[Nancy C]

In September I am transitioning my 2 yr old GSD over to raw and have developed a plan, thanks to the wonderful friends at DFA. 🙂 My 10 yr old Golden Retriever deserves better food too. So I wondered if a chicken wing on top of her bowl of kibble is a good start? She’s had kibble all her life. She is great about rotating any brand anytime. Switches on a dime easily. I put it in the bowl: She sniffs and EATS it. Recently when I prepared an organic chicken for our dinner I handed her the livers and heart raw and she gobbled them. No problem. What I am scared of is she won’t know to smash the wings before swallowing and then she will choke. I don’t want to lose my dog. Someone told me yesterday her dogs sometime spit UP wings but then they eat them back down. She says it is normal to smash them by chomping down a time or two with back teeth and then let them slide on down the throat. This Golden is 55 pounds. Not huge and not heavy. Do any of you give chicken wings to a dog her size or smaller? Do you have a better idea? Should I just go on and order Darwins or Answers and start her on Raw that way? I plan to give her Probiotics the night before just to prep her intestinal tract. Thoughts, advice are appreciated. Thank you.

[pugmomsandy]

I gave chicken wings to my pugs in the beginning and one of them chomped once or twice and then swallowed. He didn’t have any issues with that. He even eats a duck neck in 20 seconds, maybe. The sort of “round” neck bones seem less of a problem (well, less scary for the human) swallowed whole than a linear bone like a wing and chicken necks are quite common in ethnic grocery stores. Shouldn’t have any problem finding those and they’re small, maybe 1 inch wide and 3-4 inches long.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Nancy-
I totally understand your hesitation. My jaw probably just about hit the floor when I read about posters feeding their dogs chicken bones. Lol! I still have only fed necks, both chicken and turkey without issue. They actually choke more when eating pigs’ ears. When I give them bully sticks, we put them in a vice grip to make sure they don’t try to swallow them as they are such gulpers! The chicken and turkey necks I have bought at our local fancy feed store. They have a freezer full of RMBs and recreational bones packaged by Nature’s Variety, Primal and Northwest Naturals.
Good luck on your adventure!

[Nancy C]

Thank you C4C. So you think I can just put the NECK right on top of the kibble? Maybe should try necks first then move to wings. Will check for NV, Primal and NWNaturals at our stores here. There is also an organic farmer here who sells whole organic chickens for $4 a pound. I could get him to bring me some necks and they’d be very fresh AND organic. I appreciate your post. The whole thing scares me but I’ve gotta get brave and do it. I think the GSD will have no trouble. He’s bigger with strong teeth and crushing those RMBs will be a piece of cake.

[crazy4cats]

No, he won’t have any trouble. The necks actually are more like cartilage than bones.

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