Did you speak with the butchers at the grocery stores and butcher shop and see if they could special order you chicken necks? If not, that would be worth doing. Also, ask them if they know of any chicken farmers or processors in your area from whom you may be able to buy necks directly.

If you have any Asian markets nearby, check with them, too.

Ask your vet and area groomers and kennels for the names of other raw feeders. Then see if you can get together with them to make a bulk purchase of the meat products you need.

The only way I can get chicken necks is to special order a box of 40+ lbs of combined chicken necks and backs from a local grocery. Not a problem for me since I feed 3 dogs and 15 cats raw meat, so I go through it pretty quickly.

I would think a mini dachshund should be able to handle raw chicken wings or cornish game hen without any trouble, if you don't want to fuss with trying to source chicken necks.

Laurie

laurief- Thanks for some ideas. I live in a small rural town- no professonal groomers here! And only a couple vets. There are no butchers here- I called a town about 120 miles away, but they said they can't get necks-they buy chickens from large processors; companies such as dog food/livestock feeds buy the necks/remnents by bulk from the processor to put into feeds. You would think somebody around here would raise chickens for meat, but I can't find any- this is cattle country- not chicken! The advice for cornish hens might work- I'll ask the vet if that would be ok. Same goes about wings. Because I have not given this before, I am not sure which is safe.
I have found frozen/ground up necks, online, but this seems to defeat the purpose for cleaning teeth.
Thanks

Call your local feedstore. They should know who raises chickens in your area.

Even cats can handle cornish hens and chicken wing tips, so your dog should have no problem with them. As a general rule, larger bones like wings are safer than smaller bones like necks because the larger bones force the dog to chew and crunch the bones (which is also what helps clean their teeth). With smaller bones, dogs may be inclined to gulp them whole.

Remember to never EVER feed cooked bones - raw only. Cooking makes bones brittle, and brittle bones can break into sharp pieces that may perforate the digestive tract.

Call your local feedstore. They should know who raises chickens in your area.

Even cats can handle cornish hens and chicken wing tips, so your dog should have no problem with them. As a general rule, larger bones like wings are safer than smaller bones like necks because the larger bones force the dog to chew and crunch the bones (which is also what helps clean their teeth). With smaller bones, dogs may be inclined to gulp them whole.

Remember to never EVER feed cooked bones - raw only. Cooking makes bones brittle, and brittle bones can break into sharp pieces that may perforate the digestive tract.

laurie- Sorry- I guess you missed my post. This is cattle country, not chicken- it is too brutal/rural here to raise more than a few chickens- you have to have a heated house- this area does not have 'chicken farms'. Thanks though for the thought.

Raw bones are still prone to breakage and are usually sharper than when cooked. Why would your veterinarian tell you to give your dog something that dogs are notorious for choking on? Not only choking but damage to their digestive systems is also very likely. Those small vertebrae can cause a lot of problems.

There are much safer options for natural teeth cleaning, in addition to brushing or to replace brushing. Even though brushing is best. I brush my poodle's teeth once a day and she's 9 and hasn't had to have her teeth professionally cleaned yet.

minnamouse- Most vets promote a raw diet- including small, soft bones for dogs.
When a bone is cooked, then it becomes brittle and a danger to a dog.
Small bones such as chicken necks for small dogs, turkey for larger dogs. Look at a BARF diet- recommended by vets.
I do brush my dogs teeth routinely. Even so, a her breed nature-miniature dachshund- I still have day to day difficulty keeping the very back teeth free of food particles. It is a common problem with dogs with this type of mouth/teeth stucture.

Raw bones are absolutely not sharper than when they are cooked.

Dogs' teeth/jaws and digestive tract have no problem digesting them - they don't come out the other end recognizable. I've been feeding my dogs raw for over 10 years. The only problem I ever had was one dog who prefers to gulp her food rather than chew it. She had a turkey neck, and was down to the last 2", and tried to swallow it. It was thick enough that it got stuck momentarily. She was able to hork it back up, but I stopped giving her those anyway.

ilmbg - where do you live? Most vets that I know of don't promote a raw diet. Either from lack of knowledge, or because they are concerned that people will not take the time to research so the diet they feed their dog is overall balanced. I did have one vet who wanted to read the books I had about feeding raw, and my current vet is impressed with the health of my dogs. She didn't expect their blood panels to look so normal :)

I have a small standard dachshund (20 pounds). You can give your mini chicken wings - the whole wing, not those drumettes. Just always supervise as you would with any chew toy or bone.

If your dog has never been presented with a raw bone, you may encounter a "are-you-crazy" look from him. Also, if you have always fed kibble that is just swallowed up and your dog is not used to chewing food, and he tries to swallow the whole piece - hold one end and give him the other. He will quickly "get it" that he needs to chew and break the bones with his teeth.

If he has never had a raw bone, he may not have the jaw strength to break the bone. That's okay, the scissor action he will need to use to chew through the skin and flesh will also clean his teeth and give him a little workout.

Another thing that may happen is that your dog will think you are giving him a great prize and he will go looking to bury it somewhere or eat it hidden in a quiet corner. So give it to him outdoors or on an old towel and make him stay there and not carry it around the house.

When a friend fed raw to a new rescue dog, the dog wanted to hide his bones in the houseplants, LOL. Not so funny though, is that the dog thought it was "prize" enough to start growling - food guarding. So he had to be trained not to do that.

Give us a followup - I am curious about how dogs who are not used to it react and adjust to their first raw meaty bone. People ask me from time to time, and all dogs are different so it helps to have more information.

If he takes to his wings well, one day try cutting the bone out of a raw t-bone steak and giving it to him. He will think he has gone to doggy heaven. (Any harder pieces he is not able to chew in one sitting take and throw away.)

When I switched my dogs to raw late last summer, the transition from kibble was ridiculously simple. They took to raw like it was what they should have been eating all along, which, of course, it was. I only encountered a few small problems. The first was that one of my dogs turned out to be a gulper instead of a chewer. I had to hold his bony piece and make him work for it so that he wouldn't try to swallow it whole. He still wolfs down his food, but at least now he chews.

The second problem was with my Tasha girl who dislikes any sort of pork organ. She's fine with any other animal organ, but she dislikes pork organ. She also doesn't care for duck. She's the only dog with any sort of meat preferences or biases. Go figure.

The third problem was just a matter of figuring out what size bones my smallest dog (26 lb Lhasa mix) could handle. He has no problem with any chicken bones, but some turkey bones challenge him a bit too much. He also has a hard time chewing through tough turkey skin. He once choked on a turkey wing that he crunched up but not apart and ended up trying to swallow whole. He got half the wing down then started gagging and choking. I had to pull the whole thing back up and out of his throat, then cut it into safe-sized pieces and let him eat it again. Now I always remove and cut up turkey skin before I feed him smaller-boned turkey pieces. Fortunately, he has no such problem slicing through chicken skin.

Laurie

Thanks for all your experiences with the raw diet.
Things have changed a bit- right now I will not be doing a raw diet because I had a positive mammogram. If I have a long haul ahead of me, I might not have the energy to be buying/making a well balanced diet. I will have to see what happens with my health....

As far as balancing a raw diet, yep, it is a must.I have a friend in another state who gives each of her 10 dogs chicken/turkey(depending on dog sizes), necks 2 times a week. Otherwise she feeds Blue Buffalo, which is what I feed. She does the chicken/turkey just for dental cleaning- her dogs teeth are pearly white- even the older dogs.
This is more the route I am looking for- giving a chicken neck for teeth, even though I brush almost everyday. I do give vegetables and fruit. I rarely eat meat myself, so the dog getting meat is rare. She has had BIG bones- I had a rottie and a dane (they are gone now from old age- 15 and 13), so because I could not chance having one of the big dogs getting her small bone,so they all had big 'shanks'. She looked pretty silly dragging a 8 inch long, 3 inch thick bone around when she is only 9 pounds!!
Oh- I can't believe I left out the 'k' in 'neck', in the subject post... I really can spell decently- but my typing- well, that is another story..
I will just put this on hold until I find out if I will be dealing with breast CA.
Thanks again.

Oh, ilmbg -- my thoughts are with you. A close relative and several friends have been through breast cancer and are survivors. I just know you'll make it through with flying colors!

I'm not even going to get into a raw food diet discussion if I want to remain civil. Good luck with it though.

Ilmbg, Very sorry to hear about your health, I hope things go well for you. My oldest dog is on high quality kibble (EVO and Verus) and has an ocassional raw bone (1 to 2 times per week). He's nearly 14 and has no problem digesting these. The only reason he isn't on full raw like my female dogs is that he came to me at age 10 and had lost a lot of teeth already - just burns more calories trying to eat than he ingests :)

Minnamouse, there are pros and cons to both raw diets and high quality commercially prepared foods. Folks make up their own minds based on their research and their lifestyle. It's a choice and important not to disparage either choice. (It's cooked bones that are brittle and dangerous by the way.)

I have a 13 year old rescue chihuahua mix who has a lot of tartar on her teeth. I have had her teeth professionally cleaned by her vet about a year ago. She has since been diagnosed with kidney disease and I don’t want her undergoing anesthesia for another teeth cleaning. Will raw bones help her if she already has tartar? She has also had eight teeth removed