Cindy Haglund wrote in a message to Richard Webb:

CH> dogs because thoes dots who wouldn't hunt chickens wouldn't know
CH> what to do with the bones. Perhaps such as the Comfort Dogs. (The
CH> little ones).

Also, I forgot to mention that those poultry bones were *not* cooked in any
way when hunted by dogs.

 RW> Maybe so.  My vet back in IOwa back in the '80's argued against giving
 RW> a dog *any* kind of bone.  HEr argument was that in the wild dogs
 RW> didn't get enough of them to do them a lot of harm because they fed as
 RW> a pack. EVerybody got a little met, a little grissle, a little bone,
 RW> etc.

CH>  Yeah. In the wild in the home oh oh but they love those bones :) 

Yep, and I won't deprive her of them.

CH>  Dr. Fox (Micheal Fox) has a colunn in some newspapers. We don't get
CH> him so I'm trying to find it online. He's mentioned something about
CH> how when dogs buried a bone and dug it back up they'd be getting
CH> trace minerals they need and bacteria that aid in digestion much the
CH> same way the normal flora of human intestines do. So that's a 'side'
CH> effect of a goood chew for them. (Cleans teeth).

I've heard that elsewhere too.

CH> Now they say to keep an eye on the chew stick. Abbie loses interest
CH> in hers after awhile. Doesn't eat it they way Cosmo will if it's
CH> left with him too long.

Schatze likes those too, we get the big rawhide rolls too for her, all
sorts of things like that.

CH> No offense to your vet but I wonder if she had had a bad experience
CH> with a dog choking on a bone. I'd be leery too. But then I'd just be
CH> more careful about what kind of bone and to what size dog etc. :)   
THat's as I look at it.  Haven't used that vet since the '80's with Buddy,
as I haven't lived in Des MOines Iowa .

 RW> Schatze doesn't have any problem with them, but the vet used to tell
 RW> me if I was going to give bones to Buddy I should steam them.

CH>  A good idea. Though there's a plus about being raw .. um. I guess
CH> our dogs are getting as 'sentitized' to bacteria as we are as we'rea
CH> ll being super 'sanitized'. I'm sure you've heard of that issue. 

Yep, but I just give Schatze the raw bones.  I don't know, those
prepackaged knucklebones you buy might have already been boiled or
something.  Not sure.

CH> The raw bones didn't bother my terrier mixes but Cosmo's got a
CH> tender tummy. Did you know these small breeds (Shih Tzu) are said to
CH> have a very short GI track? Much shorter then the  medium/big
CH> breeds. They don't digest pork for example (nor corn for that
CH> matter)...

I've heard that, but don't know as much about the small breeds.  I've owned
DOberman mixes SHepherd mixes and ROtts as an adult. I know my sister when
I was a kid had that Pomeranian mix that had the tender gut.

 RW> ONe night when we were first displaced after Katrina and living in a
 RW> motel room we'd stopped to get a packet of CHurch's chicken. There was
 RW> one extra drumstick after the wife and i each had our share.
 

CH>  HUNGRY :)

 RW> Yet she had plenty of good food, at least once we took her from the
 RW> streets, and this ws over a year later.

CH> What do you think of this. It's said dogs often won't touch their
CH> food until you are done with yours because that's the order of the
CH> pack but I wonder if it's not in part anyway, because the dogs are
CH> waiting/hoping for some of our food first. heh. THEY KNOW it's
CH> better. lol. (Having had some from time to time.) Probally smells
CH> really good too.

I think it's a combination of both.  Pack conditioning, and hoping. 
Schatze sure exhibits that behavior.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+