# How long do you leave your dogs raw meal out for them to eat?



## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Last night for dinner I gave the dogs each half a chicken quarter and half a pork neck (THAT WAS CRAZY I HAD TO HACK SAW THEM. D:<) I've decided I am never ever feeding pork necks again unless they are a meal of their own because I AM NOT sawing them. O_O It was soooooo annoying and I was kicking myself in the booty for not just feeding them an entire pork neck each. But they had finished their chicken and were crowded for their pork so I handed out the pork and everyone slowly worked on theirs. They even traded necks a few times, someone would get up with a peice of theirs and another would rush into the crate to get a neck...But they were chomping on them for a good hour and a half...Then they got too full and started resting, this was around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m...I left the pork out for them because I wanted them to finish it. They eventually did finish them but it was late in the night, Paris and Preston woke up around 2 and finished everything off. I'm an insomniac so I witnessed.  But anyway, I think it took them so long because I've never given them any bones that hard to eat...Maybe they just need to work their jaw muscles more. :] Everyone finished and I had good poops to pick up this morning so it didn't disagree with them.

Anyway, I was amazed at the crunching they were doing. I had to HACK SAW the freaking bones but they were able to crunch them up pretty easily. I think because it was just so much bone they were getting tired of it. Anyway, is it okay to leave the meat out for a couple of hours for them to finish?


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## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

Kittens - their food stays about an hour on the floor. Sometimes the mice are frozen so they use them as hockey pucks before they eat :redface:

Cats - same

Dogs - they usually take about 20 mins to 3 hours depending what I have put out for them. I had whole chickens that I gave to each and fasted. Took them about 3-4 hours to chew since it was frozen.

Other then that it never stays out too long :nerd:


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Like, the 4-5 lb chickens? How long did you fast for afterward? Thanks 3 hrs sounds perfectly reasonable, lol, if they can eat animals that sit out and bake in the texas heat...I'm sure meat at room temperature that they are working on isn't bad then.


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## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

Yep about that  I fasted a day afterwards. I know some can have hunger bile. Mine don't. They also have a little snack during the day just to make sure they are OK.


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## schtuffy (May 17, 2010)

When I give Louis a beef rib, he will gnaw on it for the whole day. He gets most of the meat off of it relatively quickly, but then there's a lot of connective tissue and this stringy stuff he works on, as well as the little bit of marrow. Sometimes we let him hold on to it for a couple days...and stick it in the fridge between chewings, but I usually throw it away after that because it starts to get a bit stinky :tongue:


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

On pork necks, my two dogs struggle with them so I don't think I'll include those in their diet any longer. They aren't cheap enough around here to bother with anyway.

On leaving food out, my dogs eat in our back yard and neither is a gulper nor food aggressive. Some days they eat all their food right away. Some days they take their sweet time and leave a little behind for later so I just leave it there. Seems like sometimes they like their food to warm up in the sunshine for awhile until it's ripe and yummy, then they eat it. Yesterday one of them left a turkey neck out there and it didn't get eaten until last night. I don't worry about the meat spoiling or anything like that since they seem to actually prefer smelly, past-its-prime meat anyway. I live in an urban environment with few critters around so leaving meat out is not a problem. I wouldn't do it if it attracted wild animals. When I go to my "house in the woods" in Northern California, I do not let them leave meat behind uneaten. It attracts foxes, coyotes and bears. Just the blood left on the patio attracts the wild critters so I have to clean up more ofter there than I do at home. The fact that I won't let them leave meat behind when we are there confuses them, but they figure it out eventually and eat what I give them. I pick up anything they don't eat right away and put it back in the fridge.

Now my mom's dog likes her meat nice and gamy so she'll actually take a chicken wing, for example, and bury it in the yard for a day or two before digging it up and eating it. None of our dogs have ever exhibited any ill effects of such eating habits.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

I actually haven't had too much of a problem as my pups are piglets.....but every once in a while Zoey will go on a hunger strike, I give them no more than about 30 minutes (that's just me though). Ziva literally inhales her food in about 2 seconds.


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## candiceb (Jan 22, 2010)

I typically don't gorge/fast my dogs, they just get nice little daily portions. Usually it doesn't take them but about 5-15 minutes to eat, depending on what hardness of bones they're getting. 

The most I've ever really gorge-fed was when I gave Ryder (my Brit) the meaty bone from a whole pork shoulder roast I was hacking up for them. I think it weighed about 2.5 lbs (he usually gets 1 lb.). He ate the _whole thing_ in about an hour and a half. And the next day he was ready for his next meal! No digestive upset or anything! :hungry:


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

they get intact lamb necks....that's about the only time food is down for any length of time.

i let them eat what they want...and for dinner, they might get an ounce or so of food, so bubba doesn't puke whilst we are
sleeping.

they are unwieldy to watch them eat.....so therefore funny...

other food doesn't stay down long enough unless it's a beef bone or something that actually requires work....


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## sassymaxmom (Dec 7, 2008)

I pick up leftovers and put them back into the refrigerator once Max leaves it and goes to urinate. Pork neck is great as a cheap big long lasting meal that is fairly hard to eat. He doesn't finish the whole pork neck, I toss out the mostly bare bone and he has eaten plenty of bone to keep his poop firm. Agree, it is not fun to cut into neat just enough bone bits. Been there, done that. You can separate the vertebra at the joints but it isn't easy and I won't do it again.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

If its just a few hours I'd say thats fine.

I haven't had the problem of my dogs leaving ANYTHING after a meal though. LOL Chow hounds I guess. 

I'm not a fan of pork necks either. Not the ones I got anyways..........way too boney.


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Huh, the ones I got were covered in meat! They had a ton of meat on them, I couldn't see any bone really until I cut them in half and gave the dogs some to work on.

As a bone-in meal I thought they were okay. Not something I'd give them more than once a week probably. I'd rather give them pork butt roast or something combined with a chicken back for bone content. Those necks were gross. Unless it's turkey or chicken breast they haven't gotten completely boneless meals yet.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I don't like pork neck bones. Unless they're free or really cheap they aren't worth it IMO.

As far as leaving meat out after thawed, a few hours or maybe overnight if I don't have room in the fridge. Like I've said before my dogs handle turned meat just fine. Usually there's nothing left after a meal!


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Probably not doing pork necks again.
Paris just threw up a piece of bone... :[
If we were to do it I'd probably give it as a rec bone...That was probably too much bone for her.

She is acting her usual, should I be concerned...This is the first time anyone has thrown up bone! D:


agdsjafjasfa. I'm worried. D:! That bone piece was NOT soft...


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

CavePaws said:


> Probably not doing pork necks again.
> Paris just threw up a piece of bone... :[
> If we were to do it I'd probably give it as a rec bone...That was probably too much bone for her.
> 
> ...


Just keep an eye on her. I'm sure she's fine, its her bodies way of saying "TOO MUCH" so it got rid of it. If I remember correctly, both Nallah & Morgan threw up a piece of bone after they had pork necks too....even if they do have a ton of meat on them, the bones are too dense & just too much for my dogs. They can break through them fine...but its just a bit much bone.


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Yuck, I'll watch her. Poor thing. Well, I agree with you guys on Pork Necks now. ]:! Too bad I had to learn this way. Poor PearPear. She wants to play and everything but I don't want her throwing up more and getting dehydrated...

edit: How would I know if something is really wrong? Like take her to the vet wrong. Just want to make sure I know what to look for.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

CavePaws said:


> Yuck, I'll watch her. Poor thing. Well, I agree with you guys on Pork Necks now. ]:! Too bad I had to learn this way. Poor PearPear. She wants to play and everything but I don't want her throwing up more and getting dehydrated...
> 
> edit: How would I know if something is really wrong? Like take her to the vet wrong. Just want to make sure I know what to look for.


She wouldn't want to play, eat, or do anything really. How big were the pork necks (weight) and did she eat all of it? 

One of my friends dog just had obstruction surgery (NOT for raw...for a squeaker from a toy) and it was pretty obvious he was not feeling well. He just layed there....had horrible stools and non stop vomiting.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Sometimes my dogs will vomit bone chunks after bone heavy meals. I don't worry about it at all....


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

I would say about .5 lbs of pork neck...The packages were a little over a lb each. The dogs traded a few times so she could have gotten more bone than meat...Ugg. Okay, I'm going to watch her, she is actually laying on my lap right now. Her poop was normal this morning. Maybe the chunk of bone she threw up was too big/dense for her body to digest?

edit: So, what can I give them other than whole fish that has bone in it? I mean like red meats. Wouldn't beef ribs be just as dense/hard to get through as the pork necks? When I was giving them pork steaks + chops they were getting it boneless because I was really scared of the small bones that looked really hard in there..Guess I should have been more concerned about the pork necks. I thought, like an ignoramus, that because they were doing so well getting through them that they would be fine...Uhm, maybe I should have taken the hack saw as a sign that they were too dense?!


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

DaneMama said:


> Sometimes my dogs will vomit bone chunks after bone heavy meals. I don't worry about it at all....


Same here........Morgan did this morning in fact.

How long have you been feeding raw Cave Paws? This used to concern me and make me worry in the beginning too, now its kind of a "normal" thing to see a little bit of bone come up occasionally after a bone heavy meal. Normal meaning I don't get too nervous about it.


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

The dogs have been getting whole raw meals (like not just on the side kind of stuff) since the end of January. We had given them pork necks and various meaty bones before January, but because they were just rec bones to clean teeth we wouldn't let them eat the pork bones. They've been getting turkey necks since they were little, Indi especially. Had been getting bison bones from a local pet shop for them that had a fair amount of meat as well as getting deer bones with meat still attached from a co-worker for a good amount of time, since Indi was around 6 months. But again, the dogs did not eat the harder bones before then, they would just gnaw on them and that was that. The bison bones are really really hard and I won't give them to the dogs anymore because of how crazy they are about chewing them and trying to get the marrow. I can just see a cracked tooth waiting to happen with Preston, he could chew one all day if I let him.

Pooper is actually really new to raw as she is my boyfriends dog. She was eating Beneful before I got my hands on her. I introduce things really slowly with her as she has been our problem dog, hard keeper, super skinny (looked like a rack of bones) so her diet consists of a lot of chicken and turkey right now. Definitely less red meats than the others get.

But like I said, I've never seen thrown up bone like this. :[


Gosh I feel so dumb, lol, here I was telling you guys how well they did with their first pork neck meal and then right after I post poor Paris pukes! And the entire time you guys are posting all I'm hearing is bad things about the pork necks! Perhaps I should have asked for opinions before feeding......


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## Sunyoung (Feb 18, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> I don't like pork neck bones. Unless they're free or really cheap they aren't worth it IMO.
> 
> As far as leaving meat out after thawed, a few hours or maybe overnight if I don't have room in the fridge. Like I've said before my dogs handle turned meat just fine. Usually there's nothing left after a meal!


I remember watching a video where you - or I think it was you - gave your dogs a rack of elk ribs. Did you end up storing it or...? What did you do with it when your dogs were done with it - unless they ate all the edible parts of it?


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

I think your doggie will be okay. Ania puked after eating what I think was a combination of way too big of a meal and way too much bone. It was from a giant pork leg. I think dogs are pretty good at regulating themselves, and yours should be fine.

I think we've all done something like this before (at least I hope we all have, otherwise, I'll feel like a$$). You live and you learn. Who knows? These pork neck bones could have been perfect for your pack. But you had to try them first to find out.

As far as other sources of red meat bones? Beef ribs are out. They are much too dense for most dogs to actually consume. But they're great for rec chewing. All bones from lambs/sheep, goats, llamas, venison, and rabbits are great and 100% consumable for dogs your size.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

If your dog ate an especially large chunk of bone whole, it will take longer for it to be broken down by digestive enzymes. Since these bone chunks hang out in the stomach longer they tend to irriate it, making the dog vomit it up. Once it comes up, your dog feels better and goes on with life. This is just part of your learning experience, and in time you'll know not to worry. I went through it and most other raw feeders have gone through it. Let your dog be your guide....you'll know when it's really time to panic.

Sunyoung- yes it was our video/pictures you saw of the whole elk rack of ribs. We thawed it out overnight and then let all the dogs eat their fill. Once they all walked away with big fat tummies to pass out, we bagged it back up and froze it again. We pulled it out a few months later for another feeding. But this time we just left it out because by the time the girls were done pulling meat off, there were just scattered bones. Those hung around for a week, but I eventually threw them out since they lost interest. It was one of the best things I have ever given the girls and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

DaneMama said:


> It was one of the best things I have ever given the girls and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!


I sure hope we can come across something like that again...!!


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

Don't beat yourself up over it. She'll be just fine.  

I remember when we just started raw I tried a pork hock with Morgan and it was one of those DUH moments!! She is not a very good chewer...AND I let DH try to feed her. Bad combination!! She knew he wouldn't be paying much attention, snatched it away and ran away from him (we were feeding outside) and scarfed it down. She didn't poop for a day and a half....talk about nerve racking for a new raw feeder. 

Live & learn like someone else mentioned.


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## Jodysmom (Jan 9, 2010)

Magicre...you usually have great advice for situations like this. (She mentored me, along with other DFC's, and always said just the right thing when I was beating myself up over feeding Jody something that had undesirable "outcomes".)


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## JayJayisme (Aug 2, 2009)

CavePaws said:


> So, what can I give them other than whole fish that has bone in it?


My personal favorite for the dogs is pork spare ribs. Much softer bone than pork necks, easily eaten and digested.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

JayJayisme said:


> My personal favorite for the dogs is pork spare ribs. Much softer bone than pork necks, easily eaten and digested.


We love pork ribs too


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks guys! Woooooh, this really was a learning experience. Paris is acting like a million bucks this morning, she's hilarious and I think once she had puked up that bone she must have felt better, wanted to eat and play and bite the water hose as usual. The best test to see if she's feeling okay is to get out the water hose and spray a stream a few feet, she will do circles chasing it and trying to attack the water. Sooo funny when you're watering the grass. But everyone had good poops this morning and I'm happy to report the pups have finished their last bag of kibble! I'm so excited, especially after wellness had a recall because they didn't include enough Taurine in their cat food...I mean seriously, that's vital to cats, not something to joke around about. :/ Scares me about what could happen with their dog food too, so no more kibble for the pups. 

I'll have to pick up some pork ribs at the meat market this weekend. We are taking Preston and Paris downtown to a festival and on the way back I'm going to hit up the local meat markets for goods. I'll have to make a list of the essentials. Definitely some pork ribs. :] Noooo necks.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

Glad to hear they're all doing well this morning!!


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Yep! They're packing it up in the backyard having a blast running in/out the backdoor and bothering me to get up. I do love my dogs. :] So glad to have found this forum and to learn about feeding a PMR diet. On top of that everyone is so caring and helpful, this forum has a very nice vibe.


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## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

I agree........the general vibe here is easy going and helpful! 

Not the case on other forums!!


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