Question about raw diet CHEWING

[acarabias]

Hi, I am new here, but I have been on pretty much all day-- check out my intro note too .. I have 16 week old english bulldogs, I put them on raw since I brought them home. They love it so much and are thriving on it. They last weighed 2 weeks ago 24 and 21.5 lbs and the vet says they are awesome dogs. Anyways, I have two questions.
1- Both my dogs have red tear marks.. Is there anything i can do to help with this?
2- I currently grind all their meat since I do so for my senior toy poodles that have very week teeth and canont chew. It was too late to help my senior dogs teeth when I switched to raw (since their general health has improved vastly) but I want to protect my EB's teeth by the bone chewing. I don't know how you get your dogs to chew, mine are like commercial vacuum it literally takes them 2 seconds to vacuum their plate of 3/4 lbs of food. I tried giving them huge chunks of ham today, but they nearly swallowed the whole thing.. I was truly afraid it was going to get stuck in their esophagus. the puppies don't let me hold the meat, they are not aggressive they just pull away from me and hide. I don't think they are ready to chew their own bones.
Any suggestions will be appreciated,
thank you,
Ana

 

[Poppy]

Hi there,

Since they are 16 weeks old you can still train them to let you hold their food. Even when my pups were on kibble I would put my hands in their food bowl, pet them, or just sit around them while they eat. I didn't want them being food aggressive and now they don't worry about any person around their food.

Raw food is a high value item to dogs though so it may be hard at first. At the beginning my dogs were gulpers. I would start with chicken necks and hold the end of it while they eat. Turkey necks are also great because they're often too big for them to swallow whole, so they really have to work at breaking it apart. Once they got used to chewing their food I let them have it and supervised. There have been times where my girl would gulp a neck, but it will come back up and she'd eat it again (sorry to be graphic!). Once they master the chicken necks you can move to other parts of the chicken. My pups chew a chicken back like champs these days, I would say its 80% bone. If a dog is used to a raw diet, their stomach acid will easily break down bones.

You will notice a BIG difference in their breath once they get chewing!!

No ideas about the tear stains though. Does it look uncomfortable for them, like they are tearing a lot? It might be an ingrown eyelash. But if it's just a normal looking tear stain, well it's hard to find a bulldog without them!

 

[karenben]

my dog is 18 months and doesnt chew her food lol she just pigs it down!!,i dont think you can stop them really ,the only way is to hand feed but not a good idea as they will expect you to do it all their lives lol,have you tried a chicken back they will have to chew on that ,karen

 

[acarabias]

[MENTION=3904]Poppy[/MENTION] yeah I do sit with them and hold it; they're not agressive but they do pull it away from my hand. I usually buy chicken quarters. They are usually big, i'll try to feed them those, [MENTION=2242]karenben[/MENTION] I have tried chicken backs and whole chickens but haven't been able to find turkey necks locally. I'm waiting for some good sales on whole turkey coming up.

 

[LariP]

When we got HRH as a retired breeder at 3 1/2 her teeth were in sore need of a good cleaning. Our vet cleaned them and did hernia repair at the same time.

Naturally we didn't want to have to have her put under anesthesia again if we could help it so the goal was to get her interested in chewing something. At first we offered anything we could think of to try to get her to chew on things to clean her teeth. Luckily she did learn and now spends a fair amount of time daily chewing her Nylabones and deer antlers and her teeth still look really good a year and a half later and her breath is lots better too.

The added benefit of Nylabones and antlers for you with puppies is it gives them something good to chew on and cut teeth on rather than furniture and family.

 

[acarabias]

[MENTION=983]LariP[/MENTION] yes, my babies do have antlers and nylabones.. they chew those, BUT they do not chew their food, I tried a big chunk of muscle meat today and while I held it for Aldo so he could chew I looked around literally2 seconds later and Katara had already swallowed her whole 3/4 lb piece.. wow!! the size of those esophagus to be able to swallow that!! I guess I'll have to separate their feeding times for a few min, work with one, then help chew, then bring the other one out and do the same.. I'll try that next!

 

[karenben]

i wouldnt worry about them not chewing ,most dogs dont chew they just bolt it down lol,karen

 

[acarabias]

[MENTION=2242]karenben[/MENTION] really? I always thought they could choke on it? I'm sure their esophagus' are the size of my HOUSE since they can swallow some huge chunks of meat undisturbed.. but, will they be able to digest it ok? I am buying some chicken quarters today and will try see how they do

 

[karenben]

yes im sure they will digest it fine,i dont give annie massive bits of meat ,the size i cut it to is just cubed ,if i left her say half an ox heart she would swallow it hole lol,but it would still digest mind you she would have a belly ache and sleep for hours!!,karen