Raw whole fish?

Yup! My dogs really don't like it, and give me all sorts of evil looks. I have to make sure that I get smallish, soft fish. Bigger fish (like where one fish would make a meal) seem pricklier, and they won't eat them (these are NOT picky dogs). They do fine with littler fish. I wish I could find raw sardines and anchovies, here.

Emma *does* like when I catch minnows and put them in the baby pool for her. It's fast food.

I know animals eat raw fish, but you couldn't pay me to give it to my dogs.  I fish a lot and i do all the cleaning and I have had some serious "jabs"  and cuts from the fish bones and had a couple of places get infected.  There is no way I would risk it with my dogs.  They could possibily eat it for years with no problem, but fish bones are small and very sharp when broken.

I would stick to canned sardines,mackarel,salmon.They still have all the essential fatty acids etc that fresh raw fish has,and truthfully i dont think there's an abudance of nutrients in raw fish that cant be found in the tinned varieties.

I've been DYING to give Ella some fresh, raw fish. But we live in Illinois, not much of what is safe for her to eat fish-wise, is fresh here. I buy canned salmon and mackeral. I want to get her oysters but I can never find any plain packaged oysters. They're ALWAYS treated in some way, like smoked or in with garlic or junk. UGH.

Maybe you could buy deboned raw fish at the grocery store, but that's expensive. I've also cleaned fish and agree with Sandra about the bones. Here's a link on what types of fish are safe to eat from the perspective of having the fewest pollutants;   [linkhttp://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=bestandworst]http://www.oceansalive.org/eat.cfm?subnav=bestandworst[/link].

If you want to give raw fish, fillet it first.  I fillet it and make sure there are no bones, but I also cook the fillets in microwave.  I should have said that with my answer yesterday, but I was thinking of just tossing a whole fish to a dog and visions of those sharp bones made me shudder.  Mine do get a lot of canned salmon and mackeral, but I really like to give them fresh caught, NO BONES, fish.
 
EDITED  A few years ago I had cooked up about 3 pounds of flounder fillets  I had caught that day for my dogs. Hubby got in off the road unexpected about 9:30 and there was nothing for him to eat, so he ate a grilled cheese sandwich and can of soup and for years has told everyone i feed him soup and sandwiches and feed the dogs $7 a pound fish.  At the time WHOLE flounder (gutted and gilled, but still with head and bones) was selling at our grocery store for $6.99 a pound and by the time you cut the fillets off, you would probably be paying about $8 a pound for what you eat. 

ORIGINAL: sandra_slayton

I know animals eat raw fish, but you couldn't pay me to give it to my dogs.  I fish a lot and i do all the cleaning and I have had some serious "jabs"  and cuts from the fish bones and had a couple of places get infected.  There is no way I would risk it with my dogs.  They could possibily eat it for years with no problem, but fish bones are small and very sharp when broken.

I agree with the filleting not only for the bones, but because fresh caught fish can sometimes have very odd things in their stomachs. Including hooks.

Actually, it can be harmful to give raw salmon to dogs.  Be sure you are educated before giving your dog anything, whether it's raw or not!

Small fish? Like, little bitty ones? Smaller than my hand, by a long shot?

I didn't think they were too dangerous....

I agree with the filleting not only for the bones, but because fresh caught fish can sometimes have very odd things in their stomachs. Including hooks.

 
You know I didn't think about that part as I have never given  anything other than fresh caught fillets or canned.  But MANY times I have found hooks  and even lures in the stomaches or throat of fish, especially toothy fish like flounder.  You can find odd things in theur tummies.  A friend of my son's caught a redfish that had a SHOTGUN SHELL in it's stomach.  I guess it was floating around, the sun made the gold  part glint (the shell was red with gold top) and the redfish just gulped it.  I caught one once that had a mess of sunflower seeds in his tummy.  I suspect some fisherman had spilled them.  Twice there have been reports in our paper of red fish being caught that had rats in the tummies.
 
Also I would not only be worried about the bones, but also the spines on the dorsal fins especially.  they are like darning needles and can puncture in a heartbeat.

Thanks guys. I did do some research, but you know, with raw food especially there's a whole lot of wildly conflicting stances. Fresh fish can be quite cheap, here. You can get mullet or leatherjacket for around 5-7 dollars a kilo. Salmon is not very cheap, here! My dogs will not be getting salmon, and especially not fresh salmon, and most especially not fresh salmon from the US west coast. [:'(] We have given them cheap frozen fish from the freezer section before, but I don't really like the huge degree of processing. I think I can convince my mother that canned fish is okay, though. She's happy enough to give that to the cats. I'll avoid big fish bones.