Real Ham Bone

What about rabbit? Our local supplier has rabbit. Do rabbits carry salmonella typically? This supplier has rabbit pinkies too, although I could see him wolfing those down nearly whole. I might have to hold the other end (ewwww!).

I'm still not over the concern about salmonella. It sounds like chicken necks or backs would be a great place to start, if only I could get over this fear. I read that they carry salmonella in their saliva from eating raw (written by a proponent of raw feeding), so does that mean all his toys are going to have salmonella on them?

Like I said, I really mainly just want to do this for teeth cleaning, so if rabbit isn't normally a salmonella meat, then I could just stick with that and give him a meal of it maybe twice a week.
 
There is no such thing as a "salmonella meat" or a meat that is more or less prone to carrying bacteria. Every meat has the same potential for having bacteria on it. It all comes down to how it was slaughtered, butchered, and stored before consumption. If you are purchasing from a grocery store or good quality butcher, then no worries. No guarantee that there won't be salmonella on the meat, of course. But it won't be there in sufficient quantities to make your dog or your family ill.

You want to imagine something scary ... chances are, your television remote, phone handset, or computer keyboard have more bacteria on them than your toilet seat. Have we all died yet? Nope! Every living being sheds bacteria ... people, dogs, cats, birds, cows, kangaroos. It's what we do. You will never find a piece of meat that is free of bacteria, just as you would never find a slice of bread or a glass of milk that is bacteria free either.

There are good bacteria and there are bad bacteria. We NEED BOTH the good and the bad! The good keep us healthy, exposure to the bad helps us build immunity.

As for the rabbit ... That is a wondeful option for feeding the dogs! Whole rabbit is just about as species appropriate as you can possibly get. If you have access to affordable rabbit, then by all means feed it. I am jealous, it is next to impossible to get rabbit around here without taking out a second mortgage on the house. Rabbit will be completely edible for the dogs, bones and all, so let them go to town!
 
Thank you Dayna--you've been a great help! I just visited your blog and got to see two beautiful Shelties! Romeo looks like Wolfie, but yours has longer hair where the dark points go down the mane.

I wouldn't say the rabbit is cheap, but it is readily available. I'd like to try it first, even before chicken. A quartered rabbit that is skinned and gutted, with meat, bone, organs (no head) is $13.95. It's about 4 pounds. That should make a lot of meals for my boy, so it's worth doing.

I'm also going to try the pork hocks, maybe second.
 
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