BARF thighs or wings best?

[dumbbird7]

Jack, now 20 weeks old, has gone fully onto raw feeding and loves it. Beef chunks, mixed offal mince, some chicken, lamb & beef bones with meat and gristle if he's lucky.  However I am wary of offering chicken wings until he grows his 'noo toofs', which I think he's in the middle of now.

My neighbour says chicken thighs bones are softer than wings, and have more meat on them.    

Interested to hear any view on this please.

[GentleLake]

I don't think it's a question of what's best, but what you're aiming for in feeding each.

Wings have a much higher bone to meat ratio, while the opposite is true for thighs, which have a much higher meat to bone ratio. That would be a consideration depending on what meat to bone ratio you're going for.

Then there's the makeup of the meat. Light and dark poultry meat are 2 different kinds of muscles with somewhat different nutrient profiles. Thighs are dark meat, which has higher concentrations of fat (more than 2x than in light), iron and calories (+32 cal/oz) in the meat and more collagen. Light meat chicken is a better source of the B vitamin niacin, while dark meat chicken is a better source of the B vitamin thiamin. Dark meat chicken has more iron and zinc, but light meat has more magnesium.

Ideally then, you'd want to feed both types of meat to the dog for a better balance of nutrients, but wings aren't going to provide all that much light meat. Whole chicken cut up into meal size portions is the best choice.

And I dunno if it's the same for you as it is for us in the US, but if it's a consideration chicken wings also tend to be more expensive then either thighs or whole chickens.

As for bone density, I'm not sure if wings are harder or not. But as long as the dog isn't swallowing them whole, a risk for smaller pieces of raw meaty bones, it's not really an issue. Your dog can easily digest raw chicken bones of any type.

FYI: BARF isn't synonymous with raw. It's an acronym for Bones And Raw Foods, a specific style of raw feeding that relies more heavily on feeding edible bones and vegetables than other approaches, such as prey model.

Edited November 5, 2018 by GentleLake
Corrected "boned" to read "bones" in the final FYI:

[Lawgirl]

7 hours ago, GentleLake said:

FYI: BARF isn't synonymous with raw. It's an acronym for Boned And Raw Foods, a specific style of raw feeding that relies more heavily on feeding edible bones and vegetables than other approaches, such as prey model.

Interesting - here in Australia I had heard of BARF as an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food

[GentleLake]

Lawgirl, you're right. Thanks for correcting me.

Some people do define it incorrectly as "bones and" and it's been so long since I've had reason to parse it out that I mixed the 2 up.

[dumbbird7]

Thanks for all your replies everyone, here in UK BARF is generally assumed to be bones and raw food, although trawling the websites, (UK and worldwide), BARF seems to be a flexible acronym, but I guess it near enough means the same thing the world over.  Gentle Lake, re your brilliant reply, I think I shall feed alternate wing and thigh.  Here, wings are cheaper than thighs, but will alternate, hopefully to get the optimum nutrition. Had no idea the nutritional values varied, but common sense would suggest that of course they must in some way.

BTW, most of our new teeth have appeared overnight.  I am amazed. The Old Man has beautiful white teeth (my pride and joy, sad woman that I am) and sweet breath well into his dotage, always commented on by other owners whose dogs have dirty teeth, gummy gums, and breath that would strip paint. Vet says 'Do you clean his teeth?' Whaaat?  Have trouble bothering with cleaning my own, let alone Dodi's.  Life's too short...

[dumbbird7]

Just had a thought - if it's Boned and  Raw Food, does that not suggest that  the raw food has been boned eg. bones removed? Am I confused here?   

[terrecar]

5 hours ago, dumbbird7 said:

Just had a thought - if it's Boned and  Raw Food, does that not suggest that  the raw food has been boned eg. bones removed? Am I confused here?   

I always thought people were saying “bones and raw food”; with an “s” not a “d” at the end.  I could be wrong. I am definitely confused.

[dumbbird7]

Yes terrecar, to me it's always been bones and raw food.  It seems in other places around the world, Aus and US, it's boned...Different interpretations methinks.  Ask a butcher here for boned joint, and you'll most likely get a joint without bone in it.

[GentleLake]

I've never heard it referred to as "boned...", always "bones." And especially since BARF relies so heavily on bone content, I can't imagine that anyone would rephrase it to mean deboned meat and raw food. It just doesn't make sense in the BARF feeding recommendations.

...And I just looked back at my original post where I meant to correct my mistake and see that I mis-typed!!! I just can't seem to get anything right with that so-called correction. Sorry.