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Skulls, bones and guts - A few Questions

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your dog's diet, please contact your vet!

  
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Mr. Jake the- Beagle

I am Murphy's- Law Embodied! <3- Me!		 
 
Barked: Wed Dec 19, '12 2:52pm PST 
Hello!!

Mr. B and I have finally moved to a nice apartment and i have found a world market type store that has foods and animal parts from all over including lamb skulls and legs and hooves.

I was not aware people used beef guts for anything but apparently they do and this market sells it. I was wonder if this can be fed to Mr. Beagle?

Also how do you safely feed skull? This place carries Lamb and Pork skulls. They even carry uncured/ uncooked leg of pork!!laugh out loud But I need to understand how to safely feed skull before I attempt it. So if someone knows the instructions for that I'd be happy.

The same thing goes for beef feet/ hooves and lamb legs with hoves and skin on. How do you feed lamb/ beef hoves when they're attached to the leg and raw? Can Mr. Beagle eat the legs and hoves? or are the hoves inedible and should be taken away once the skin and meat is gone? or can he not eat the skin?

How do you feed chicken feet? With the talons attached or removed?

I think that was my exciting find for the week big grin Any information you guys have would be great.

Thanks,

Jake's Mom
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Ember FDX

Go Go Devil- Bunnies!		 
 
Barked: Wed Dec 19, '12 6:06pm PST 
I haven't fed everything on your list myself, but I can take a crack at some of it:

Also how do you safely feed skull?

This is one thing I haven't been able to find to try. My understanding is that it's more of a recreational meal that your dog won't be able to finish. I know other Dogsters have taken a hatchet to skulls so their dogs can get at the brain matter inside - which is full of O3s. Other Dogsters should be able to fill you in here.

The same thing goes for beef feet/ hooves and lamb legs with hoves and skin on. How do you feed lamb/ beef hoves when they're attached to the leg and raw? Can Mr. Beagle eat the legs and hoves? or are the hoves inedible and should be taken away once the skin and meat is gone? or can he not eat the skin?

This is dependent on which animals feet you are feeding, and your dog. I've fed whole pork feet and my dogs eat the whole thing no problem. They are feet from smaller pigs, but they are very soft bones. I haven't found lamb with the hoof on, but I have fed lamb leg and I imagine it's very similar to pork. My issue with either item is the fat content, especially with skin on. I think it makes a nice chew on occasion, but it's not something I feed often and I would absolutely avoid either item for dogs with a sensitive digestive system, especially if they have issues like pancreatitis.

Beef feet can be huge and are harder. My experience with them is that they are more of a recreational chew. There's a ton of soft tissue that will take hours to eat, but the hock bone itself is not edible (at least for my Huskies).

How do you feed chicken feet? With the talons attached or removed?

Whole thing, no alterations required. My dogs LOVED them when I could find them. They're full of glucosamine and nice if you need a little extra bone in an meal.
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Buster

1201864		 
 
Barked: Wed Dec 19, '12 6:27pm PST 
If the skull has meat on it just give them it. Heads are lots of fun kind of like food puzzles laugh out loud. Chicken feet the same and are packed with glucosamine.

Lamb legs and hooves will be perfectly fine, I would only feed the beef hooves preferably outside and as far away as you can manage. The legs will be too dense though obviously.

Edited by author Wed Dec 19, '12 6:31pm PST

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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Wed Dec 19, '12 7:04pm PST 
Wow, nice find! Remember the budget and only buy one new thing at a time just in case they don't go over well. You never know.

Max has completely eaten chicken, fish, rabbit, fetal lamb/goat and young goat heads and had the best time ever working on llama heads. I broke the llama head open on the last day with a maul so he could get out the brain. It wasn't messy but I feed such things in the back yard so wouldn't have much to clean up anyway. He isn't a good enough eater to get through something that large in a reasonable amount of time so most of it was thrown out. It weighed 6 pounds originally but I didn't weigh what I threw out, all I know is Max worked it for 45 minutes a day for 4 days in a row and was completely content after. The bones on a head are quite thin except for the actual jaw bone and there is a lot more meat than one would think on a whole head. If you decide to buy one chose whichever is smaller and you think he would like better. Max is eh about pork so I would chose the lamb. I put the neck end up as that is where there is more meat exposed on my pieces so he could figure out how to get started. That, the ears if they are on or the nose are good starting places.

I really like being able to offer heads but they are optional. Try one but don't feel bad if you don't like feeding them. A big one is quite a bother.

Guts are likely bleached and not particularly useful. I did get a huge pack of 'tripas' [beef intestine] cheap one time and Max adored it. Bleached it may have been but he still thought it nice and smelly. I thought he would slurp them down like spaghetti but he did chew them as much as he ever does.

I serve chicken feet talons and all. You could clip them off if you like for the first time. Chicken feet seem to be carefully eaten in spite of the small size, perhaps the poky talons are the reason? Do try these, dogs love them and if he picks them up on the leg end when he chews them the toes may open and close! Creepy but fun.

Never fed sheep or beef feet. Max knows pig feet are a plot of some sort and doesn't want them so I haven't tried the others. I bet he would love them though.
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Saya

I want to play!		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 9:42am PST 
I've fed chicken feet with talons no issues.. Saya has eaten whole quail and she eats the feet..

I have a pig head in the freeze going to feed it eventually.

It's pretty big so might be overwhelming for a dog who never had it before.

I agree don't go over board get one items of each so you don't have freezer full of items your dog doesn't like..

I think pork head be fine to feed especially if it has skin or meat still on it.

I haven't fed it yet so not sure exactly how Saya would react to it she loves pork though.

She has eaten rabbit head from the whole rabbits, but that's smaller of coarse.

With the lamb and beef feet not sure.. lamb might be more edible in bone on the jointed parts, but with beef probably more recreational then edible bone.
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Winston-dog

Sir Winston- Crazy-dog - can we play yet?		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 11:55am PST 
Winston loved pork heads, A whole one would last him about 4 days, and only a small part of the jawbone would be left. Have fun, but like others have said, dont buy too much all at once until you know for sure your dog eats it.
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Dunlop

Dunlop-named for- the rider not- the tyer		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 12:05pm PST 
Hang on - chicken feet twitch when a dog chomps on just the right bit? Anybody else have this happen? I was looking at them in the chicken grocer the other day.
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Ember FDX

Go Go Devil- Bunnies!		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 1:26pm PST 
Yes. They're full of tendons, hence all the glucosamine. You can also pull the ends of the tendons where the leg is cut off to make the toes flex. Chicken feet puppets!!
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Mr. Jake the- Beagle

I am Murphy's- Law Embodied! <3- Me!		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 5:07pm PST 
Thanks for all your responses. big grin

I should have said i was looking at the skulls and legs w/hooves for recreational chews and not direct meals. I figured the lamb skull might fill him up though with a side of liver and maybe a bit of chicken. I guess i'll throw in chicken feet with the chicken breast/ quarters. Can they be fed regularly or should they be treated as a treat item too? (as in only a few times a week or a few times a month?)

I was wondering about the guts. They looked gross and were a pinkish color and looked like little sausages but slimy if that makes sense.

http://www.vdrrottweilerbreeders.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuil derpictures/WEBSITE/BEEFINTESTINES.JPG

remove spaces if their are any.

That's literally what it looks like just there's lbs of it behind the case.


If i was to try feeding guts would i fed it like green tripe with very little to start out? Do i treat it as a secreting organ like liver or other organ like hearts and gizzard?

Jake only weights about 35lbs now. He's bulked up since begin put back on dog food. Though he still eats about 12-16oz a day. Any less then 10 and he'll start to loose weight. That was an issue we had when we first started with raw since he should have only needed ~9-11oz and got super skinny. Usually i have to parboil the organs only because the raw texture for him doesnt' seem to fly.

These items are really for down the road. Since we've just started over with chicken breasts and quarters. We'll be moving onto adding some lamb shoulder next week after the holidays hopefully (since its pretty cheap here only ~1.99lb) Thank you super tuesday big grin . Though i wanted to give those hooves and legs as a chew if i could. So i'm happy to know that he can eat them.

I think i'm going to shoot for skinless since Jake tends to make that "i'm gonna vomit' gagging sound but never vomits if i give him a chicken quarter with skin or a lb of lean ground chicken. His stomach isn't very sensitive but i know if he gets too much fat i get that obnoxious i'm sick sound all night and i'd like to avoid that. Thanks for the warning about skin.
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Maxwell

I'm triple- superior MAD- now!		 
 
Barked: Thu Dec 20, '12 6:07pm PST 
Unless the intestines are really cheap take a pass. They are about like tripe without any of the good stuff. Not as much protein or minerals as muscle meat and tend to be fatty.

I give the smaller heads with some meat on the side. The head itself has organs - brains and eyes. I watch the poop, if he happens to get a lot of bone down and poop is too firm he gets more meat the next meal and if it is fine I leave it alone. Somebody on the raw yahoo list actually cleaned a head and found it to be the same as a whole chicken, 30%. Not super bony at all.
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