Feeding whole foods

Just spent a nice relaxing hour in the garden in the warm sun supervising Cain eating his first half a sheeps head. He really enjoyed it and now he's sleeping it off and digesting. He also gets whole rabbits.

I was just wondering who else tries to feed whole raw foods, or large animals parts (like heads). What do you feed? I'd like to feed him a whole bird Inc feathers but it's hard to come by in London.

Also random question but do your dogs use their front paws when tackling something big? Cain doesn't, he just chews with his mouth and it travels across the floor. He tries to shake bits off but never pins it down with his paws so he can rip. Is this normal or is he just dumb

Casper lies down and holds stuff down with one paw and gnaws away at it with the back/side of his mouth, whereas Kiki usually stands up with food pinned between both feet then shreds it up with her front teeth, it's quite interesting to see their different methods!

I think most dogs have different methods. I always think of my lad as quite daft and he is the sort to chase food around the floor but as he has got older and wiser he has started to think things through. He will even put his foot in his dish if it is on the floor sliding around, but only after eating one corner so he doesn't stand on the food.
Just started feeding ribs and stuff this weekend and he stood and chomped it for a while, but I told him to lay down and then he held it with his paws and picked at it before eating it properly.
I agree krlyr it is really interesting seeing the different ways they eat and tackle problems

I feed whole rabbits when I can get my hands on them and i've fed whole pheasants and pigeons.

Hmmm.... chickens with feathers might be something you could find in a market like Brixton or Ridley Road, Dalston. I know you can get whole ungutted plucked chickens in places like that (marked Boilers).

I'm glad I don't live in innerl London any more (I couldn't have a dog when I did!) but I would be scouring Ridley Road market and the like for raw food if I could. Halal butchers are usually happy to give away bones and there are still places where you can buy odd things like pigs trotters, pigs tails or even cow's feet.

As to eating methods, Merlin makes very good use of his strong front dew claws when necessary and always uses his front feet to pin things down, sometimes clasping items between them.

Gosh! Well done Amanda, I don't think I'd have the stomach to watch half a sheep's head get eaten!!!

All three of mine use their paws to hold carcasses and chews etc. The other day they all had half a pig's ear each for their birthdays. Pepper makes short work of hers but the boys both hold theirs on the edge so they can chew more easily.

By the way where do you get the rabbits? And how much are they? I think I could cope with a rabbit...

J.

I knew it, Cain is a dunce! He just lies there, chomping on his food with the back teeth, looking confused that it inches away from him with every chomp Hopefully he'll learn to pin it down one day. Bless him, he's lucky he's got looks

Good idea Merlin's Mum, I hadn't thought about trying Brixton markets, thats a good idea. I'll have to have a look one weekend.

J, I must admit I have a fairly strong stomach but the sheep head was pretty grim, even by my standard I had to watch him though as he'd never had it before and I wanted to see him chew it up properly. It kept him busy for nearly and hour and he was sooo tired afterwards. Providing he digests it properly I'd feed it again. I get his rabbits from www.thedogfoodcompany.co.uk where I order the rest of his food from, much cheaper than shops. Only £2 each, and often very big so I only feed him half a rabbit at a time, fur and all. I do like feeding whole when I can, it really gives him something to get stuck into and occupies him, stops him being annoying for 10 minutes

I've emailed them to see if they deliver to the South West, as they seem very reasonably priced, is there a delivery charge on top?

I'm not sure as actually Krlyr orders a bulk amount and I getine from her. Hopefully she can answer about deliver charges

Does anyone elses dogs sometimes throw up a little after very bony meals? Cain seems to have digested the sheep head well and it all moved through and came out as one huge chalky poo this morning I did feed him some liver with it but it was a very bony meal, he didn't seem to have any problems passing it.

Anyway after he has the occassional turkey drumstick, he will nearly always throw up a little bit overnight, just bile and three or four pieces of indigestible bone. He's very good at chomping his food up properly, but this seems to bit the odd bit he rejects. I sort of expected him to have thrown up this morning after thr sheep head, and he had. I found two teeth and a piece of cranium, which I guess wasn't digestible.

Is this a problem? He seems fine, only ever throws up once and it's only a few bits of bone. I've always thought it's better to come out of the stomach than get pushed through his gut. He only gets these super bony meals on occassion. Is this throwing up the bodys normal way of expelling bits of bone it knows it can't digest (like sheep teeth) or is it a problem and I should avoid feeding these to him? It would be a shame, the sheep head was very enriching for him.

£5 delivery but not sure he'll deliver that far as he's in Sussex, I was just lucky that he had some customers in Surrey already so added me to his route. He's a bit of a one-man band (hence the low prices I assume, low overheads) and does the delivery route himself but I know he was thinking about expanding a bit in the future.

Kiki's done it a couple of times after the little bones I get -the 4-5" ones, they seem to have a real brittle bit at the end which I now take off them. Terrified me the first time, second time I realised the link, but she didn't have any problems with it.