Feeding dogs elk meat and Elk bones?

[lamrith]

I know antlers are a good chew item for dogs, but what about some of the other bones?  Maybe femur?  Butchering up my elk now and want to make sure the 4 legged family member gets to enjoy it like the rest of us. 

I have given her a few scraps of meat and trimming as I butchered and while she inhaled it, she seemed to have a hard time with it afterwards.  Coughing/gagging like she was not able to swallow it, anything special people do with natural meat feeding?  limit silverskin etc?

[Stein]

Both our dogs love game meat except liver which they won't touch.  They gladly inhale the most nasty, blood shot, hairy pieces I give them and they haven't had any problems at all.  I usually bag up the trimmings that used to go in the garbage.

[jackelope]

Look into raw feeding. It’s not something you just dive right into.  You have to ease them into it. It can disrupt their bellies.  We send some rabbits to folks who feed raw. It’s getting pretty popular. I imagine chewing on the bones would be ok if they didn’t have a ton of meat on them. I’d just be cautious introducing a bunch of raw meat to a dog not used to it.

[jackelope]

https://www.caninejournal.com/raw-diet-for-dogs/

 Side note. Some of those folks I know of who feed rabbit will give their dogs the whole (dead) rabbit, skin, head and all and let the dogs figure it out. They swear by it.

[Stein]

Yeah, good note.  We feed it as a supplement or treat, not a pile of it to replace meals.  Dogs don't seem to like diet changes for sure.

[JKEEN33]

I cut all the scrap into edible size and boil it. I put the soup, water and all into jars and freeze it. I put this on their regular dry food like gravy. They love it. I cut the liver up into chunks too and boil that. They get pretty upset when we run out.

I don’t give my dogs bones.

[Mudman]

I was feeding my dog old freezer burnt burger, cooked barely.  I got in trouble as he grew 21lbs in less then a month.  Vet was MAD!  Claimed too fast growth rate for bones etc.  So I slowed it up.  Dogs love all of it, larger bones are better/safer imop.  My dog crushes femurs one bite!  Chewing on beef bone now...

[greenhead_killer]

I smoke the leg bones on deer/elk for my dog. Smoke for 12-14 hours to break the bones themselves down, leave whatever meat is there in during smoking, then vacuum seal and freeze for throughout the year. I also save any pieces too fatty for me for my dog. Cook them up for 8 mins and mix with his food until I’m out. He loves it.

[MR5x5]

We're part of this meat mafia... Dogs love it and definitely agrees with them.

https://www.wazzuor.com/

[bornhunter]

I was told years ago uncooked venison can give a dog heartworms.

[highside74]

I smoke the bones and then freeze them

[KFhunter]

Echinococcus granulosus

Heart Worms



I would, but I'd keep really on top of the parasite meds for the dog

[jackelope]

Pretty sure you'd have to introduce the parasite in order for the animal ingesting the meat to contract heartworm.

[john LaClair]

I smoke all my bones for my dog.

[brokentrail]

Raw meat doesn't transfer heart worms that I'm aware of, mosquitos do.  I dealt with it often in the Midwest with my coon hounds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirofilaria_immitis

Echinococcus granulosus are related to tapeworms, not heart worms.

The biggest thing is to not make a huge diet change at once.  If you are wanting to give them some, do so in small amounts and see how their system handles it.  Every dog is different, like humans, and you don't want the mess that a large diet change can cause, trust me