# Little Dog Owners



## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

What are you giving your small breeds for bone-in meals? Tiffa's appetite is slowing down from the voracious puppy appetite. Now if I give her a thigh or a drumstick she gets upset and wants to hide it from Tanis rather than eat it. For boneless meals I give her stew meat and organs. Wings and drummettes are unbelievably difficult to find around here.

It's not a huge problem, but I'm open to suggestions. It would take the stress out of her trying to hide her food from Tanis and spare me the time of making sure she didn't find a place to hide it that Tanis couldn't get to and having it rot.


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## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

I feed lucky all her bone-in-meals such as thighs/drumsticks/wings etc in her crate because otherwise she will wander round for ages with it in her mouth looking for somewhere "safe" to eat. Basically anything that she can't eat out of her bowl she eats in her crate


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## Celt (Dec 27, 2010)

We use chicken necks, because the brats can strip the meat off the other bones.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

Tiffa does not do well in the crate once that door shuts. No matter what is in there with her, she barks and yelps frantically to get out.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

This sounds more like a behavior issue more so than a food issue. 

I would restrict her access to areas outside the kitchen (or wherever you dish out food) while feeding. Give her 15 minutes to eat whatever you give her wherever you choose to feed her. Keep an eye on her and if she doesn't eat it wait a few hours and give it to her again. 

Dogs that go and hide food are almost always showing signs of some behavior issue like resource guarding. Or it's a sign of overfeeding (Shiloh used to do this when Jon and I first started dating...she was a bit of a chunky monkey!).


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

I think it's an over-feeding issue, which is why I'm trying to find smaller bone in meals to feed her. It's rare to find chicken necks in the stores. The friend I had at the butcher shop no longer works there, and is no longer a friend. We are running into a behavior issue with her not wanting to be restricted these days. She wants to be everywhere Tanis and the cats are. I was thinking about getting a play pen that's bigger than the crate but gives her a place where she knows no one will steal her food.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

You know, now that I've typed this out and read the replies - I think I've seen the solution. I'm going to search craigslist for some gates or boards to block access from the kitchen. If the cats can still get in and out while she's eating, then maybe she won't feel restricted but yet safe from Tanis stealing it from her. No where for her to bury it in the kitchen so all she can do is eat it and be done. Thank you for the replies!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

That sounds like a great idea. 

Have you looked into Cornish game hens? Maybe find a butcher that can order a whole case for you to buy at wholesale cost of just a bit more for their time?


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## trikerdon (May 14, 2011)

mischiefgrrl said:


> You know, now that I've typed this out and read the replies - I think I've seen the solution. I'm going to search craigslist for some gates or boards to block access from the kitchen. If the cats can still get in and out while she's eating, then maybe she won't feel restricted but yet safe from Tanis stealing it from her. No where for her to bury it in the kitchen so all she can do is eat it and be done. Thank you for the replies!


There are a bunch of nice ones on Ebay.com i.e. baby gate | eBay
I just purchased one that has a little door so the cat's can get through but the dogs can't. Of course my cats just go between the bars. It has a open/close gate on it also which locks when closed. Carlson extra wide walk thru pet gate with pet door NEW | eBay
It is adjustable as far as width goes.


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## Mollygirl (May 14, 2011)

This is your dachshund you are talking about, right? If it is it is their trait. Johonna was the same way and Pinky does it too. They want to bury their food for later. Does she run and place it somewhere then run back to where the other dog is. Pinky is really bad about it. I usually give them chicken quarters that I cut up. She will take the leg and run off, drop it and run back trying to get more. I know I'm not overfeeding because I only feed them once a day and I would think she would be starving. But she does this everyday. I will give her a little meat scraps but I tell her she better eat it or I will put it away. If I don't pick it up, sometimes she will sit their forever guarding that chicken. Johonna used to grab food and go bury it in her blankets for later and she was the only dog we had at the time so it wasn't that she was scared someone was going to eat it. She will eventually eat it if she sees all the other dogs done and no more food is coming. She doesn't have any trouble eating the bone. She does the same thing if I give her a thigh or other parts of the chicken too.

Maybe some other dachshund owners will chime in and see if their dog does the same thing because I've only had 2 but they both behave the same way and they never knew each other so they couldn't have picked up the habit from each other. I'm pretty sure this is a dachshund thing because my other dogs don't do it, they immediately take what I give them and eat it.

I was just reading about the gate, I have a baby gate that has hooks drilled into the wall so it can stay hooked and can swing like a door when I want it open, then it will hook when I want it closed, it was the gate we put up for my son when he was a baby to keep him out of the kitchen. Since we got all these dogs I got it out of storage and put it back up. It works good now that Ginger has grown, before she could slip right threw the holes. I use it to keep them in the kitchen or Pinky will be running all over the house with her bone trying to hide it.


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## Boxers&Pom's Mom (Jan 17, 2011)

I have a six months Pomeranian and I need to smash the bone if not she do the same thing as Tiffa does.


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## tem_sat (Jun 20, 2010)

My Doxie does not do that. I put down a hand towel on the kitchen floor, drop his chicken (wing, drum, back, thigh) on the towel, and he will finish it without moving from the towel.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

Mollygirl said:


> This is your dachshund you are talking about, right? If it is it is their trait. Johonna was the same way and Pinky does it too. They want to bury their food for later. Does she run and place it somewhere then run back to where the other dog is. Pinky is really bad about it. I usually give them chicken quarters that I cut up. She will take the leg and run off, drop it and run back trying to get more. I know I'm not overfeeding because I only feed them once a day and I would think she would be starving. But she does this everyday. I will give her a little meat scraps but I tell her she better eat it or I will put it away. If I don't pick it up, sometimes she will sit their forever guarding that chicken. Johonna used to grab food and go bury it in her blankets for later and she was the only dog we had at the time so it wasn't that she was scared someone was going to eat it. She will eventually eat it if she sees all the other dogs done and no more food is coming. She doesn't have any trouble eating the bone. She does the same thing if I give her a thigh or other parts of the chicken too.


Yes!!!! This is exactly it!!! I can see her little brain working as soon as I set her food down! She actually will wait while Tanis is eating his and watch him before she will go to her own bowl and grab hers.



trikerdon said:


> There are a bunch of nice ones on Ebay.com i.e. baby gate | eBay
> I just purchased one that has a little door so the cat's can get through but the dogs can't. Of course my cats just go between the bars. It has a open/close gate on it also which locks when closed. Carlson extra wide walk thru pet gate with pet door NEW | eBay
> It is adjustable as far as width goes.


I LOVE this gate! The only thing I can see going wrong is Tanis trying to stick his head through the little dog door and getting stuck. He's gotten stuck under my bed before trying to squeeze his big head in there. Ever seen a picture of a little boy stuck inside of a toilet seat with the ring around their waist like a hula hoop and you wonder how the hell they got in there? Tanis is that little boy....


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## Paws&Tails (Sep 3, 2010)

I feed bone-in rabbit pieces, which are much smaller and better suited for a meal for Spike, occasionally quail (that stuffs expensive), or bone-in cornish game hen pieces or sometimes chicken drumsticks if they're small enough. Lately I've been finding a lot of really small ones.

I feel like I'm forgetting something....


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## funshine (Jan 21, 2010)

We just tried a new type of pork which is riblets. I have bigger dogs, but these are kind of like slices of pork with some bonish/cartilageish "coins" in them, not cut or sharp by any means. I think those could work since you could cut the slice into as many "coins" size pieces as you want. Those "coins" I'm trying to describe are about size of a dollar coin, a bit bigger than quarters.
Here's a picture of a stack of riblets. The bone coins are those light color parts.
Just an option in case you have something like this available :smile:


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

Well, tonight I moved the baby gate from the bathroom (to prevent litter box snacking) to the kitchen for meal time. She was a little concerned at first with the gate and then she realized Tanis couldn't get in and she was still not in a crate. She's nomming now on a thigh very happily. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that I could gate off the kitchen until now. Duh. I'll get a more permanent (swinging) gate this weekend.


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## lucky (Jan 8, 2011)

Glad to hear you have a solution


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## schtuffy (May 17, 2010)

Glad the gate helped! I mainly feed wingies/drummies for bone-in meals, but I also feed duck wings, bone-in rabbit, and lamb riblets (4-5 inches long). It's fairly obvious that Louis doesn't like the rabbit though. He will eat it, but very unenthusiastically, so I don't feed it often. If you can find lamb riblets, they work great! Louis is 11 lbs and can chomp the whole thing down no problem. If I'm lucky I can find them for a decent price.


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## hamblekg (Feb 1, 2011)

Just a thought - have you considered quail? They are very small and if one equaled a whole days weight - they should be fairly easy to cut or pull in half. I have 2 pugs and weigh almost all meals. One gets a total of 5.3 ozs a day - so that makes for 2 very small meals. Ground turkey or chicken (very lean) are sometimes a good treat and although human expensive, they eat so little that it makes it something they do get once in a while. ttfn


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## trikerdon (May 14, 2011)

Finely got a hold of some pork spareribs. Gave her one last night. She gobbled it down (chewing the bone) So no more beef ribs for her even though she normally just chews the meat from them without trying to chew up the bone. I'm afraid she will hurt her teeth on the beef ribs. I haven't found too much of anything she doesn't like with the exception of fresh whole fish and beef livers. She does love canned fish though and chicken livers. Do checken livers have all the goodies that beef liver has?


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## Pimzilla (May 1, 2011)

I can't give you a definite answer to whether beef liver would be better than chicken liver, but my instinct tells me it's the opposite. Since the liver is the detoxifying organ of the body it would make sense to me that it's less toxins in a chicken liver than in beef liver.
I even started to feel a bit guilty buying beef liver last time cause it was cheap.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

The gate really is working well. This morning she wouldn't start her boneless meal until I put the gate up. Then she ate it just fine. She just gives me a little bark when she's all done. Last night there was still a big part of the thigh bone left when she barked to be let out. I automatically gave it to Tanis. I want to teach her that when she barks to be let out, she is done and there is no going back.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

My 2 4# girls eat Rabbit ribs/thighs/legs, and cornish hens as their boney meals. Ziva my min pin will actually eat chicken bones, Zoey however the little diva she is won't touch them. I usually feed my girls in their crates (which they are used to), and that way I don't have to worry about Ziva inhaling everyone elses meals as she eats in 1/2 a second flat (have tried all the tricks to get her to slow down) and she just loves Raw too much to slow down. Ziva is my power chewer and will attempt to eat anything, will even eat beef and venison ribs. Zoey likes her meals smaller.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

*sigh* the gate worked great for the first two days. Today, nope. She barked her little head off and wouldn't even touch her food. I took the gate down and put the food back in the fridge. We'll try again later. I'm determined to train her that this is where she eats and no where else. No running off with it and trying to hide it in my bed.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

mischiefgrrl said:


> *sigh* the gate worked great for the first two days. Today, nope. She barked her little head off and wouldn't even touch her food. I took the gate down and put the food back in the fridge. We'll try again later. I'm determined to train her that this is where she eats and no where else. No running off with it and trying to hide it in my bed.


Eventually it should work. I put Chelsy in the laundry room with her meals and close the door on her. The boys finish their food in minutes but Chelsy can take up to half an hour to eat and sometimes doesn't eat at all. If she isn't done in a half hour, I open the door and put her food away until the next meal. Usually she eats much quicker the next meal. She doesn't bark, but she does wander around and bang at the door so I can hear her and know either she's not going to eat or is all finished.


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## Paws&Tails (Sep 3, 2010)

mischiefgrrl said:


> *sigh* the gate worked great for the first two days. Today, nope. She barked her little head off and wouldn't even touch her food. I took the gate down and put the food back in the fridge. We'll try again later. I'm determined to train her that this is where she eats and no where else. No running off with it and trying to hide it in my bed.



It might take a little while. This is what happened when I first started feeding Spike on the deck. All he did was bark at the door with his meat at his feet to be let back in, so he could hide it in his crate. I don't even remember how long it took, but now he eats it merrily on the deck.


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## mischiefgrrl (Oct 28, 2010)

Thank you for the support on this:grouphug: She's in there again now. She dumped her bowl over and tried to bury her food that way and I stayed in the kitchen with her until she started eating. She still didn't finish it and is barking to be let out now so the rest will go back in the fridge until later. I've never had a dog that was so stubborn about food!


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