Benbobola: now i also have to add this. about 3 weeks ago, my dog killed a large bush rat and left it at the front of his cage in d morning. i praised him for doing it anyway and in my happiness and mood of ignorance, i cooked it for him. 2 days later, he was d sickest i have ever seen. i mean to the extent he was stooling stinking blood, he never ate, he rarely moved, had to be carried and lost weight terribly. A daily trip to the vet every morning for a week including sunday was wat stopped it (lots of antibiotics, vit supplements). it was hell, i tot he was going to die buh am so glad hes good now. so, pls lets watch wat our dogs eat. PLEASE. Thank you

Seun:
What do you think almost killed him?
- It could have been that the rat was poisoned, which made it easy for your dog to catch it. The poison could have caused the symptoms.
- It could also be that your dog was simply not used to eating lots of meat & bones all at once. Perhaps you'd been feeding him rice, indomie, etc. Perhaps you rarely gave him edible bones to chew on. In that case, if he ate the whole bushrat at once, and especially if he didn't chew the bones properly, then the bones simply would not digest in his stomach, and could go on to perforate his intestines. This would explain why he refused to eat and why he was stooling stinking blood (which is basically blood from the perforation mixed with partially digested poo).

There was a time I fed my dog a catfish from the supermarket. Sometime later, he started yellow liquid with drops of blood. I was really worried but I kept observing him and feeding him normal dog food. Finally he pooped what looked like the skull of a catfish, with yellow liquid, blood, and some blades of grass which he probably ate to cure his discomfort. After that, he was fine, and I'd learnt not to feed catfish to my dog.

Benbobola and Seun , I have often asked around for the reason why our locals advise against feeding dogs with bush rat intestine as well as that of some other animals that eat kolanuts, like antelopes, for example. The final result of my investigations on this was the same cautioning that dogs don't or must not eat kolanuts, which is developed as proverbial, at least, among the Yoruba. I discovered from my findings that bush rats and such other animals often eat kolanuts, which are poisonous to dogs. I don't know if anyone else has ever made similar enquiries that confirm this.

I'm guessing that this might explain all the responses on this stream of dogs dying after eating bush rats. If the concept is actually true, the bush rats causing death to the dogs may have eaten kolanuts and not synthetic poison. This could be a caution to advise that even if you allow your dogs to eat bush rats, make sure they don't eat the intestines.

And Seun , your dog stooling blood may have been caused by a punture of it's intestine by the cat fish strong bones. Dog breeders often advise that fish with strong bones should not be fed to dogs, except you are able to remove the long sharp vertebral bones. You may want to find out more about this from Vets.

Abyjah:
You'd do well in the field of canine poetry as a career.
Meanwhile, I'd like to see this dog you romanticise about if you don't mind.

Canine Poetry?? that's interesting.lol. Would post a pic later in the day

God bless Yoruba my language and culture... there's this Yoruba proverb which says "Aja ti o ba je ifun okete ti o baku, aya digbolugi, English translation - "Any dog that feeds on the intestines of a bush rat, if it doesn't die, it will become a mad dog". My own quota.....

Mine kills rats,lizards,and watever had d misfortune of wandering into d yard.I love d predatorial and hunting skills of my alsatian bt d caucasian just loves to bark!!!I doubt its ever killed anything cos of its size.the speed and intelligence of an alsatian is impressive!

My two little dogs in action, this is the third chicken they have hunted within 2 days. I don't feed them raw feed but they eat cooked chicken, turkey n meat often(they prefer it than canned feed). They also chase Lizards and Rats in the compound but yet to see a trace of a killed lizard or Rat. I don't know if its early to expose them to such acts. The GSD is exactly 4 month n Rott is about 2 month old.

Slyr0x: My dog killed this bush-rat like some days back. To dispose now became wahala 'cos of the whole Ebola scare. Had to wear gloves before I could even hold the "packer" to dispose the rat.

Looking at the image, seems the rat urinated in fear. Lmao

Idrismusty97:
Of course that is what a dog is meant for . I have pictures of two giant bush rat killed by our dogs. I was privileged to watch the second bush rat being torn apart. That was when i discovered bush rats fight back! We train pigeons so it wouldn't be funny watching him kill pigeons. He would received beating of his life in front of the dead pigeon so he would know what he did wrong.

Wrong!!! you don't beat a Dog...

Ishilove:

You have turned to an expert in animal psychology

When Ruggedman enters the house with his flies, we order him out. We say ''Rugged, out''. He will not obey the command until you clap your hands together and scream "RUGGED, OYA OUUTT!!" Which leads me to believe that he doesn't actually obey the words but the tone of voice. We have been using the command 'out' since the day he was born but he doesn't seem to understand. On the other hand, his mother Beauty understood us perfectly. We spoke to her like a human being and she understood. ''Beauty leave there'', and she would get up immediately. Pointing to pieces of fish or meat we are leaving unattended, we say ''Beauty, don't near there'', and she will stay away from the fish and meat (she would sit at a croner staring hungrily at them and drooling)

We never raised our voices, so Seun, I will have to partially disagree with your analogy.

Well Seun is perfectly right, your dog doesn't obey cause he feels he's higher than you in the hierarchy, be dominant positively.

We used to have a Dalmatian that could jump up and snatch low flying birds out of the air. It was really something to see. She has passed now.

Seun:

What do you think almost killed him?
- It could have been that the rat was poisoned, which made it easy for your dog to catch it. The poison could have caused the symptoms.
- It could also be that your dog was simply not used to eating lots of meat & bones all at once. Perhaps you'd been feeding him rice, indomie, etc. Perhaps you rarely gave him edible bones to chew on. In that case, if he ate the whole bushrat at once, and especially if he didn't chew the bones properly, then the bones simply would not digest in his stomach, and could go on to perforate his intestines. This would explain why he refused to eat and why he was stooling stinking blood (which is basically blood from the perforation mixed with partially digested poo).

There was a time I fed my dog a catfish from the supermarket. Sometime later, he started yellow liquid with drops of blood. I was really worried but I kept observing him and feeding him normal dog food. Finally he pooped what looked like the skull of a catfish, with yellow liquid, blood, and some blades of grass which he probably ate to cure his discomfort. After that, he was fine, and I'd learnt not to feed catfish to my dog.

obviously i'm really learning through all these

Slyr0x:
My dog killed this bush-rat like some days back. To dispose now became wahala 'cos of the whole Ebola scare. Had to wear gloves before I could even hold the "packer" to dispose the rat.

Looks like a drowned rat, especially since there is wound markings. Just saying.....: )

texanomaly:
We used to have a Dalmatian that could jump up and snatch low flying birds out of the air. It was really something to see. She has passed now.

Awesome!

Seun:
My dog killed a large rat (ekute) the first time he slept outside. Since then he's killed a pigeon and two tiny mice, also outside the house. He didn't eat any of them, even the ones he killed after I started feeding him raw chicken or fish every day. He almost killed a pigeon that got trapped inside the house in my presence, but I couldn't bear it so I opened the windows to let the pigeon escape. He hunts all small animals, including lizards (I've not had the privilege of seeing any dead lizard that he killed). I'm proud of his hunting skills; he's a good dog!

What about your dog? What kind of animals have your dogs killed? Did they eat them? Do you try to discourage them? Do you have pictures?

kerry killed this overnight