# Raw chicken bones?



## Zippy

Some of you may know that Zippy had been getting one meal of raw chicken every other day for a couple of weeks now. I've been buying the non-processed thighs (with bones and skins intact) and then cutting the meat off to serve in Zippy's bowl. At $1.70 a pound it's ended up being pretty economical, really, since I've also been buying enough for a couple of meals for the humans in the household as well.

I have been discarding the bones as well as the skins after trimming the meat off. I'd always heard that chicken bones were bad for dogs but have come across some information recently that suggests that raw bones are OK and that it's only the cooked bones that I should be careful about.

What do you all think and/or do about raw bones? Am I wasting money and good resources by throwing the bones into the bin? Should I be giving the raw bones to Zippy to chew on instead? Also, what are your thoughts on the chicken skins? Yea or nay? Toss 'em, feed them to the dog, or toss a bit and feed a little bit?

Please let me know your thoughts. I truly appreciate all of your experience and expertise. Thanks!


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## Brodysmom

Oh goodness. Head on over to the raw forum and we'll help you if you are wanting to feed raw! Just plain old chicken is fine, but they NEED the bones. It is a necessity! The raw bones supply the calcium/phosphorus. Just plain raw chicken by itself is NOT a balanced meal. 

Read this thread on how to start .....
http://www.chihuahua-people.com/raw-food/49576-you-considering-raw-diet.html

Using raw chicken for a supplemental meal a couple times a week is OK, as long as the stools aren't getting loose. But you are depriving Zippy of the recreation and nutrition of the bones! Raw bones are GOOD for dogs. Great even.  Cooked bones are horrible. Never give cooked bones. 

So... yes! Feed the chicken thigh with the bone! I'd skin the thigh for now, but gradually, over time, start leaving more and more of it on until you are feeding the whole thigh with skin. Dogs need and process fat as energy. It is essential to them as well. 

A balanced raw diet is lots of meat. A little bone. A smidge of organ. But just feeding plain raw chicken by itself is OK - as long as it's a very SMALL part of the diet. If you are using it to replace a meal, you should be feeding the bone as well.


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## Zippy

Thanks for the quick response! That is one darned big thread that you pointed to! It'll take some time to get through but I'll try to confine any more raw feeding questions to that thread.

As it is, Zippy has been doing pretty good on the chicken. The other three meals in the two day cycle are "Wellness Senior Formula". We're not ready to go a completely raw route though, if for no other reason than we've got 3/4 of a fifteen pound bag of kibble left! 

Zippy loves the raw, though. He gets so excited when it's his chicken day. His stools are soft but not mushy and not horribly stinky since we started him on this routine. Not like the hard, smelly lumps that he was having before when he was on Pedigree. I will add some bone to his next meal and see how everything goes. 

Thanks again!


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## Zippy

OK, I know that I said that I'd confine to the raw feeding thread from now on but I had to come back and say that HE ATE THE WHOLE BONE! It was so weird. Crunch Crunch! Crunch! GONE! I totally didn't expect it to go so quickly or for him to consume the entire thing. I guess that from now on maybe I’ll only offer 1/2 of the bone at a time. I'll keep a close eye on his poops over the next 24 hours and see how everything goes.


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## Brodysmom

Yay!!! Yes, eating the whole bone is normal and good. Don't worry. His little tummy will process it just fine. The loose stools you were seeing after eating just plain chicken is because there was no bone! Bone acts as fiber. It binds the stool. Meat will just go on through and cause loose stools. My guess is he will have a normal firm poop after eating the meat with bone. 

He probably didn't get too much teeth cleaning if he just crunched and swallowed.  But eating raw bones with the meat, such as a chicken part - wing, neck, thigh etc. is a great way to clean teeth! 

I want to mention that the other thing that can cause loose stools is too much food. Are the chicken thighs pretty small? That's a pretty big meal for a Chi. What does he weigh? Brody is 5 pounds and eats about 2 ounces per meal. An ounce is about the size of an ice cube, so it's not very much food. A chicken thigh would be a HUGE meal for Brody and I'm positive that it would cause loose stools if he could manage to eat it all. 

One other thing to check on the chicken.... many bags of chicken are enhanced with a salt solution to add tenderness and also weight to the meat. Read the label and look for a sodium level of 100mg or less per 4 ounce serving. Added salt can cause itching and loose stools. So you definitely want to feed clean, unenhanced chicken. 

You're doing great!


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