Raw feeding 911 Part VIII
In the previous entry titled "People food for thought Part X:Eggs", I wrote that Eggs are great protein source and, very
nutritious food by itself. In fact, Eggs are one of the few sources you
can get Vitamin D from.
I also wrote how to read the egg carton labels, what makes eggshell colors different, how Free Range chicken are raised.
As you have already noticed, our stumpy little dog "Palette" is on fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet, and egg is one of the food she gets occasionally. She really adore eggs and, on and off, I feed her a whole egg without me cracking it for her for fun. It is very entertaining to see how she cracks an egg by herself.
When I first tried handed the raw whole egg without cracking it for her, I had slight horrified image that she might actually toss it in the air as she does with interactive chew toy called "Kong", but thankfully, she did not come up with the idea and she rather gently hold the egg with her mouth and give it a gentle pressure on her canine teeth to make a whole in the center and start licking through the hole to make it look like a cradle.
Hmm.... Egg! I love them!
Egg is good food item to feed your dogs, and I feed her two eggs per week. I usually feed her Cage free Eggs,which we keep in our fridge. Some people seem to feed eggs daily, but I like moderation,and I feed two eggs per week.
You may wonder what would happen to the shell.
Palette usually eats them, and occasionally, depending on her mood, she leaves me some egg shells to pick up.
Egg shell is pure source of calcium, and if your dogs eat it, that is fine, and if they left it for you to pick up, it is fine also. However, calcium is important nutrient for your dogs and, it needs to be included in their diet.
If your dogs were on fresh diet a.k.a. raw diet, and if they get bones in menu along with meat,organ etc., bones would provide calcium to your dogs and eating the egg shell is not necessary.
What are the benefit to give your dogs a bones?
While bones are not the center item of the raw diet, bones are very important part of the diet in the aspect of providing the calcium in the form of natural state,with natural way.
Not only that, whole bones with meaty meat in the diet can clean the dogs' teeth and strengthen the jaw muscle.
Note: bones such as knuckle bones,femur bones,marrow bones from big animals such as cow,buffalo are called weight bearing bones, and they are teeth wearer,teeth breaker and even though they are sold with very reasonable price, they are not good kind of bones to give to your dogs.
Note: Do not feed your dogs cooked bones.They are brittle and break sharp. Also, if dogs eats them, it seems, from my experience with cooked ham bones I gave before I switched Palette to raw diet, it seems to make the poop very very hard like cement in the gut. When she had the cooked ham bones,she pooped golf ball sized rock hard poop so often and it eventually turned to diarrhea that lasted for a few days.Never again,I feed cooked bones to Palette.
Some Pet supply stores sells smoked bones, sterilized bones, etc etc..,but they are, in my opinion, teeth wearer,breaker, and it is in a way, cooked bones so, I am not sure how good dogs can digest the bones break off from such pet bones. In the past, before I come across raw diet information, I used to give such bones but I remember such bones broke pretty sharp.
This is also the reason why I do not offer any of pet bones at our store (Yassy's Gourmet Dog Kitchen).
If you were to feed bones, feed raw bones not classified under weight bearing bones. Today, Palette had Chicken and beef (beef heart) along with whole egg, and small amount of Buffalo liver/kidney. Chicken she had is the cut off portion from the whole bird and those kind of bones are what you want to give your dogs to provide dental health and calcium,mineral source etc. with natural way.
That being said, some dogs might have hard time motivated to try the whole bones, and some people look for the other way to provide the calcium.
Some people may look into giving the bone meals.
What are bone meals?
Bone meals are, according to wikipedia, mixture of crushed/ground bones that are used as fertilizer for plants.
Bone meals used to be sold as calcium supplement for human in the past, but with the research done in 1980's that says it was contaminated with lead and other toxic metal, they are no longer recommended as calcium source for human.
Bone meals would provide both phosphorus and calcium, and if you were feeding raw diet, your dogs can get phosphorus through meat you feed and, it is not necessary to add more phosphorus.
If I were to look for the alternative ways to provide calcium source, I would not purchase bone meals. If ground bones were what I would like, then, I would rather look for the way to ground the bones on my own. That way, at least, you know the quality of bones to be ground, and you know what are being fed to your dogs.
Grinding the bones are the way to go to provide calcium when dogs are not motivated to try eating the bones?
I personally always believe that when it comes to diet, variety is one important thing to consider whether for human or for dogs. Each food provide wide range of nutrient in each unique way,and it would benefit for our and our furry friends' health.
One thing I think about grinding the bone on my own is that, I hear now and then that people recommend bone grinder but it seems very expensive, and I wonder if the tool is always usable with wide range of bones,not just poultry bones.
I myself do not have such tool, and I do not know much about the tool but if I were to grind the bones on my own for any reasons, I would look for the tool that would do the work for wide range of bones,not just one kind of bones.
When you cannot grind bones at home, you may look into purchasing raw diet pattie.
Raw diet pattie is good choice as alternative ways to feeding the whole bones?
Since many more people started looking at feeding fresh food for furry friends, pet food industries also started looking the way to provide something for those who would like to feed raw diet with convenience.
Some are dehydrated version of raw diet package, which I am not sure if it contains bones or not since ingredients start with Free range chicken for example with one product. Ingredient list goes..
<Product A>
Free Range chicken,organic fair trade quinoa,sweet potatoes,spinach,parsley,organic kelp,rosemary,tricalcium phosphate,choline chloride,zinc amino acid chelate,Vitamin D3 supplement,Vitamin E supplement,potassium iodide,potassium chloride,iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate
While they are not as lengthy ingredients list as kibble ingredients, but if you purchase dehydrated raw diet package with convenient, it comes with something else in it too, and while you feed real fresh chicken at home, your menu list will be simply just one ingredient or two if you feed combo meal (mixing with other protein source). So, I personally feel that I see their suppliers' effort to provide convenience for those who feed raw diet, but it is not as simple ingredient as you would be able to back home with real fresh food right from your grocery store.
Another ones you may find on the market is freeze dried raw package,which I think they are pretty expensive, and you will never know that how much of bones in the pattie. Considering ground chicken with bones is stated as very first ingredients in the product B ingredient list, bones in the product may be quite high. Product B ingredient list goes..
<Product B>
Freeze dried free range chicken (ground bones included),chicken liver,chicken gizzard, organic cranberries, Apple cider vinegar,Whole chicken egg,organic broccoli, calcium carbonate,red potatoes,organic spinach,organic seaweed, organic beets, organic butternut squash,organic apple, organic blue berries,Fortified with vitamins and minerals
Again,while they are not as lengthy ingredients list as kibble ingredients, it comes with something else in it too. When you are looking for just the alternative ways to provide calcium source, should you change the whole meal plan for your dogs?
I do not think so. I personally feel that again, I see their suppliers' effort to provide convenience for those who feed raw diet, but it is not as simple ingredient as you would be able to back home with real fresh food right from your grocery store, and just for not being able to eat bones and changing the whole menu plan is not worth it.
Some people may look into raw patties.
Feeding the raw mix patties is the alternative way to feeding the whole bones?
Some raw food companies offer line of products with mixed ground. Sometimes, they offer ,for example, chicken and vegetable mix, and it is raw meat with vegetable but ingredient list goes..
<Product C>
Chicken & bone, chicken necks, broccoli, butternut squash, kale, chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, chicken liver
You can see it is much much shorter ingredients list compared to raw dehydrated/freeze dried patties, but it still comes with unwanted ingredients, and you would never be sure how much of bones you are feeding to your dogs.
Some raw food companies provide products such as ground chicken frames, and since it is single ingredients list, I think it is much better option as alternative ways, but since it is not just bones are ground and it still has meat in it, when you want to feed this to your dog to supplement bone intake, you would probably do not know how much of bones you are feeding to your dogs.
Some raw suppliers grind meat,bones,and organs and package them up. Since they comes mixed with things you would feed whole such as meat,organs, it is in a way, better alternative for those who have hard time motivating your dogs to try eating the whole bones, but just like other products, since you cannot see how much of actual bones you would be feeding by feeding through the mix, for some dogs, amount of bones in the mix or organs in the mix may, may not be too much or too little and you may need to adjust the ratio by feeding extra something along side this mix or tweak the diet.
Some people may look into giving the calcium supplement.
Giving the supplement would ensure the optimum amount of calcium in the diet for your dogs?
As stated in the previous entry titled "Multi-vitamins/minerals for your dogs" ,I think that supplementing with synthetic form is tricky because you would not be sure how much are absorbed and you would not be sure if the dosage instructed on the bottle is proper amount for your dogs or not considering supplement products makers have no knowledge of your dogs' age,activity levels, diet etc..
I personally prefer to give our dog natural,real fresh food to provide the maximum amount of each nutrient food can provide her.
That being said, without changing anything you are currently feeding to your dog, there is one natural items you can try. It is an egg shell.
Eggshell is great natural source of calcium and if your dogs' diet have no bones, giving the egg shell will be the best way to go as substitution for a whole bone.
How to use egg shell as substitute for bones for calcium...
When you decided to use the egg shell as calcium source, best way to give egg shell to your dogs is to grind them.
Just simply wash the shell after cracking them,and dry them out, you can simply grind them with coffee grinder. It is best to have 2 grinder at home. One, you use for coffee, and the other, use them to grind herbs for your cooking or for your dogs to grind the egg shells.
Some people bake the egg shell at 300F oven about 10 minutes. I believe this baking process was to remove the mineral oil coating on the shell.
You can give 1/2 tsp of ground egg shell per pound of food served as alternative way to provide calcium source.
As side note, sometimes, I see people with small dogs having problem with whole chicken egg. I see that our Corgi getting one Egg and has no problem but if you were with small dog like chihuahua and if they were getting one whole chicken Egg, it could be too much for the tiny little dogs.
If you encounter the situation, you could try smaller sized egg such as quail egg. You can get them at Asian stores. Might be perfect egg size for tiny little dogs:)
Or, you can share the whole egg with your dog. He takes half of raw chicken egg and you could whip up the scramble egg or something for yourself, or freeze the half amount or so in the ice cube tray possibly stored in the air tight freezer bag and,freeze, feed it through.
According to BBC, when you lightly beaten the whole egg and pour them into air tight container such as freezer bag,or plastic container and freeze them. They are good for 3 months.They recommend to thaw them in the fridge and freeze small batch.
If you could pour the whole egg lightly beaten onto the ice cube tray and put the ice cube tray in the air tight freezer bag and freeze them in the freezer, I think next time you feed, you can just pop one cube out to feed your dog and probably do not need to thaw the egg in the fridge.
To read full article on freezing an egg at BBC website,please click here.
As a way to motivate your dog to try out whole bones, you could make a cut on the bones or crush them a little with meat mallet if bones were softer bones such as chicken bones to expose more marrow.
Sometimes, dogs are pretty good at training humans,and if you were switching this and that to let them try bones, they could look for much more yummy stuff and would strike on you. Be consistent,be patient, be creative for your dogs:)
Once they crunch the bones on their own, they would love the real bones:-)
I also wrote how to read the egg carton labels, what makes eggshell colors different, how Free Range chicken are raised.
As you have already noticed, our stumpy little dog "Palette" is on fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet, and egg is one of the food she gets occasionally. She really adore eggs and, on and off, I feed her a whole egg without me cracking it for her for fun. It is very entertaining to see how she cracks an egg by herself.
When I first tried handed the raw whole egg without cracking it for her, I had slight horrified image that she might actually toss it in the air as she does with interactive chew toy called "Kong", but thankfully, she did not come up with the idea and she rather gently hold the egg with her mouth and give it a gentle pressure on her canine teeth to make a whole in the center and start licking through the hole to make it look like a cradle.
Hmm.... Egg! I love them!
Egg is good food item to feed your dogs, and I feed her two eggs per week. I usually feed her Cage free Eggs,which we keep in our fridge. Some people seem to feed eggs daily, but I like moderation,and I feed two eggs per week.
You may wonder what would happen to the shell.
Palette usually eats them, and occasionally, depending on her mood, she leaves me some egg shells to pick up.
Egg shell is pure source of calcium, and if your dogs eat it, that is fine, and if they left it for you to pick up, it is fine also. However, calcium is important nutrient for your dogs and, it needs to be included in their diet.
If your dogs were on fresh diet a.k.a. raw diet, and if they get bones in menu along with meat,organ etc., bones would provide calcium to your dogs and eating the egg shell is not necessary.
What are the benefit to give your dogs a bones?
While bones are not the center item of the raw diet, bones are very important part of the diet in the aspect of providing the calcium in the form of natural state,with natural way.
Not only that, whole bones with meaty meat in the diet can clean the dogs' teeth and strengthen the jaw muscle.
Note: bones such as knuckle bones,femur bones,marrow bones from big animals such as cow,buffalo are called weight bearing bones, and they are teeth wearer,teeth breaker and even though they are sold with very reasonable price, they are not good kind of bones to give to your dogs.
Note: Do not feed your dogs cooked bones.They are brittle and break sharp. Also, if dogs eats them, it seems, from my experience with cooked ham bones I gave before I switched Palette to raw diet, it seems to make the poop very very hard like cement in the gut. When she had the cooked ham bones,she pooped golf ball sized rock hard poop so often and it eventually turned to diarrhea that lasted for a few days.Never again,I feed cooked bones to Palette.
Some Pet supply stores sells smoked bones, sterilized bones, etc etc..,but they are, in my opinion, teeth wearer,breaker, and it is in a way, cooked bones so, I am not sure how good dogs can digest the bones break off from such pet bones. In the past, before I come across raw diet information, I used to give such bones but I remember such bones broke pretty sharp.
This is also the reason why I do not offer any of pet bones at our store (Yassy's Gourmet Dog Kitchen).
If you were to feed bones, feed raw bones not classified under weight bearing bones. Today, Palette had Chicken and beef (beef heart) along with whole egg, and small amount of Buffalo liver/kidney. Chicken she had is the cut off portion from the whole bird and those kind of bones are what you want to give your dogs to provide dental health and calcium,mineral source etc. with natural way.
That being said, some dogs might have hard time motivated to try the whole bones, and some people look for the other way to provide the calcium.
Some people may look into giving the bone meals.
What are bone meals?
Bone meals are, according to wikipedia, mixture of crushed/ground bones that are used as fertilizer for plants.
Bone meals used to be sold as calcium supplement for human in the past, but with the research done in 1980's that says it was contaminated with lead and other toxic metal, they are no longer recommended as calcium source for human.
Bone meals would provide both phosphorus and calcium, and if you were feeding raw diet, your dogs can get phosphorus through meat you feed and, it is not necessary to add more phosphorus.
If I were to look for the alternative ways to provide calcium source, I would not purchase bone meals. If ground bones were what I would like, then, I would rather look for the way to ground the bones on my own. That way, at least, you know the quality of bones to be ground, and you know what are being fed to your dogs.
Grinding the bones are the way to go to provide calcium when dogs are not motivated to try eating the bones?
I personally always believe that when it comes to diet, variety is one important thing to consider whether for human or for dogs. Each food provide wide range of nutrient in each unique way,and it would benefit for our and our furry friends' health.
One thing I think about grinding the bone on my own is that, I hear now and then that people recommend bone grinder but it seems very expensive, and I wonder if the tool is always usable with wide range of bones,not just poultry bones.
I myself do not have such tool, and I do not know much about the tool but if I were to grind the bones on my own for any reasons, I would look for the tool that would do the work for wide range of bones,not just one kind of bones.
When you cannot grind bones at home, you may look into purchasing raw diet pattie.
Raw diet pattie is good choice as alternative ways to feeding the whole bones?
Since many more people started looking at feeding fresh food for furry friends, pet food industries also started looking the way to provide something for those who would like to feed raw diet with convenience.
Some are dehydrated version of raw diet package, which I am not sure if it contains bones or not since ingredients start with Free range chicken for example with one product. Ingredient list goes..
<Product A>
Free Range chicken,organic fair trade quinoa,sweet potatoes,spinach,parsley,organic kelp,rosemary,tricalcium phosphate,choline chloride,zinc amino acid chelate,Vitamin D3 supplement,Vitamin E supplement,potassium iodide,potassium chloride,iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate
While they are not as lengthy ingredients list as kibble ingredients, but if you purchase dehydrated raw diet package with convenient, it comes with something else in it too, and while you feed real fresh chicken at home, your menu list will be simply just one ingredient or two if you feed combo meal (mixing with other protein source). So, I personally feel that I see their suppliers' effort to provide convenience for those who feed raw diet, but it is not as simple ingredient as you would be able to back home with real fresh food right from your grocery store.
Another ones you may find on the market is freeze dried raw package,which I think they are pretty expensive, and you will never know that how much of bones in the pattie. Considering ground chicken with bones is stated as very first ingredients in the product B ingredient list, bones in the product may be quite high. Product B ingredient list goes..
<Product B>
Freeze dried free range chicken (ground bones included),chicken liver,chicken gizzard, organic cranberries, Apple cider vinegar,Whole chicken egg,organic broccoli, calcium carbonate,red potatoes,organic spinach,organic seaweed, organic beets, organic butternut squash,organic apple, organic blue berries,Fortified with vitamins and minerals
Again,while they are not as lengthy ingredients list as kibble ingredients, it comes with something else in it too. When you are looking for just the alternative ways to provide calcium source, should you change the whole meal plan for your dogs?
I do not think so. I personally feel that again, I see their suppliers' effort to provide convenience for those who feed raw diet, but it is not as simple ingredient as you would be able to back home with real fresh food right from your grocery store, and just for not being able to eat bones and changing the whole menu plan is not worth it.
Some people may look into raw patties.
Feeding the raw mix patties is the alternative way to feeding the whole bones?
Some raw food companies offer line of products with mixed ground. Sometimes, they offer ,for example, chicken and vegetable mix, and it is raw meat with vegetable but ingredient list goes..
<Product C>
Chicken & bone, chicken necks, broccoli, butternut squash, kale, chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, chicken liver
You can see it is much much shorter ingredients list compared to raw dehydrated/freeze dried patties, but it still comes with unwanted ingredients, and you would never be sure how much of bones you are feeding to your dogs.
Some raw food companies provide products such as ground chicken frames, and since it is single ingredients list, I think it is much better option as alternative ways, but since it is not just bones are ground and it still has meat in it, when you want to feed this to your dog to supplement bone intake, you would probably do not know how much of bones you are feeding to your dogs.
Some raw suppliers grind meat,bones,and organs and package them up. Since they comes mixed with things you would feed whole such as meat,organs, it is in a way, better alternative for those who have hard time motivating your dogs to try eating the whole bones, but just like other products, since you cannot see how much of actual bones you would be feeding by feeding through the mix, for some dogs, amount of bones in the mix or organs in the mix may, may not be too much or too little and you may need to adjust the ratio by feeding extra something along side this mix or tweak the diet.
Some people may look into giving the calcium supplement.
Giving the supplement would ensure the optimum amount of calcium in the diet for your dogs?
As stated in the previous entry titled "Multi-vitamins/minerals for your dogs" ,I think that supplementing with synthetic form is tricky because you would not be sure how much are absorbed and you would not be sure if the dosage instructed on the bottle is proper amount for your dogs or not considering supplement products makers have no knowledge of your dogs' age,activity levels, diet etc..
I personally prefer to give our dog natural,real fresh food to provide the maximum amount of each nutrient food can provide her.
That being said, without changing anything you are currently feeding to your dog, there is one natural items you can try. It is an egg shell.
Eggshell is great natural source of calcium and if your dogs' diet have no bones, giving the egg shell will be the best way to go as substitution for a whole bone.
How to use egg shell as substitute for bones for calcium...
When you decided to use the egg shell as calcium source, best way to give egg shell to your dogs is to grind them.
Just simply wash the shell after cracking them,and dry them out, you can simply grind them with coffee grinder. It is best to have 2 grinder at home. One, you use for coffee, and the other, use them to grind herbs for your cooking or for your dogs to grind the egg shells.
Some people bake the egg shell at 300F oven about 10 minutes. I believe this baking process was to remove the mineral oil coating on the shell.
You can give 1/2 tsp of ground egg shell per pound of food served as alternative way to provide calcium source.
As side note, sometimes, I see people with small dogs having problem with whole chicken egg. I see that our Corgi getting one Egg and has no problem but if you were with small dog like chihuahua and if they were getting one whole chicken Egg, it could be too much for the tiny little dogs.
If you encounter the situation, you could try smaller sized egg such as quail egg. You can get them at Asian stores. Might be perfect egg size for tiny little dogs:)
Or, you can share the whole egg with your dog. He takes half of raw chicken egg and you could whip up the scramble egg or something for yourself, or freeze the half amount or so in the ice cube tray possibly stored in the air tight freezer bag and,freeze, feed it through.
According to BBC, when you lightly beaten the whole egg and pour them into air tight container such as freezer bag,or plastic container and freeze them. They are good for 3 months.They recommend to thaw them in the fridge and freeze small batch.
If you could pour the whole egg lightly beaten onto the ice cube tray and put the ice cube tray in the air tight freezer bag and freeze them in the freezer, I think next time you feed, you can just pop one cube out to feed your dog and probably do not need to thaw the egg in the fridge.
To read full article on freezing an egg at BBC website,please click here.
As a way to motivate your dog to try out whole bones, you could make a cut on the bones or crush them a little with meat mallet if bones were softer bones such as chicken bones to expose more marrow.
Sometimes, dogs are pretty good at training humans,and if you were switching this and that to let them try bones, they could look for much more yummy stuff and would strike on you. Be consistent,be patient, be creative for your dogs:)
Once they crunch the bones on their own, they would love the real bones:-)
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