feeding raw rabbit as dog food

[Therese]

Wolves do eat the stomach of small prey like rabbits, but when feeding on larger prey such as deer they tear the stomach open and normally eat the lining but not the contents

Interesting...thank you!

 

[peteyfoozer1]

I haven't tried raw feeding yet, but am interested in doing so. Feeding the heads worries me- if they have fur on, wont the dogs develop an unhealthy interest (from my and the bun's perspective!) in the live rabbits? It occurred to me last night that instead of shooting the brain, it would be just as easy to shoot the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord, and hopefully the jugular as well. No lead in the head to worry about for the dogs that way, either.

I previously fed my Maremmas whole rabbits, ducks and chickens. They never killed any of the stock. They easily distinguish between a live and dead animal.

 

[Therese]

I previously fed my Maremmas whole rabbits, ducks and chickens. They never killed any of the stock. They easily distinguish between a live and dead animal.

I used to open up the carcass for our dogs....then discovered that they are perfectly capable of opening it themselves! ;-) We don't have problems with our dogs and stock either--Gr. Pyrenees, Maremmas, Komondor, Border Collie.

 

[rabbet]

We inherited a farm cat at one house. He crawled out of the box I put him in to take him to his new home and jumped out of the truck at 80 kmh. Showed up the next day back at home none the worse for wear. I figured he'd need to be put down.

At any rate where I live the winter weather can and does settle at -50C. If a person lets a cat go in and out of heated space at those temps the cat won't adjust and gets injured or killed by the cold. The cat was left outside. He grew about six inches of hair and lived comfortably in a burrow under the front step, with just a little round hole in the snow to mark his breath. If it went below -30 or so he'd basically hibernate until it warmed up.

Moral of the story though is we fed him all of our house leftovers except orange peels and onion scrap. All the soup bones (chicken mostly) and leftovers, veg peelings etc, mixed with bread crusts and rice and whatever and run through a meat grinder. Didn't matter if it was cooked or raw.

He actually preferred the higher veg content and was a very healthy tough little animal.

 

[eco2pia]

I used to open up the carcass for our dogs....then discovered that they are perfectly capable of opening it themselves! ;-) We don't have problems with our dogs and stock either--Gr. Pyrenees, Maremmas, Komondor, Border Collie.

I think this experience may be breed specific. My belgian malinois pup is clever enough to equate me carrying a rabbit into the kill shed from the rabbit barn with receiving yummy yummy snacks.

Luckily he is also clever enough to understand when I tell him a similarly sized cat is not for eating.

Solution recently when carrying a rabbit from the barn for a sale: "NO! Leave the kitty alone!" Instant disinterest.

I still would not trust him to know that he is not to kill if I am not there. His breed (and breeds like terriers, etc) are high prey drive dogs that instinctively go into kill mode when something runs. The cat does not run. The rabbits would.

And he DOES definitely know they are yummy. If that is a problem for your living situation I would recommend feeding only frozen and thawed skinned food, and not letting the dog see where that frozen food comes from. Your mileage may vary.