"Funny" problem - for a dog - still, help?

[coripc33]

I have an almost six months old Westie. I have been trying to give her some raw chicken wings, and she doesn't know what to do with them! She eats raw meat just fine (loves it!), but when I give her a whole wing, she picks it up and walks around with it in her mouth, whimpering the whole time! I think she is trying to swallow it whole or something! I tried giving her a turkey neck a while back - same thing - picked it up and walks around with it, whimpering the whole time! To make matters worse, I thought that, if I cut it in smaller pieces it would help her to start chewing on the bones - what happened instead was she swallowed the whole piece without breaking it down (or at least I think so, she was done with it really fast). Now I am concerned about this piece of bone that she must have swallowed whole (I can't wait for her to poop now LOL), but - how do I teach her to chew and break down the bones? She is such a wuss... LOL

Thanks in advance,
Corina

 

[Debi]

maybe she's still a big young?? first time I gave them to my dogs, Addie didn't seem to want to do anything with it. I wasn't too thrilled about having raw meat carted around (cooties and all...lol) so I started feeding them on the back porch (it's enclosed, but messes clean up easy) the next time she licked it a bit, then started chewing. she now eats them immediately cause if she doesn't, Ham will gladly eat it for her. LOL

 

[Mordy]

it's best to just give her good-sized pieces of rmbs and confine her to a smaller area while she is eating - such as a crate or playpen.

i wouldn't be too worried about the piece she swallowed, if you were able to cut them into pieces, the doggy stomach acid is probably doing its work quite well.

debi - no dog is too young to eat raw meaty bones. the most critical phase is when they are losing their puppy teeth and the permanent ones are coming in, since at that point the gums are very vulnerable to infection and the bones do an excellent job of cleaning and massaging them.

 

[CanadianK9]

I agree with Mordy, some good advice (like usual) lol.

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

Once I started feeding raw bones, I have had no more issues with retained puppy teeth.

Great advice, mordy.

Mine will grumble at each other and go off to bury bones if they are not confined to an "eating space".

 

[coripc33]

Mordy, thanks a lot for confirming my hopes that the little piece of bone will probably be taken care of by the acids.

When you say "good sized rmbs", that means I should keep giving them to her whole, right? Maybe I should try with a larger bone that she HAS to try breaking?

I will try confining her to the playpen when we do this next - probably tomorrow - hopefully she'll figure it out soon. She's just so pathetic when she keeps whimpering while holding on to that piece of meat!

Thanks again everybody,
Corina

 

[Mordy]

yes, definitely give them whole. dogs have a good set of teeth to deal with stuff like that, and the bigger the pieces you feed, the better the workout and cleaning action on the teeth. just don't use really hard bones, such as beef femur bones ("marrow bones"). of those you only want to give the soft knuckle ends.

 

[coripc33]

OK, so here's my problem with giving them whole. She does not know how to chew! LOL She will try to swallow it, can't (of course), so the tries to and then just whimpers and whines holding it. When I take it out of her mouth, she has a lot of it inside, sometimes I'm afraid that she'll try to swallow it and it will get stuck. This is what happens when I give her a chicken wing. What do I do - any advice?

FYI, if it helps, I tried giving her the chicken ribs (the ones that come with the breast at the store) and she handles those fine if they are in smaller pieces, she breaks them 'cause I can hear her - as soon as a larger piece comes along, it's whimpering and whining time...

 

[Athebeau]

What you could do is get a meat grinder and grind the chicken up. I had the same problem with my Rottweiler with chicken necks, wings etc. She wouldn't touch them..she soon started getting the hang of it.

With her I had to use hamburg or lamb burg and then mix in small chunks of raw meat.

 

[coripc33]

Thank you so much for your suggestion. It's funny because she has no problem eating the raw meat - she loves it as long as she can eat it without working for it LOL. She will eat small pieces of anything I give her - it's just that she can't break down the bones!

I will follow your suggestion and just give it to her ground - thank you so much for confirming that this is OK. I am just worried (a bit) that she is not fully a dog until she learns how to eat bones - am I just being weird about this? It just seems so funny to me that a dog is not able (or doesn't know how) to eat bones - it is so different than what you would think a dog should do... Am I just being paranoid here? LOL Please keep in mind that she's my first dog, that is why I am asking this many questions. Any input is deeply appreciated.

 

[LuvableLabs]

Thank you so much for your suggestion. It's funny because she has no problem eating the raw meat - she loves it as long as she can eat it without working for it LOL. She will eat small pieces of anything I give her - it's just that she can't break down the bones!

I will follow your suggestion and just give it to her ground - thank you so much for confirming that this is OK. I am just worried (a bit) that she is not fully a dog until she learns how to eat bones - am I just being weird about this? It just seems so funny to me that a dog is not able (or doesn't know how) to eat bones - it is so different than what you would think a dog should do... Am I just being paranoid here? LOL Please keep in mind that she's my first dog, that is why I am asking this many questions. Any input is deeply appreciated.

Has she been a raw fed dog her whole life? Some dogs who have eaten kibble aren't quite sure at first about the bones, but eventually get the hang of it. I wouldn't worry about it though. The grinder is a good solution and eventually she might eat the bones whole (chewing them of course). ​

 

[coripc33]

She was being fed a kibble diet up until a couple of weeks ago, then I started introducing cooked foods (which she LOVES, by the way). She just didn't care for kibble, no matter what kind I gave her - I have bags of Innova, California something, and a bunch of other ones that are expensive, but she just didn't take to them. The only kibble that she would eat when (I think) she was starving was Royal Canin. Long story short, I started giving her cooked food - loves it. I also gave her raw meat which she loves. She just doesn't know what to do with the bones...

Thanks, I'll keep giving her bones (small ones at first) and we'll see if she ever figures out what to do with the rest of them.

 

[CLee]

hmm... maybe she doesn't know how to eat the bone? did you ever try holding the chicken wing in your hand and have her chew on it like that for a bit until she gets the hang of what she's supposed to be doing?

I do that sometimes with my dog when I'm giving him something new to chew on and he doesn't really know what to do. He usually bites onto it with his back teeth and holds it there but eventually when he realizes that i'm not going to let go, he'll go ahead and start chewing on it. Once he gets the hang of it, I let go and let him enjoy.