I sometimes give my dogs whole rabbits, but usually they prefer to "age" them for a day or two (or more depending on the weather) before eating them. When I butcher, they will take the feet, heads, and guts, and eat them fresh. They will also take any pelts that I am not saving.
The only time it is "messy" is when I do a bunch of rabbits (a dozen or more) and give them all of the guts at once- the cecum and stomach are eaten eagerly at first, but they are usually the only things left over from the gut bowl if they are fed a large amount. Inevitably, that stomach and cecum end up on the front porch. :?
I also sometimes give rabbit to the cats, and they always get any kits found dead in the nest. The chickens also enjoy the guts.
OnTheBrightside":1ic0nz3s said:
Cool! Have you heard of the Russian fur fox experiment, where they selected for tameness over many generations, and the surprising genetic changes that resulted?
The short version:
http://www.brighthub.com/science/geneti ... 46555.aspx
In depth article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/807641/posts
Dood":1ic0nz3s said:
My post sounds like I am opposed to feeding only meat and bones and that is not the case, what I am opposed to is shoving this method down new comers necks or telling me I am killing my dog because she gets a bit if apple, pear, carrot, squash, kale etc.. in her diet or repeating the mantra. "They don't need it " .
The drama and one sidedness is what I am opposed to. If your dog does well on meat and bones then great but my pup didn't and adding the fruit and veg helped.
I feed a grain free kibble, but the dogs also get a lot of leftovers... which usually means rice or pasta (grains, oh my!), cooked vegis, and cooked meat. My daughter's dog Basil loves fruit- apple, watermelon, you name it, she'll eat it.
I've also caught the pups helping themselves to chick crumble if the bag is not put in the galvanized can where it belongs, and the dogs will also eat chicken scratch if we feed it to the chickens outside of their coop.
Personally, I believe that dogs do need some vegetable matter- otherwise, why do they eat the poop of horses, goats, rabbits, and even chickens?
If you read the study about the fur foxes above, you will see that there are thousands of genetic changes that occur with domestication (quote:
They observed 40 gene differences between tame farm-bred silver foxes and aggressive farm-bred silver foxes, and 2700 gene difference between the two sets of farm-bred silver foxes and wild silver foxes. ), so saying that dogs should be fed just like wolves is probably untrue.
I am quite certain that early people did not give their dogs first choice at the carcass, instead feeding them any scraps that were available, including grains and vegetables.
