RAW: Minced vs Whole

[Specsy]

Ok, so after asking my Grampa to get a quote for a mincer I decided to read up a little further on raw food. I have since discovered that raw feeders are more against feeding minced as they want to encourage their dog to chew their meat and chew their bones themselves to eliminate gum disease etc.

My problem with this is the following:

1) My dogs eat inside, from a bowl.
2) If I do feed bones outside, they get dragged inside, all over the house.
3) I could train them to eat in certain areas only but I honestly don't know how to go about this and we are moving in April so this may confuse the dogs again.
4) There are 3 dogs in my household, if I don't keep them all separated it could cause problems and training 3 dogs simultaneously to do the same thing is difficult. Not impossible but difficult. This is because while keeping one dog in a certain area the other might come to see what he/she has and said dog will get up to get away from said other curious dogs.
5) MY DOGS ARE NOT CRATE TRAINED!! I currently don't have the money to buy crates the size of my dogs, neither do I have the space inside my house to put the crate. When I move house I may have more space, but I still don't have the amount of money to get 3 large crates for my Rotties.

My question is, if I feed my dogs minced meat and bone to avoid mess but feed them cow hooves every day for them to chew on will it take care of their teeth in the same way chewing the actual bone would??

 

[MafiaPrincess]

My guys chew on hooves when they feel like it. Sometimes it's a few hours in a day.. sometimes it isn't for weeks. Hooves aren't fixing my guys teeth.

I take bedding out of crates and feed raw in them, when done I wipe out the crates and put the bedding back. Warm months I feed raw outside, but with two dogs.. one is more excited than the other to eat and will sometimes hog food.. So in crates is better for us.

 

[Maxy24]

I know when it comes to cats feeding ground also means supplementing. Supposedly when you grind nutrients are degraded, not as much as when you you cook it, but it still happens.
I do not know if having the hooves available will have the same effect as eating through bone. I'm sure it would help quite a bit (as long as they actually chew them each day) but how it compared to bone I don't know. If you choose to go this way make sure you look at websites which use this method so you know what needs to be supplemented.

I would get each dog a mat or towel to eat on and put their leashes on during meal time. You can hold the leashes or stand on them, though if you're the only one doing this it could be tricky with three dogs especially since you don't want them super close together during meals. You could tie them to something stationary near their mat.

Or you could just stand in the room and when one tries to get off the mat with his food just grab the leash and bring him back to the mat. This way you do not have to try and grab food and throw it back on which gets icky for you and may very well tick the dogs off enough to start guarding it from you. Of course without help this will be tricky for a while too, but it is feasible.

None of these would have to be done forever. Once the dog learns they cannot leave their mat during meals they'll stop trying and you can stop being on guard the whole time.

 

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

You could do ground raw most of the time (for meals), and then give RMBs or recreational bones a few times a week.

Feeding ground raw is still waaaay better for their teeth and gums than feeding kibble, so it will already be an improvement.

 

[Shai]

Or you can always just brush their teeth periodically.

 

[Grab]

We've contemplated getting a grinder so that our Ginger could have raw. She's had a broken jaw (since she was older when it broke, it's stable but we're still careful..and she does still have wire there to stabilize it further) and has megaesophagus. So, chewing bones isn't possible for her, nor is attempting to chew and swallow large chunks of meat. (because she's impatient and will just swallow the chunks whole..and then they just come right back..ick)

 

[SailenAero]

We do some of both. Premixed patties are for dinners, but we offer meaty bones and such as snacks and such. I think finding a balance will be up to you and your pooch since every one is different...just know that going raw is a great choice for your dog!

 

[mrose_s]

Things like chicken we cut up small enough that they don't have to put it on the ground when they are eating, like a carcass into 4 pieces.
I find if you put a towel down they tend to want to keep it on the towel, most of our house is tile or linoleum so if they bring it inside it isn't the end of the world.

The older dogs understand to keep bones outside if thats where they are given them, the puppy is still learning, when she tried to bring them in we'd just tell her out and guide her back out, its slow going but she is starting to catch on. They don't get too many bones they can't completely eat though because they lie around and cause scuffles.

We probably feed 60-70% raw, some kibble and some leftovers/homecooked.
I love feeding raw, its so interesting for them and without fail, everytime we take Buster to the vet he gets a glowing report on his teeth, most of the time they look at them and then they're computer and then go "holy crap is he really 8?"

I don't think I could be bothered al the mess of mincing but its just whatever works. I know I could never be bothered brushing teeth but I like making sure they can eat bones, heres Quinn on her first night home.

 

[Specsy]

I know when it comes to cats feeding ground also means supplementing. Supposedly when you grind nutrients are degraded, not as much as when you you cook it, but it still happens.
I do not know if having the hooves available will have the same effect as eating through bone. I'm sure it would help quite a bit (as long as they actually chew them each day) but how it compared to bone I don't know. If you choose to go this way make sure you look at websites which use this method so you know what needs to be supplemented.

I would get each dog a mat or towel to eat on and put their leashes on during meal time. You can hold the leashes or stand on them, though if you're the only one doing this it could be tricky with three dogs especially since you don't want them super close together during meals. You could tie them to something stationary near their mat.

Or you could just stand in the room and when one tries to get off the mat with his food just grab the leash and bring him back to the mat. This way you do not have to try and grab food and throw it back on which gets icky for you and may very well tick the dogs off enough to start guarding it from you. Of course without help this will be tricky for a while too, but it is feasible.

None of these would have to be done forever. Once the dog learns they cannot leave their mat during meals they'll stop trying and you can stop being on guard the whole time.

Thanks for the training advice. I think I may try going the leash way of things for at least a few months before I decide how it is working. If it does work then I will feed whole pieces of meat to them. However as things usually differ from dog to dog I may end up feeding whole meat to one and ground up meat to the other. Our 1 dog eats outside, regardless, she was brought up that way before we got her. She was an "outside dog" never allowed inside or at least that's what we were told by the rescuer. So there's no problem feeding her raw. Bella and Leo are the hugest problems so I will tie them up onto something and put down a plastic sheet under their bowls, big enough so they can pick things out and chew them on the plastic sheets without actually being able to go any further than the plastic sheet.

 

[puppydog]

I feed my guys ground raw and they get recreational bones about three times a week. The Paps are not huge on chewing so they have to be cut up beef shin or something like that. They pretty much loose interest in chicken wings and necks. I just put them outside with their bones and close the door.

 

[Specsy]

I feed my guys ground raw and they get recreational bones about three times a week. The Paps are not huge on chewing so they have to be cut up beef shin or something like that. They pretty much loose interest in chicken wings and necks. I just put them outside with their bones and close the door.

I am afraid if I shove everyone outside and shut the door they are going to get all up in each others faces and there will be a fight. This won't be a problem once I move in April as the yard is huge and has a lot of different fenced off areas to separate the dogs, but for the moment, where I stay now I will use the leash method that Maxy suggested. I think that method has the hugest potential of not failing.

 

[darkchild16]

We do one at a time here when we feed quarters. One out and eat and switch.

 

[puppydog]

We do one at a time here when we feed quarters. One out and eat and switch.

^^ This!

 

[darkchild16]

Plus in the meantime you can do something with the other that they need to keep them occupied: Nails, Ears, brush or just spending time together and then the same thing when you switch. Give everyone a chance to eat in privacy and not gulp and give them special one on one time with you.

 

[Specsy]

Honestly I believe that a lot of you have a lot more common sense than I do, lol.

 

[darkchild16]

No I just have another dog that will only tolerate one dog near him while hes eating LOL.
And grew up with DA dogs. Alot of people dont actually think of it.

 

[Specsy]

In all honesty we have had dogs since I was born but my parents are not really dog people the way Chazzers are, a dog is just well, a dog to them. Bella is my first dog and she is just so so special to me I want the best for her always so I am educating myself one step at a time

 

[darkchild16]

I grew up with a 3rd, 4th generation APBT breeder and hunter so our dogs got better care then we did sometimes LOL. They got NICE cuts of meat and we got what was cheap LOL.

 

[husky hijinx]

I feed minced to one of mine, he usually will not eat the bones. Tried the tough love, tried all the tricks in the book, had the vet check his teeth and we finally came to the conclusion he just doesn't want to eat bones. His teeth are really no worse off than my female who eats whole pieces, other than that they were a bit more dirty to begin with as he was older when he came here and had been fed cheap kibble before. I still brush teeth even when they are on raw.

Also, I feed bigger pieces in our bath tub on a mat if we can't outside due to rain, mud, snow being too deep etc. It's a really easy spot to clean, just make sure you clean it before they eat inside it as well as after. That may be an option for you. It's also a plus for making them not hate the bath tub so bad.

 

[naturalfeddogs]

Ok, so after asking my Grampa to get a quote for a mincer I decided to read up a little further on raw food. I have since discovered that raw feeders are more against feeding minced as they want to encourage their dog to chew their meat and chew their bones themselves to eliminate gum disease etc.

My problem with this is the following:

1) My dogs eat inside, from a bowl.
2) If I do feed bones outside, they get dragged inside, all over the house.
3) I could train them to eat in certain areas only but I honestly don't know how to go about this and we are moving in April so this may confuse the dogs again.
4) There are 3 dogs in my household, if I don't keep them all separated it could cause problems and training 3 dogs simultaneously to do the same thing is difficult. Not impossible but difficult. This is because while keeping one dog in a certain area the other might come to see what he/she has and said dog will get up to get away from said other curious dogs.
5) MY DOGS ARE NOT CRATE TRAINED!! I currently don't have the money to buy crates the size of my dogs, neither do I have the space inside my house to put the crate. When I move house I may have more space, but I still don't have the amount of money to get 3 large crates for my Rotties.

My question is, if I feed my dogs minced meat and bone to avoid mess but feed them cow hooves every day for them to chew on will it take care of their teeth in the same way chewing the actual bone would??

Feed them raw with edible bones, not recreational chewing bones which are to dense to actualy eat. Bones like chicken bones, they eat completly and arn't dragged around. Chicken is what should be started with anyway. Pork ribs are also fully edible. When you feed boneless meals, they can still be fed in bowls, as well as most bone in meals. Ours don't have crates either. Thats not a must. Try putting chicken quarters in their bowls just like other food. Sometimes they may carry it to another part of the room, but its not like dragging huge bones all over the house so its not a mess. They will eat the entire quarter.