)It is ok to give them the chicken leg quarters WITH the bones, right?? As long as they aren't cooked? Just want to be sure!!
Yes, absolutely. Farmed chickens are slaughtered very young and have thin, soft (well for the dog's teeth & jaws) and very digestible bones, from head to foot.
2)Do I give them other things with their chicken right now? Like organs, fish, eggs, cottage cheese etc?? Or do they justget chicken(with bone?)?
It really depends on how your dogs are doing on the first few items you offered them. Some dogs have strong systems that never skip a beat when being transitioned to raw, their poops are beautiful from day 1. for others, it takes a bit of time to adjust, hence the precaution to initially limiting the variety of fresh foods given to minimize tummy upset. I'd go easy on the dairy, it can often cause gas and runny poops, fish is great and organs, go slowly here... your best bet is to monitor your dog's general reaction to raw, and go from there.
3)Is it too early to feed the whole chicken carcass?
nope, just make sure they don't gorge because overfeeding can cause runny stools (body ingests too much food and tries to get rid of the excess before all the water has been filtered out).
4)Should I be worried that Copper is swallowing large chunks? He's not chewing the food to his full potential. He normally chews his food really good, but yesterday and today he was inhaling the chicken!
Not a very good idea to gulp food, larger peices of bone are harder to digest than crunched-up bits. Many raw-feeders give frozen or half-frozen RMBs to their gulpers, to slow them down... you may want to try that. Plus the jaw, head & shoulder workout is much better!
5)One meal a day or twice a day?
entirely up to you and what your dogs prefer! easier on the tummy to feed twice per day but if your dogs are OK on eating once per day, go for it!
6)Copper weighs 80lbs - he needs to lose a few though. 1.5 lbs of food a day is good for him? He's not very active. Zoe weighs 52lbs. 1 - 1.5lbs for her? She is very active most days!
Again, feed about 2% of body weight in food per day (weigh stuff at first), and after a couple of weeks you will see where you need adjustment. You can feed leaner meats to Copper, for example, and fattier meats to Zoe, so they get plenty of food but still maintain proper weights. Cutting out carbs in their diet is a great way to turn that fat into solid muscle... give it a couple of months, you will be amazed!
