# Can you Chop Up Chicken Necks?



## MysticRealm (May 30, 2007)

From suggestions from my vet and reading positive things online I decided to try to give my dogs some chicken necks. Mostly to help with healthy teeth.
Well, I had too much of a scare today. My little 3.5 pound pom choked on a piece of his chicken neck! I saw him suddenly flailing about and thought initially he was having a seizure I quickly grabbed him and noticed he was choking. I had no real idea what to do but I felt like I could feel the food stuck in his throat so I gently massaged it and thankfully he managed to get it up and out right away! So scary!
So I was thinking about how I can avoid this. One solution is to take it away when it gets too small, but it was a pretty sizeable portion he attempted to ingest so I would be throwing away probably nearly half the chicken neck to be safe.
So I was thinking, good I chop it up into small pieces? Would that defeat the purpose of feeding it as a 'chew' to help with keeping the teeth clean as it wouldn't require as much chewing? What can you use to chop it up since it's got the bone in there?


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

If your dog is choking I would imagine the neck piece is too small and he tried to swallow it. You can try turkey necks instead? Or get a raw meaty bone like a pork femur; your dog may not be able to get into the bone but as long as it's enticing enough to keep him chewing, it's helping his teeth.


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## MysticRealm (May 30, 2007)

If he's able to bite through the turkey necks it will eventually get too small to the point he could choke again I would think.
I'm not sure how to feed those big meaty bones. It would take him days to get all the meat off (I gave him a lamb femur once and in like an hour of eating he'd hardly put a dent in it) and I don't think it'd be good to either, leave it out for days or keep thawing and refreezing it. Like I said, he's under 4 pounds.


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## Luxorien (Jun 11, 2014)

Edit: just realized you did say the purpose is dental care. Brushing their teeth is very effective. Greenies are maybe effective, but probably not worth the cost. There are other chews that are supposed to be good, but I haven't tried them.


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

In case anyone else is wondering; yes, you can cut up chicken necks, just a standard sharp kitchen knife is fine.


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## Hector4 (Sep 16, 2013)

Try a meaty bone like a rib covered in lots of meat.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

If chicken necks last long enough to actually clean teeth, about an hour, then you can anchor the end so he cannot try to swallow the end. I have used a vise grip but ended up buying a kong goodie ship for meat strips. Bucky is fine with meaty bone but swallows big chunks first and chews later which isn't a good thing and that works here. Or try forcing the end into a regular kong. Or freeze the stuffed kong. Kongs are hard to deal with if bone gets trapped inside, the goodie ship is easily cleaned. I've always gotten the last bit of bone out of kongs but there has always been a moment of doubt.

You don't want him to actually eat the big bone, just clean off the soft stuff. There is a bit of a learning curve to this. When I give my littles beef ribs Ginger, eaten raw 2.5 years. strips meat off in 5 minutes and Bucky, eaten raw 8 months, takes 1/2 hour. Then they chew some bone off then I toss the leftover part.

You can wash off the leftover and refrigerate on an open dish or freeze for later chewing. Right now the dogs are going through meat I bought last Thursday and it's fine left exposed to the air. Ground stuff that cannot be washed goes fuzzy after 4 days but whole meat lasts a long time because it can be washed. I'm not crazy about doing it but it is fine.

If you went out and bought that femur then that would be a waste tossing after one session, I wouldn't do that either. If you eat meat then buying roasts and boning them yourself makes for 'free' meaty bones. I do this with lamb and pork shoulder and leg roasts and for Christmas dinner we ate boned beef rib roast while the dogs got the meaty ribs. Works for pork ribs too of course. Pork or beef rib steak/chop might work but check that the bone itself is a good size. Usually they are cut at an angle so small and sharp.


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## MysticRealm (May 30, 2007)

Thanks. Great ideas! WOuldn't have thought of stuffing the end into something so they couldn't swallow the big end!


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