Raw Food

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote

| Marina wrote:
| Pat wrote:
| "Kelly Greene" wrote
|
| | I'm hoping my 2 girls start to eat the raw poultry bones.
|
| Raw poultry bones are as dangerous as cooked ones, for both cats and
| dogs. Please don't offer them. What you can do is pressure cook the
| bones for about 3 hours then smash them to mush and add that back into
| the food.
|
| Why would raw poulty bone be dangerous? Cats don't debone the birds they
| eat in the wild.
|
| And I'm sure feral dogs don't debone their poultry, either! I thought
| it was cooking that made poultry bones dangerous - cooking makes any
| bone brittle, but poultry bones are hollow (and very lightweight), which
| makes them prone to disintegrate into sharp splinters.

Those splinters are infinitely more sharp when raw.

Takayuki wrote:
Marina wrote:
Takayuki wrote:
I've heard that chicken bones are bad for dogs and cats because they
tend to splinter into sharp pieces when chewed.
Yes, cooked chicken bones become brittle and can splinter, but I'm
wondering what there is about raw bones that would make them dangerous.

I have to admit you know this subject so well that you'd think that
someone in your family studied bones for a living.

Hehee. Good one, Tak. Yes, I grew up in a house full of bones.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

Takayuki wrote:

Marina wrote:

Pat wrote:

Housecats in the wild don't kill big birds. Chickens are much, much bigger
than any bird your little kitties might kill.

Of course they are, but how are their raw bones dangerous?

I've heard that chicken bones are bad for dogs and cats because they
tend to splinter into sharp pieces when chewed.

But that refers to the bones of *cooked* chicken. They dry out and
become brittle during cooking.

Pat, are you saying that chicken bones are fundamentally different
from the bones of smaller birds, and that raw chicken bones are
dangerous to a cat, while the bones of a small bird would not be
dangerous, obviously, since cats kill and eat small birds, including
bones?

Joyce

--
It is better to give than to lend, and it costs about the same.
-- Unknown

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in
message ...

...SFAIK squab, aka pigeon, is considered "poultry", too...

In the UK, pigeon is a game bird, not poultry. Retailers need a
licence to deal in game, they don't need one to deal in poultry.

--
MatSav

"Pat" wrote in message
et...

"Kelly Greene" wrote

| I'm hoping my 2 girls start to eat the raw poultry bones.

Raw poultry bones are as dangerous as cooked ones, for both cats and dogs.
Please don't offer them. What you can do is pressure cook the bones for
about 3 hours then smash them to mush and add that back into the food.


I'm getting constant conflicting contradictory information about poultry
bones on these cat forums. I'm not giving them leg and wing bones, just the
soft rib type and from the chicken feet and necks. These bones, when raw,
don't splinter.

"Takayuki" wrote in message
...
Marina wrote:
Pat wrote:
"Marina" wrote

| Why would raw poulty bone be dangerous? Cats don't debone the birds
they
| eat in the wild.

Housecats in the wild don't kill big birds. Chickens are much, much
bigger
than any bird your little kitties might kill.

Of course they are, but how are their raw bones dangerous?

I've heard that chicken bones are bad for dogs and cats because they
tend to splinter into sharp pieces when chewed.

Apparently the bones that splinter and can cause a problem are the COOKED
long bones of the legs and wings.


I'd be more afraid to give something like a drumstick to a medium to a
dog, which would have the jaw power to splinter a chicken bone easily.
I would think that a cat would eat around large bones. I don't know
of any specific cases where chicken bones have caused a problem
though, so I don't know whether or not they're really dangerous, and
if so, whether it's something applicable to dogs, cats, or both.

"Pat" wrote in message
et...

"Marina" wrote

| Yes, cooked chicken bones become brittle and can splinter, but I'm
| wondering what there is about raw bones that would make them dangerous.

I've just finished gutting a rooster for the cats here. I cut into the
breastbone. If you could feel the edge of it, you'd never dream of giving
chicken bones to your kitties.



Then don't give it to your cats. If cats weren't well suited to eating
raw birds and poultry they wouldn't have survived as long as they did -
millions of years. Remember too that they don't "cut" into the breastbone
with a knife leaving a sharp edge. They eat the meat with the bones. Add
rabbits to the list as they're eaten all the time by feral cats. Their
bones will also be splintery if COOKED.

wrote in message
...

Pat, are you saying that chicken bones are fundamentally different
from the bones of smaller birds, and that raw chicken bones are
dangerous to a cat, while the bones of a small bird would not be
dangerous, obviously, since cats kill and eat small birds, including
bones?


Cats can and will kill and eat good size chickens, ducks, pigeons and
smaller turkeys. I've also seen them eat rabbits and wood rats. Cats are by
nature equipped to deal with the bones of these birds and animals.

"Pat" wrote in message
...
Smaller bones can be chewed up into tiny pieces by the cat. If you're in
doubt, cut up a small bird, then cut up a chicken, and compare. Split one
of
the smaller bones of the chicken with a sharp knife, feel it, then ask
yourself if you want that going down your cat's throat.


Cats do not cut up their prey with a sharp knife.

"Kelly Greene" wrote

| I'm getting constant conflicting contradictory information about poultry
| bones on these cat forums. I'm not giving them leg and wing bones, just
the
| soft rib type and from the chicken feet and necks. These bones, when raw,
| don't splinter.

Do yourself and your cat(s) a favor: break one of those raw chicken ribs and
feel the ends of the bone at the break.