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cawkazn
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letting your dog hunt for his food
I think it's fine to let a dog chase down a rabbit as it helps build their prey drive. Allowing them to eat it after helps lock it in even more. We've let our dogs catch bunnies before and we have taken them home and butchered them and fed them to the dogs. And yes, raw is generally fine.
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    • C
      so i was reading some of your guys posts and it seems pretty cool to me to raise your own rabbits or guine pigs for your dogs to eat. has anyone ever thought of after raising them, letting them loose and actually letting your dog hunt for his food? and eating the rabbit raw is ok? what about a wild rabbit your dog catches, ok for him to eat that too? raw?
      • I think it's fine to let a dog chase down a rabbit as it helps build their prey drive. Allowing them to eat it after helps lock it in even more. We've let our dogs catch bunnies before and we have taken them home and butchered them and fed them to the dogs. And yes, raw is generally fine.

        • C
          i remeber reading somewhere that they say its better to have your dog work for his food, than just be given hand me outs
          • sure it is, its better for us too, whether farming or hunting.
            • at least tell the body its working for food by nice excersize to bridge meals. its harder to make yourself do it than your dog, lol.
              • giving them the organ meat and brain and eyes is very good for them too.
                • Nothing wrong with it. When you read about whole prey or Natural model feeding this is what they are talking about(minus the hunting). The only problem is every squirrel, cat & small dog is also on the menu. This can be a pain in the butt if you walk your dogs in town. :wink:
                  • kbcouch, why was it necessary to reply to this thread 3 separate times - even in a time span of 5 minutes? Do you not realize that there is an "Edit" option that one can use to add, remove, spell check content in their posts? ...or maybe you spent as much time looking into that as you have your knowledge of dogs. :lol:
                    • well xamen, because i wanst finished with my thoughts. thanks for tellin me about the edit option. let me tell you something , i dont have to defend my self on what i know or dont about DOGS to you ok. we each know what we do through our own experience. what i know is helpful for me.

                      • C
                        so would a full grown dog, that is about 100 lbs, need 1 rabbit a day or what? 2 guinea pigs a day?
                        • [quote=cawkazn]so would a full grown dog, that is about 100 lbs, need 1 rabbit a day or what? 2 guinea pigs a day?[/quote] 2% of Body Weight of the Dog is a gennerally accepted starting point. So, a 100 dog would eat 2# a food a day. From there you look at age, amount of excersize, if the dog is indoors or outside, dog's metabolisim. I'd tell you to start at 2#s and after a week look at the dog's condition and energy. I pay more attention to that than the scales. BTW - Those western Jack Rabbits are twice as big as our eastern bunnys. :lol:
                          • The only thing I would add to Platz's(frank) post, is that the 2% rule of thumb is for a normal dog who doesnt really go and work hard day in and out. It is usually between 3-4% of overall IDEAL conditioned adult weight that a highly active, say police or military dog, hunting dog or anything of the sort SHOULD get to maintain an ideal body weight in accordance to the line and amount of work the dog does. Hope that helps Mike
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