Swallowed a whole chicken leg...

lost1700 · #1 05-24-2007, 05:17 PM

Today I gave my guy a chicken quarter which I seperated the leg from the thigh (I guess) and some chicken necks. He took one bite on the leg then swallowed it, same with the necks. One or two bites and they went down. Is this okay? Will he be able to pass the big pieces of bone? Any advice on how to slow him down a little, he gets so excited about eating and eats a pound worth of meat and bone in about 30 seconds.

Thanks in advance

**gmacleod** · #2 05-24-2007, 05:31 PM

He should be just fine - most dogs only chew their food sufficiently to get it into manageqale shape for swallowing. And in the case of little things like that, it really can mean just one crunch.

It's normal enough for any carnivore. They do not have digestive acids in their saliva, so there is little or nothing to be gained from chewing (i.e. the digestive process starts in the stomach, not in the mouth as it does for us). Added to that, there is risk of tooth damage. Thus, their evolutionary strategy and the dentition developed accordingly, is for ripping chunks and swallowing them whole.

As for the bone, there's unlikely to be any need for him to be passing it. He'll digest it

Most especially tiny little things like chicken necks (an 8 week old pup will digest those just fine). If you want to teach him to take more time over his food though, and discourage gulping, you need to feed bigger items. Don't separate the chicken quarters - that's his job (and how he will get benefit for his teeth and gums).

lost1700 · #3 05-24-2007, 05:40 PM

your such a wealth of information about these dogs, much appreciated.

billyjoebob · #4 05-24-2007, 09:50 PM

gmacleod is correct!!

Your dog will be fine. Mine is a gulper also and rarely chews turkey or chicken necks more than a few times (just enough so he can fit it down his throat). He's never had a single problem and I've feed him hundreds of each.

BJB

dharmadoodle · #5 05-25-2007, 05:21 AM

I think they teach themselves too. I've noticed with Rogue that sometimes she regurgitates something she didn't chew properly, then she has another go. I know, it's gross.

She gets there in the end though.

lost1700 · #6 05-25-2007, 05:51 AM

It definitely scared me yesterday when the chicken leg went down, it was pretty big. I wasn't sure if they digested the bones or passed them, but since they can digest them I am not worried about how that big bone would come out.

This morning I took gmacleods advice and fed the whole quarter together and it took my dog a good 5-10 minutes to get it all down. He even got frustrated at one point, I guess since he couldn't gulp it down, and ate the necks and then came back to the quarter. I can definitely see how it is more beneficial for them to eat large pieces and have to naw on them for a while.

Thanks again for everyones advice.

SoCal Angela · #7 05-25-2007, 07:25 PM

I laughed at your last comment, my Dax also gets frustrated over me giving big pieces. My two aren't really gulpers but I change things up a lot so I am sure to give them things that they have to chew and break up for jaw excercise and teeth cleaning. Well, for the last two days, he's been getting a whole rabbit that I've cut into quarters...its a good sized rabbit and he looked at me like...do I really have to tear this up myself, mom? LOL. That's because they got some duck wings and ground turkey (got it cheap so I give it occasionally) before that...way to easy.

I don't worry about my two with the occasional gulping...I always supervise and I know it gets digested.

RachS · #8 06-04-2007, 09:42 AM

We have had some issues with this lately. Even if we feed tyler big, he swallows whatever is left as soon as he possibly can - even if it's still a big piece. What has happened twice in the past week is that the piece that he swallows is so big that he has trouble getting it down. One time he actually flopped over on his side and then whatever it was worked itself down. The second time (last night) he seemed like he was trying to throw it back up but couldnt and my husband had to put his finger in tyler's throat to get it out. The problem could be that sometimes his food is not totally thawed out yet so it's not as soft as it could be? Any advice on what i could do better would be greatly appreciated bc both times it has been terrifying.

SoCal Angela · #9 06-05-2007, 09:13 AM

Well there are two schools of thought on feeding partially froze vs thawed. I have a guy in my raw feeding coop that does partially frozen because he thinks his rots take their time chewing and then break down more. I haven't done this with anything except tripe and that just because it doesn't stink as much if it's not totally thawed. I give my two their meals usually totally thawed. I just leave it on the counter over night or from morning until I get home and then it's room temp which they prefer. I would either 1) try thawing completely or 2) just watching carefully to see if he works it out or 3) maybe hold it and make him chew from your hand when it gets to that point.

My female gets lazy sometimes and she will try to swallow large pieces...recently I gave buffalo toungue and she didn't want to chew so she swallowed a large piece, well she gagged herself, threw it back up and then chewed. It was sort of hilarious. I haven't had a time when they appear to be in danger so I'm probably a little ignorant in that sense but I let them work it out (while supervising of course). I really think my two learned better that way. So if you can stand it and he's not totally choking himself, you may want to see if he works it out. Remember that as long as they get it down, the digestion will take care of breaking it down so it's not terrible if they get big pieces down the hatch.

I hope this helps a little...