To ask you to settle a 'discussion' please. Can you feed dogs cooked bones?

[AtYourCervix]

Specifically a beef shin bone.

I give my dogs cooked bones but not from chicken. I feed then raw chicken bones all the time though. Chicken wings especially.

And I give them raw beef and lamb bones too, obviously.

Raw bones only. Never cooked, as cooking renders bone of any sort more prone to dangerous splintering.

Only raw. Ddog has had a raw chicken carcass for her dinner tonight with tripe

What my mums does is cook the bone in water and pour the water over dry dog food, then discards the bone.

www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm208365.htm

Dogs should have bones at all.

Shouldn't

I wouldnt give raw simply because I would worry about food pois

*poisoning!

PLEASE PLEASE do not give your dog chicken bones!!! They are the worst type. They can splinter and rip apart their insides.

No, I don't give my dogs bones, raw or cooked any more. They always seemed to crap in the house overnight when they had eaten a bone during the day.

Why the bloody hell do pets at home sell cooked 'ham' knuckles!?

Drives me mad.

Our dogs are fed BARF. They have bones all the time. Just not cooked ones, ever and not weight bearing ones. Chicken wings are fine, we freeze them and give them to them either thawed or frozen.

I agree with football PAH and all other sellers of animals food should be banned from selling cooked ham knuckles and the like.

Dogs have much more acidic stomachs than we do, so even though they can get the odd stomach bug, they are a lot less prone than we are. As a scavenging species they will often pick up and munch dead birds and other animals when out in fields, and those are certainly not cooked. They are normally OK (although most of us do try to stop them, as it is minging).

You can in fact get rid of much of the remaining risk from raw bones by freezing them for a couple of days first. That kills sufficient of the bacteria which could cause stomach upset in dogs, and it also means that the bones last them much longer too (no need to thaw, just give straight from the freezer).

The only bones I give mine are raw beef bones (the large shin bone) which I get from a local butcher. I freeze them and the dogs love them.

Sorry I don't know who posted this as i'm on my slow old phone, but why are pigs ears dangerous? Genuine question as my dog has a pigs ear twice a week and I thought they were fine for him to eat.

I was thinking about food poisoning for the human members of the family not the dogs! Freezing does not kill bacteria especially not salmonella or e.coli. Also you only need a tiny amount of e.coli or campylobacter to cause illness in humans therefore wiping raw meat over surfaces by allowing a dog to carry it round/chew. So cross contamination a real worry.

Feeding raw could possibly be an issue with young children however feeding outside or in a crate is a good alternative. Other than that you just deal with it in the same way that you do your own raw meats (cleaning up, washing hands) and everything should be fine.
On bones it really should be raw or none though, I know a dog that gets the chicken carcass every now and again off Sunday lunch and he has been fine but IMO it's really not a risk worth taking.

Dogs do get food poisoning.

Humans do also, if they don't use sensible infection control precautions. The dogs eat raw chicken in the garden. So cross contamination (in our house) not a worry.

I've fed raw to my animals for over twenty years. No cooked bones ever, just raw. Have a look at www.rawmeatybones.com/ by Dr Tom Lonsdale for some great information about feeding bones to your dogs.

No. Please do not do this.

midnite thanks for the link, we've fed the dogs raw for a while now, but it's always good to see new resources.

Another one here who learned a hard and expensive lesson! With the Christmas ham bone.

Please educate yourself.

I spent over a year wanting a dog for a pet, I knew I wanted a big breed so waited for our family to grow.

Once I had found our girl I had already looked into food and dry/wet dog food wasn't something I wanted to feed my girl,no different to not wanting to feed my DC proceeded food and fruit shoots.

We are fortunate that we have a separate fridge freezer for the family and Ddog.

Everything I feed Ddog is frozen, freshly found (including road kill) and I guarantee better than any bought dried/wet dog food.

Ddog enjoys her raw food much more than anything she ever had before.

Raw bones, carcass, necks, heart, feet, sheep heads plus her % v weight of chicken, lamb, beef mince including bone mince depending on her weight.

Was that neccasery InTheRedCorner. There's no need to stealth boast about feeding raw.

Inthered* That's pretty much how I feed mine, minus the roadkill, but I do add a bit of good quality kibble. I have often wondered about sheeps heads - how do you do it? Just give her a while one and leave her to it? Can they actually get into the thing?!