Ox Tails and Hamburger?? Can They Have This?? (retriever, clean, cleaning)

[CheckingThingsOut]

I have given my dogs some beef marrow bones from a pet store that were raw and grassfed. Today I was cleaning out my freezer and found older ox tails (from 2008 and 2009) that have been frozen since. There is also some ground beef from the same source which is a farm that is grassfed and grain finished, hormone free. Can I give any of this to them? If so should I cook it first. They are on a mostly kibble diet with some packaged raw Northwest Naturals (from grandma) once in a while. What do you think?

[freesiia]

If your dogs have never had raw meat, especially beef, then I'd start very slow or you'll end up with dogs with diarrhea. I would give them a ox tail - more bone than beef - and let them start with that.

[jimboburnsy]

I can't figure out why oxtails are so danged expensive, but my dog has been through lots of them. Just administer raw and the dog will work his/her way through it.

[MAK802]

I've never given mine ground beef, so can't comment on that. But the oxtails are totally fine! Just make sure the bone is too big to swallow.

[CheckingThingsOut]

Thanks for the help. I will defrost them and give them to them. Theyw ill be sooo happy!!

[Starwalker Fallen Angel]

Raw? Personally I've never given the dogs anything raw. But we live on a farm. I don't want them getting the taste of blood.

[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by Starwalker Fallen Angel

Raw? Personally I've never given the dogs anything raw. But we live on a farm. I don't want them getting the taste of blood.

I was extremely worried about feeding my dog raw since he was to be a hunting retriever and those aren't much good if they take a percentage of the birds you shoot.

A friend who has trained up some well titled hunting retrievers basically blew me off when the subject came up. He feeds raw whenever he has offal from game animals, including ducks and geese. That still blows my mind (my dog doesn't even get to look crosswise at duck meat), but he's never had any problems with his dogs eating birds or, for that matter, anything that they aren't supposed to eat. They either don't make the connection between whole birds and bird guts or they understand that they are not to partake without permission.

I don't feed my dog raw anymore other than bones for teeth cleaning (that really does work quite well) or if I have organ meat or ribs too lean for cooking from deer, but my experience has been that "blood taste" is mostly myth.