But bones are the part of the diet that makes it interesting and keeps their teeth clean. The action of ripping meat off bones is what cleans them. Plus bones are great if you want to tidy up and keep them quiet.

Congratulations on the baby. However as long as you are sensible with your raw feeding practices and maybe put your dog outside with bones then there should be no harm to the child. Plus babies don't really do much for a while.

What is there exactly the worry of?

I think she's worried of bone splinters causing internal damage and/or smaller bones being swallowed whole.

But thats a risk - theres plenty of risks in owning dogs.. And I have fed for just under a year and had no problems with raw bones, I've had them upchucked, but they just eat them again.. same with some minces too.

Thank you . Got to C & P into a social networking msg!

And this concern is perfectly understandable.

I have only been feeding raw for 11 years but I remember the trepidation I felt when I gave my dog her first chicken wing!

I was waiting for her to fall over and die!

Also having a baby is a LOT of change for one person, let alone moving dogs to raw!

So having done both I can fully comprehend her caution.

I appreciate there's a lot of risks with owning dogs. I think I just need to keep convincing her and maybe buy a book, one of the ones listed by smokeybear, for her to read. We're hopefully getting a new Malamute puppy in August, so I'll try and put that straight onto raw. That should give me a few months then to prove that it's okay and when the baby is born and she settles down a bit, I'll have the research, endless convincing and proof that it's okay, then I should get the all clear for doing all the Mals on raw.

Thanks for everyone's help. Expect me to be asking more questions in and around August if we get the puppy.

Hi, I have been getting lots of advice fro the Raw feeding thread on Facehttp://www.[a social network].com/#!/groups/rawfeedinguk/book
Also The dogs dinner by Ann Ridyard is excellent book for everyone and easy to follow.
http://dogsdinner2.webs.com/pashasdiary.htm

A question for those of you that feed raw. What do you do when you go on holiday? We tend to do cottage holidays which, in theory would be fine but if there's a 3 or 4 hour drive to get there how do you keep it fresh / frozen? Also we usually go camping at least once a year sans fridge or freezer.

Any ideas / suggestions would be welcome as I'd really like to put our 9 week older Border Terrier pup, Willow, onto a raw diet.

Thank you

There is usually a supermarket of some sort on campsites selling chicken pieces, also you can use canned fish. I freeze meal size portions and put them in a cool box and that will keep for a few days, Gnasher on here has a plug in cool box or freezer thing that goes in the cigarette lighter. Often petshops will have a freezer with some sort of raw food in, amazing what you can find if you ask around, maybe find a butcher near where you are staying, lots of them do pet meat anyway, but you may be able to get chicken carcass offcuts and bones from him/

I have been feeding raw for many years and no problems.

When I gave my dogs their first chicken wings I stood by the phone, ready to phone the vet in case something went wrong. Nothing did.

When I gave a 9 week old puppy his first chicken wing he crunched along it in 3 places and then swallowed it whole. Phone in hand again - but he just 'smiled' and asked for more.