Tartar on Eye Teeth

[DaneMama]

As you know I don't feed Zio raw, but that doesn't mean that this forum isn't a great resource.

I also had questions about some discoloration on his canines....

FWIW the rest of his teeth are nice & white, but I've been thinking about giving him a raw beef rib the next time we decide to cook up a batch. (They are great bbq'd btw. Lots of meat on them!)

Thanks!

If you do give a beef rib to Zio, I would hold him off of his kibble that day since he will get a good portion of raw beef from the rib. There's a chance that his tummy could get upset from it, some of them tend to be pretty fatty.

[SubMariner]

If you do give a beef rib to Zio, I would hold him off of his kibble that day since he will get a good portion of raw beef from the rib. There's a chance that his tummy could get upset from it, some of them tend to be pretty fatty.

Natalie, the one time we gave him raw hamburger he did get a bit of the runs, so subsequent times we have only given him cooked burger. Does that mean that we might want to sear the meat a bit so it's not so raw, or is it still better to give it to him totally raw & be prepared from some consequences?

Thanx!

[RawFedDogs]

Natalie, the one time we gave him raw hamburger he did get a bit of the runs, so subsequent times we have only given him cooked burger. Does that mean that we might want to sear the meat a bit so it's not so raw, or is it still better to give it to him totally raw & be prepared from some consequences?

Thanx!

Obviously I'm not Natalie but he will be ok without searing. He will be eating mostly bone so that should eliminate runs. The reason he got a bit of runs from hamburger is that there were no bones in it. I would be afraid to sear ribs for fear of making the bone brittle.

[DaneMama]

Natalie, the one time we gave him raw hamburger he did get a bit of the runs, so subsequent times we have only given him cooked burger. Does that mean that we might want to sear the meat a bit so it's not so raw, or is it still better to give it to him totally raw & be prepared from some consequences?

Thanx!

Exactly what RFD said.

There are plenty of reasons why he could have gotten the runs from raw versus the cooked hamburger:

Do you remember if one was more fatty than the other...ie meat to fat ratio?

How much did you give him from each the cooked and raw?

Was the raw pretty darn fresh or a few days old?

It could have been something completely unrelated to the hamburger?

Or the one that I lean towards is that he was fed kibble that day (takes 12 or so hours to get out of the stomach) and it didn't sit well with raw meat (takes only a few hours in the stomach). The different rate of digestion could have caused upset. The reason why you didn't see upset with cooked is that meat sources in kibble are cooked...might be a link there.

All that being said, a bit of loose stool is nothing to lose sleep over. Its normal and most of the time harmless. I would think that the benefit of teeth cleaning is worth a bit of loose stool for a day or so