Marrowbone

[punter]

Simple question- I got some fresh marrowbone on offer, I have frozen it. Can I give it to my 18 month lab as raw, frozen or thawed? Or should I cook it? Thanks for reading!

[ProudAsPunch92]

They're really bad for their teeth, and pretty unsafe but if you supervise and don't mind his/her teeth getting a bit ruined then I don't see why not. (That wasn't supposed to sound pompous as it came out lol).

[toboldlygo]

I am going to say exactly the opposite - small risk of tooth fracture but otherwise they are wonderful for teeth in terms of cleaning and far safer than any cooked bone or some of the processed chews.

[pigsDOfly]

I'm interested to read your response proud as I'm a bit confused about bones.

I've never given my dog bones but know an awful lot of people who do - raw obviously. And people who feed a raw diet give whole chicken wings as far as I can gather, so is it just marrowbones that are unsafe or bones generally?

I often feel I'm being mean but I'm too concerned about splinters, even more than damage to teeth tbh.

[tabulahrasa]

Weight bearing bones - legs and what have you are quite dense, so there is an issue with tooth wear and the possibility of chipping or breaking a tooth...but that's the same as with stag bars or hard chews or half the things my dog tries to chew that he shouldn't, lol.

They're hard to get into, so if you're raw feeding they're recreational bones rather than food.

Pro-raw feeders say that other bones are digested or occasionally passed if they're is a slightly too big to digest bit absolutely fine as long as they're raw.

Anecdotally I can tell you that my dog eats chicken carcasses, all sorts of necks and ribs, chews, swallows and digests them fine.