Questions about feeding my Labrador with raw meaty bones

[sunshine_sieben]

So, I have changed my dog's diet from dry food to raw meaty bones as posted in one of the articles by Kelly.
Our local butcher sells bags of bones quite cheaply. They include lamb and beef brisket bones, ribs, etc. Not the huge thigh bones and stuff.
I also look at the meat section in the supermarket and if they have something there on special, I might get that. For example, on Friday they had turkey legs for $3 per kg. And lamb breast for $3.99
He gets chicken frames, too.
I also give him things like liver, tripe, beef tongue, beef or lamb heart. Whatever is around, really.
He loves raw carrot, so I give him one every day or so. Or when I cut up watermelon, I give him the skin as he loves it (I think cause it's cool and refreshing). When one of the kids doesn't finish their apple, he gets that, too (minus the seeds) and occasionally a bread crust.
I don't give him a lot of cooked table scraps as they usually contain onion and/or garlic and you're not supposed to give that to dogs.

However, I have noticed that the raw bones seem to break into shards that can be pretty pointy and sharp. I don't want to risk internal injuries.
Everything I have read says that only cooked bones should splinter. But I've seen these pieces and some of them look razor sharp to me. I thought maybe it's cause I had frozen them. But yesterday I gave him a fresh, unfrozen lamb bone and it still ended up in sharp pieces. is this normal?

I also noticed how his poo has changed. In a positive way. He seems to do smaller, well formed poos that turn white very quickly and are easy to pick up. They also seem less smelly. But today, while in the park, i had to pick up a very fresh one and felt (through the bag) that it was hard as a rock. I think it's good that they are firm as it helps with the emptying of the anal glands (Our last dog needed his glands squeezed manually on occasion - what a stench!!! ). But this was soo hard. It just didn't seem healthy IYKWIM.

Just to clarify, there was no red blood on his poo and it also didn't look like it had old blood in it.

What am I doing wrong?

[NaeNae]

HI Hun,

I am sure someone else can clarify things further for you but is this the ONLY thing he is being fed as a staple? I wouldn't think the raw meat and carrot/apple cores etc would be enough of everything he needs.

I am not sure what the post was that Kelly did but I would assume you'd be needing to supplement his diet with other nutrients to ensure he is getting everything he needs.

We use to cook our dogs food it would be all kinds of veg and meat and garlic (no oinion) and we always give them a small scoop of dry stuff. I am slacker now but I make sure they get a big marrow bone once a week.

If his poo's were hard I'd say something is missing in his diet as they doesn't sound healthy to me but I am no expert

I think the raw bone shards are fine even though they are sharp but again not an expert.

BOL

Nae x

[Miss.September]

We've had raw bones go sharp too. Maybe talk to your butcher about what you can give him. Our butcher sells lamb shanks as dog bones - but the problem with those are when they chew them down, on two occassions our beagle has ended up with the chewed bone wedged over her back teeth, leaving her distressed. As our dogs are smaller than your lab, we stick now to raw chicken necks when we give them a bone.

[sunshine_sieben]

NaeNae, this is Kelly's article:
Tinned Food - Shortening Your Pet's Life Span...
You could also look up Raw Meaty Bones. I think that link is at the bottom of the article.

Basically, the gist is, that dogs are carnivores, not omnivores like us. Hence a dog's diet should be mainly raw meaty bones (or whole caecasses), some offal, some whole fish, few table scraps. No dry food, no cooked food.
This makes sense to me and I have heard lots of people report that their dogs have really improved, especially when it comes to skin and coat. Ours seems to have some skin/allergy issues, so I thought it was worth giving it a try.

I have always included raw bones but I have since cut out the "typical dog food".
I do give him fish, too. And in the hope that it will help with his skin, he gets a cod liver oil capsule once a day (if I remember). The vet actually suggested this.

By the way, I don't give him apple cores. They can be toxic to dogs. If my kids don't finish their apples, I cut out the core and give the rest of the apple to Buddy (the lab). He loves them.