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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

Is bone in poo normal in Raw Feeders?

8 replies

WoodRose · 09/05/2011 21:18

After my puppy (collie, 6mos) failed to produce a normal poo on even high end dried food (orijen), I decided to take the plunge and switch to raw/Barf feeding. I am easing myself & puppy in with natural instinct in the morning and chicken wings in the evening. Her poos are now small and pick upable! Smile.

However, I have noticed that there seem to be largish bits of bone in her poo ie the ball joint bit of the chicken wing. She is a greedy gobbler, so I do hold the wing to ensure she can't bolt it down. I give her the ball joint end first so she can chew that well before she swallows. Is this normal? Can the bone damage her insides? Should I give her another sort of meaty bone - lamb ribs, for example?

OP posts:
musicposy · 09/05/2011 21:32

I'll be interested in the response because I've been feeding barf for a few weeks to my 12mo dog, and she has bone in her poo too, I noticed. She makes a few satisfying crunches when she eats, but I'm sure she could chew a whole lot better! Her poo is also very light in colour now and I'm hoping this is normal and not a deficiency.

Will watch this thread!

musicposy · 09/05/2011 21:32

I'm also giving chicken wings and also necks which she loves!

Scuttlebutter · 09/05/2011 22:40

We noticed this when we recently transferred over to raw, and I'm not terribly worried about it. Poos are much smaller, drier, denser and do vary in colour. One of ours was prone to constipation anyway (a side effect of her painkillers) and there were a few rather unladylike squeaks/strains/John Wayne style waddles so we did a "reverse Marlon Brando" and now lavishly feed her lumps of butter - usually as a sneaky mechanism for her tablets. We've also noticed that if we mix in some of the frozen rabbit mix from PAH she likes that and is not so "tight" . Who knew that dog ownership would involve lengthy discussions on fine tuning your dog's poo consistency?!!! Grin

Original poster
WoodRose · 09/05/2011 22:50

I'm afraid I have become a bit poo obsessed. I must admit that I have had some very strange looks from people when caught examining my puppy's "droppings"! Grin

Scuttlebutter - is the bone in your dog's poo quite chunky? My puppy really needs the bones to give her poos some "solidity", so I would really like to keep feeding them to her.

Thank goodness for the internet - I don't have any RL friends who would be willing or able to discuss dog poo with such interest and knowledge! Grin

OP posts:
Scuttlebutter · 10/05/2011 00:47

It varies Smile Sometimes I can see bits of bone othertimes the overall texture is quite chalky and there are just flecks of bone. When she eats the wings, she crunches very enthusiastically and they disappear down the hatch quickly. Texture is dependent on proportion of wings to other diet ingredients - we tend to vary day by day, so every poo occasion is an opportunity for wonder and lengthy discussion between me and DH. Even when DH is away (as he often is during the week for work) we discuss in detail. The key is to have enough wings to ensure solidity without ending up with a stick of chalk...

multitask · 10/05/2011 11:13

We found that chicken wings didn't really have enough meat on them for the dogs and changed over to chicken frames which are meatier and not so much dense bone. Also find with the frames there seem to be some internal organ meat attached, and the odd neck! The poos have less bone fragment in them and dogs love the frames! They still get wings for supper a couple of times a week but usually on the days when they have had tripe, offal or fish. Have to confess to being poo obsessed too!

multitask · 10/05/2011 11:14

We found that chicken wings didn't really have enough meat on them for the dogs and changed over to chicken frames which are meatier and not so much dense bone. Also find with the frames there seem to be some internal organ meat attached, and the odd neck! The poos have less bone fragment in them and dogs love the frames! They still get wings for supper a couple of times a week but usually on the days when they have had tripe, offal or fish. Have to confess to being poo obsessed too!

musicposy · 10/05/2011 23:15

"I don't have any RL friends who would be willing or able to discuss dog poo with such interest and knowledge!"
PMSL! Grin I think I might lose a few friends if I tried...

LOL about the poo obsession! Was trying to discuss Poppy's poo with DH today but it's hard to get him properly interested. DD1 will usually listen with interest because Poppy (essentially my dog so I poo pick) now has much nicer poo than Budgen, our older dog (essentially DD1's dog so she poo picks). She's a bit envious that the poos I pick up are smaller, neater, and don't smell. But I'm a little wary of changing Budgen's diet later in life... maybe I'll try some raw gradually.

I'm glad to read about the chalkiness! I thought it might be something to worry about but am reassured now it is normal. Is it because most stuff is digested except the bone?

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