Is my 18 week old puppy able for bones yet ?

[elmofan]

Hi , i was in my local butchers yesterday & bought a strip of ribs for our pup , but not sure if they are safe now or not to cook for him . Would he be safe to eat bones yet or should i wait until he is older ?
TIA

no to cooked bones.

I feed my pup on a half barf (bones and raw food) diet. I started her on chicken wings. If you are worried about them bolting the food down you can hold one end with pliers or a gloved hand.

crunch crunch crunch

It's pretty cool to watch.

Don't raw food and kibble at the same meal.

I'm not sure about ribs to start with, they may be quite rich and give your pup the runs. Maybe just try one and then poo watch for a day [nice]

It depends what they are, lamb and poultry bones (though obv. it isn't chicken ribs ) can't ever be given cooked to dogs.

Some bones can but I think only large ones like beef shin., however I am not clear on this, I don't give my dogs any bones now.

Many people feed their dogs raw bones, chicken wings etc and some extend this to feeding exclusively raw food (google BARF) I was a huge fan of this until my friends Mum's border collie died of a perforated colon from a raw bone. There have also been cases of dogs dying from salmonella.

These cases are incredibly rare but I wouldn't feed this way again.

Sorry Slubber, cross posted, was not a reply to yours.

I know most dogs do fantastically on this diet, indeed all my breeders dogs are fed on it.

I am just understandably (I think) very wary now.

Thanks slubber & wherethe...

@ poo watch

They are pork ribs with lots of meat on them . Seemed like a good idea when i bought them for pup but then started to worry about him with the bones .
I grew up with my dad always cooking our family dogs bones & saying that dogs should never be given raw meat as its giving them the taste for flesh & might lead to them biting

Oh that is so sad Wildy

atm we are just doing chicken wings and carcasses as I'm confident that she is eating those properly and the bones (being non weight bearing) are very bendy and pliable even if they've not been crunched up completely.

It's a risk-benefit decision re going with barf.

lol @ raw meat giving a taste for biting

Quite a lot of barf feeders won't feed pork (not sure if it's a worm thing or a nutrition thing). I probably wouldn't start on pork ribs as it might upset pup's tum.

Wildy, i was very very wary too, had my heart in my mouth the first time I gave her her first wing. She doesn't bolt them though, I love wathing her methodically crunch her way through it all, so she'll be OK.

The benefit she gets from the food is worth the small risk for me.

Might try him with 1 piece slubber like you say & see how he gets on with that
thats what my dad used to believe , he used to get bones from the butchers for our family dogs & boil them for an hour before giving them to the dogs . I always thought chicken bones were a big NO NO for dogs as a choking hazard ?

< elmo needs re-educating on whats safe for dogs to eat >

I'd do some reading up on it elmo before you start. Lots of info out there on the net (not all agreeing by any means which adds to the [confusion])

afaik cooked bones are brittle and hard and splinter, hence become a choking hazard. That and all the good stuff it cooked out of them. Uncooked chicken wings are really bendy.

Even if you do it now and again they'll get a lot of benefit for their teeth with all the bone crunching

that should be

Thanks slubber , pup has lost 3 baby teeth & is chewing on everything he gets his paws on so ribs seemed like a good idea at the time . Will do some research before i give him bones . thanks