Be Careful Giving Dogs Raw Bones

[Zoomom]

My Shih Tzu crunches up his raw meaty bones, but it was quite a learning curve at first. I had to watch him very carefully at first because he wanted to swallow them whole. I had to hold one end.
Now he crunches up chicken wings, chicken drumsticks, chicken backs and works at pork riblets but doesn't end up being strong enough to eat those bones. But he tries and cleans those ribs off really well.
He also loves his veggies and liver "brownies" that I bake for him. And fresh eggs every weekend.

 

[Brindlebtch]

Quote:
I tried to give my guys large meaty beef ribs and they would break into really sharp pieces, but the poultry bones seemed OK.

 

[gritsar]

After my experience with Charlie Girl, I'm too scared to give any bones. Think we'll stick with nylabones till mama gets a little braver.

 

[anngili]

When I can get them, I feed my dog raw beef or lamb bones but only a specific kind. I get the leg bones and have them cut to 1-inch lengths. That way they're too big to swallow, they don't splinter, the dog has to really work to get the marrow, and there's not enough marrow to cause pancreatitis (at least in a dog as big as my small Border Collie). I learned this method from a friend who grew up with lots of working dogs (from Aussies to LGDs) on her family's ranch, which she still owns and runs. None of her dogs has ever had a problem with them and it REALLY keeps their teeth white as snow. They'll also be working on the same bone for days, even after they've gotten all the marrow and inner part of the bone out.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that only COOKED bones -chicken and other (pork), will splinter when chewed by a dog.

We don't exclusively feed raw, but do supplement alot of our cat's and dog's food with raw culls (rabbit, chicken, quail, wild game, etc).

And we do give them raw bones (only). thanks for the info!

 

[Brindlebtch]

The large beef ribs my dogs had would fracture into sharp pieces because they could actually break them and crunch them up. They didn't gnaw them down.

 

[Hoosiermomma]

We once had a dog almost die of peritonitis. The vet said it was caused b/c we would give our dogs bones...knuckles, etc. to chew on. Ever since then we never give them any meat bones we usually give them homeade ones.