Do you give your dog raw bones to chew on?

[mintysmum]

We picked up some belly pork from our butcher yesterday. He had deboned it for us and had the bone set aside in a bag for our dog. We gave the dog this bone this evening which was huge, half the size of his head and he spent a very happy hour chewing on it.

It's now away for tomorrow evening but I am just wondering if it's advisable. It was raw so I think that's ok as long as it's too big for him to swallow and get stuck. Is that right?

Best thing for thier teeth.

My dog - a border collie - loves raw bones from the butcher, usually cow knuckles, I think. They've never done her any harm, and the vet commented favourably on the condition of her teeth. :)

Always fed my Ddog on raw food only which included bones. Her teeth and coat were lovely. and her poo's went from steaming piles to dainty dumps

Great we will keep on doing it and having a very happy dog! Do you check the size and take the bone away if it looks too small?

We give Eric a raw bone every Saturday. The butcher always has one ready for him when I collect my meat. He loves them and seems to know the day as he is never interested in my shopping on any other day.

Yes, but only beef knees/hips - big, weight bearing bones. They get gnawed for days and never get small

It would be difficult to chew a cow knuckle down to choking size tbh, ddog tends to have a few on the go at different stages of consumption and we remove the oldest one when she gets a new one. I think the choking problem associated with bones is cooked bones (esp pork, chicken) which splinter.

Big weight bearing bones are a no no. They are stronger and denser than ribs, necks and spine and can cause damage to your dogs teeth.

I do but they last 5 minutes then get buried in the garden never to be seen again.

Would the size of the dog have any bearing on the size of bones given, MarcoPolo? My collie has had no problems with the beef bones we've been giving her for years, and my neighbour's Weimaraner was fine with them too. I can see, however, that they might be problematic to a miniature pug, or similar.

I'd never give weight bearing bones of large animals because they're too hard, dogs would try to eat it and end up damaging their teeth.
My dogs are raw fed and they get pork ribs, chicken carcasses/legs/thighs all with a good layer of meat on them.
They don't understand the concept of recreational gnawing on a bone, its all food to them and must be consumed . I gave my lab a stag bar once and he managed to eat half of it in 20 minutes before I took it away.

Sorry for the delay.
Yes, weight bearing bones of large animals are not suitable as it’s very hard.
My two love raw meaty bones and would choose that over steak and cooked liver.
They also get whole rabbit less some of the innards…... the fur cleans between their teeth.

our lab loves, but is now banned from, bones

a couple of months ago he had a beef knuckle which he demolished, next day was sick/gagging and ended up in the vets for 2 days with xrays and drips (and £400+) but vet wasn't sure 100% if it was the bone.

someone said he shouldn't have knuckle but to try rib instead so got 3 beef ribs from farm shop 2 week ago. Gave him one which he loved, but 3 hours later again he was sick and gagging again. Lasted about 3 hours, but was ok without going to vets this time.

its a shame because he loves them, but not going to try again as he obviously cant take them. he gets dried tripe, lamb skin, trachea, ears etc instead which he is fine with (but would still love a raw bone!)

My collie gets beef trachea and some meaty marrow bones plus lamb necks and spines. Loves them all.

Great advice thanks. Seems bones in general are fine but not large weight bearing bones. Where do you get the trachea and spine from? I'll ask my butcher if he can save us some and we tend to be in once a week

I get them from Natural Instincts where I get his raw food from.

Dpup is out in the sunshine chewing a frozen chicken wing - it'll keep him happily occupied for a good hour. Maybe I'm weird but I find it very satisfying to watch him do something that is so instinctive.

Right, can I get this straight?

You can give bones, as long as they won't splinter (so raw not cooked) and as long as they won't chip teeth (not big tough limbs)..... is that right?

I always thought that bones were okay except for chicken. I've been getting marrow bone, in fat discs, from the butcher and cooking them. Would this be okay, but without the cooking?

And given that the bone gets dragged all over the house and left in the garden, surely a raw bone is not great in terms of salmonella on surfaces and attracting vermin outside?

I need to bone up on this!

We give mainly elk shin bones to our dogs and have never had any issue with their teeth. I assume the same would apply for cow's which are prop easier to get from your butcher.
Never had any issue with vermin (mice, foxes, squirrels) as the dogs scare them away or eat them.

Chicken bones covered with meat - legs, wings, drumsticks, chicken carcass - are fine as long as raw. Although my lab once ate a cooked chicken carcass he found in the woods with no problems. It was christmas and must've been dragged there by a fox. He refused to give it up and ate the lot . He stayed just out of reach crunching all the bones up.
Cue panic phone call to vet and was told to bring him in if he started vomiting or pooing blood....
We were lucky that time, I still wouldn't give him cooked bones of any sort and he stays on the lead in the woods.

I am a raw feeder to my Italian Spinone who's just turned 1. Our last dog, a lab was fed complete ( both scenarios recommended by the breeder). Our lab was 6 years old and sadly was pts last year due to leukemia, the vet hinted that actually the protein in the complete mix may have been too rich for her. Our Spinone is fed all types of meat and bones, completely raw (bit frightening to start off with) but as long as you remember the bones need to be larger than their mouth in order for them not to gulp, it's absolutely fine, they will naturally crunch and they will ingest it partially whole, their stomach acid is strong enough to reduce it! Raw meaty bones are an essential part of their diet and they will naturally clean their teeth, the more raw food you give them, the less smelly their poos are and they have no toxins in them, so are safe to crumble back into the earth (although would recommend that you always pick up your dog's poo!!), if you are interested in raw feeding, there is so much online if you search BARF.

Such an interesting thread, but is anyone at all amused by the BARF acronym?!!

No, just me then...TAXI!

It's not a good idea... I heard that bones are not good for dogs.

Is it ok to give raw bones if your dog is on a dry (complete) food diet?
My last dog used to have a knuckle or a 'postmans leg' from the pet shop, but I think they were cooked.

This seems controversial! After an earlier comment on the thread, we asked our butcher for a medium sized bone, not weight bearing as someone advised against large weight bearing bones. Minty chomped away on Saturday night and licked all the marrow from the inside as well as some of the actual bone. But sunday and Monday he was sick a few times with small chunks of bone in the sick.

I was at vets for annual vaccination so asked the vet about bones & sicking them up. The vet said we should stick to weight bearing bones which will be too large to swallow! He said we should remove a bone if dog starts crunching bits off as they could cause a blockage in tummy or coming out in poo.

So large bone with as much tendon on outside as possible is the advice from the vet.