. its funny watching her tying to figure out how to eat without actually touching it.

She doesn't do any cooking at all. Just totally raw.

She doesn't cook anything. She gives them rabbit and lamb bones too but she said no chicken bones because they can splinter. I actually recently spoke to 2 holistic vets (because of Cali's knee problems) and I mentioned the ground egg shells and they said that's very important if your dog is not eating enough bone. Right now my dogs won't eat any bone. They did eat the turkey neck but I think that's more cartilage than bone.

I tried to give them lamb bone (rib) last night and the night before turkey bone (drumstick) and both nights they REFUSED to eat it. :( I don't know what to do. They both had a lot of chunky meat on them but they wouldn't touch it. So hubby had to cut the meat off the bone into small chunks and then they ate it. :( I'm going against her advice tonight and I'm going to try chicken legs or wings. They really need to eat some bone but they want nothing to do with it. I don't know what to do!!

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 :p

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. :p

Well, we tried our first RMBs!

I bought some lamb chops for the fellas. Wylie (3 year old) just dove in, went to work, and barely breathed until finished - he LOVED it, I think he was smiling afterward. He had that *glow*, lol.

Marcel, of course, looked at it like "I am from a long line of frou-frouey show dogs, you expect me to *work* at that bone?", oh my. Well, after seeing Wy having all the fun, Marcel tried so very hard - he was pulling at the meat on his piece so hard that his back legs came off the floor! But he couldn't get anything off - so we tried holding if for him, he still couldn't get the meat off of it. So, we ended up giving him his NV. Do you think he is just too small (3 lbs.) to have the power to rip the meat off? He shouldn't, btw, have chicken - at least for a good while. (hesitant to try beef too)

Luckily, Wylie left a small bone (no meat) and Marcel LOVED chewing it and scraping his teeth on it - so I think Marcel still received some dental benefit.

So, what now for Marcel? Maybe he just has the NV for all his meals and has Wylie's leftover bones for dental benefits?

You could give raw eggs shells ya, lots of raw feeders simply hand a raw egg to their dog and let them crack it and eat every last bit. Might be better not to give a whole raw egg at first though, could be a bit much. Getting the butcher to grind some up for you with the meat is another good option.

You want to be careful though, if you make it too easy for them then they might never eat their bones.

Good luck tonight!

Well i'm glad they both had fun! Thats the most important thing :)

Something you could do for Marcel is pull some of the meat away from the bone just a bit, for example snip it with scissors around the bone, leaving it hanging from a few strands just trying to make it easier for him to get at. It is likely that he finds it harder because he is not as strong as Wylie.

Not being able to have chicken obviously makes it harder to get Marcel on prey model, not impossible though. It might be worth me mentioning though that it IS possible for dogs to be allergic to cooked chicken but not raw, so if he does well on other raw meats, it could be something for you to try at a later date.

I would say, keep offering him the lamb bones (and possibly rabbit if you can get it?) holding it and giving him some help with pulling the meat off, you never know he may be able to do it eventually. Let him play with them and take his time trying with the meat and chewing on bones, it will strengthen his muscles. In the mean time you can give him the premade to tide him over and make sure he gets what he needs of course. You could also try to find a butcher who will grind meat and bone for you, as NV contains alot of unnecessary extras, like flax and lots of veggies.

That's what one of the holistic vets said. She said dogs may be allergice to COOKED chicken but may not be allergic to chicken in its raw natural form. That's my concern for Codie because he's allergic to cooked chicken. In time I hope to get him to try raw chicken.

Yep, I totally believe this too...so I'm really hopeful that Marcel can have a drumstick or wing someday. SHOULD I try it this weekend....dare I, should I? Or, do you think I should wait awhile longer.....quelle chicken drama!

According to the vet (in regards to my Codie), Codie's current allergies must be entirely cleared up BEFORE I introduce raw chicken. If they aren't, then it will be hard to tell what's making him itch. So I'm going to give Codie another 4-6 weeks (because it can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks for whatever is in his system causing the allergies to go away) with no chicken and then if and when his allergies are totally cleared up, I'll try chicken a little at a time.

I would say that if Marcel is totally allergy free, definitely give it a shot (so that if he does have an adverse reaction, you'll know it's from the chicken and not second-guess yourself and think it's from something else).

I just called a few butchers to get some prices on organs and they all said it's illegal in NY State to sell certain organs (like heart for example). But they can all get me kidney and liver with no problem. They can also get me duck (legs, wings, thighs) and rabbit legs.

How strange is that!!! :confused: :confused: