I'd give it whole.

As for large bones mentioned on some posts. Think of the weight that leg bones of cattle have to carry; they are much stronger than our dogs teeth... so if one or other has to give - it's gonna be the dogs teeth. I used to give those kinds of bones to my two, but Willow started to chew so intently on them I decided it was safer to give them up.
As for poulty bones; mine have been eating raw poulty for a year now and never suffered any ill effects, as have many, many raw fed dogs. I think the myth of poulty bones was born from the days when the sunday dinner scraps were fed to dogs, complete with cooked bones, which are of course a no no.:smt001

Thanks Evie!

It was raw? He really, really loved it too, so I would like to give more, and perhaps slowly change him over to raw if I can. I really didn't like the small long sharp splinters that were coming off it though as he crunched away at the long bone!!! Frightened me to death quite honestly!!!!

If that's the case, I would stick to smaller bones, carcasses etc and softer bones of poultry etc

Have a look on the barf forums, they have so much on there, you would never need to post, tehre;s so much to read

I will do, thanks for all tghe help, and sorry to hijack your thread Leanne, but I'm sure these are questions you would like to ask anyway, I hope!

Oh yeah, be my guest, saves me asking them!

Malady is absolutely correct. You cannot play around with raw feeding (known as BARF). You just stop feeding kibble, and start feeding raw meat, bones and raw veg. It is quite likely that your dog may turn his nose up at it, but don't let this worry you, just pick the bowl up, cover it with cling film and bung it in the fridge. If this is in the morning, then present him with it again that night, if it is at night, then present him with it again in the morning. It took my dog a week before he would eat the raw food, and in particular, he really did not like raw veg. But it is absolutely imperative that he has raw pureed vegetables, you don't need to swamp the bowl, just a dessert spoon a day for a large dog is enough, although a tablespoon would be better. I had to disguise the taste of the veg with chicken stock to make my silly old git eat it, but after a short time, he soon got used to it. He loved his raw meaty bones, and he loved raw meat, it was just the raw veg that he really was not keen on, except for carrots which he would eat whole as well as pureed. He had cooked veg as well if we had any left overs.

BARF is really very simple - the golden rule is to watch what comes out of your dog's backside - if the faeces is hard, dry and crumbly, then you are feeding too much bone and probably not enough veg, if the faeces is sloppy or even diarrhoea, then you are not feeding enough bone. Too much meat can cause diarrhoea. That is the basic principle, follow this simple rule and you won't go far wrong. The other golden rule is "Do not do half and half. Do not try and feed both raw and kibble, this is very unwise. All is explained in Billinghurst's book "Give Your Dog a Bone", the BARFer's bible, and I can thoroughly recommend it. It is not too high flying, and will explain to you why it is so important to feed all dogs raw.

In addition to the diet, I used to give Hal cod liver oil capsules with Omega 3. Raw eggs now and then are good, although Hal refused to eat egg.

Large cow leg bones are absolutely excellent to feed to your dog, they will not hurt his teeth, just the opposite. Dog's teeth are tremendously strong, and they will scrape away at a marrow bone, not try and crush them or break them in two. This is why dogs on the BARF diet have such lovely clean teeth, or will have if you give them large, strong bones to scrape away at.

Quote from above "But it is absolutely imperative that he has raw pureed vegetables, " UNQUOTE Why is that then??? Would not a doggy vitamin pill suffice instead if he really turns his nose up at the pureed veg and quite honestly who can blame him!!!

I am only interested in feeding raw for the simple reason I think my dog actually prefers it and likes it, and if it's not enough, then I would give him a supplement, but I certainly wouldn't want him to eat something he detests if there is an alternative I can find, i.e. a pill. He has enough of stuff he detests with his daily ab's he seems to be on permanently!
Apart from that, I don't think dogs find pureed veg in the wild did they??? Or am I missing something here! ?????

Yes, that's exactly what my dog does with them, scrapes away on them, never tries to actually crunch them! I usually find he's not interested the next day though, but that could be because he's knackered his gums with all that gnawing the day before, so unfortunately it only lasts for the one day here, but he does eat a lot of it in that time.

Another thing I find is butchers seem to be very possessive over their bones don't they! I mean, I almost have to beg my local butcher who I know very well btw, it's almost like asking for a piece of prime fillet for free when I ask for a marrow bone, which I pay for anyway!!! You can't get them in the supermarkets either, coz I've tried that! Such a shame, when they actually have to throw them away don't they. I might have words about this with him next week!!

They would possibly find the veg in the stomache of an animal, and to be honest, it gives them vital vitamins..Iron etc that they need, just like us. You dont need to feed much of it, like Gnasher said, just a tablespoon is plenty. They also need oils in their system, which is easy with Cod liver oil, mine get Raw Salmon oilfrom Alaska, but that's cos I'm fussy what they get