Bones

A matter which has always puzzled me is whether bones are dangerous to give dogs.

I know all about our bone crushing friends on the Savanna, that intriguing big eared spotted scavenger the Hyena, that can crush and eat bones with impunity.

But, domestic dogs ?
I fed my first dog regularly with nice big marrow bones from the butcher. She loved them, but in retrospect I think they may have damaged her stomach, because she suffered with a weak tummy all her 15.1/2 years. This made us watch very carefully what we gave her to eat.

Large marrow bones look good and are probably excellent for the dogs teeth and provide nutrients and Calcium. But the sharp fragments surely at the least irritate the stomach and intestines and at the worst damage them and cause bleeding right the way through.

Small bones like chicken bones are definitely dangerous. They can get stuck in the windpipe or any of the digestive organs, needing surgery to extract them. Potential damage and even death is a high risk with these bones.

I cannot see how bone can be digested within the stomach, it looks indestructable material to me. After all, we recover bones millions of years old.

Then again I come back to our old pal, the Hyena ?

I am perplexed on this one and would greatly appreciate all of your valuable comments on this issue.

I know thousands of you give your dogs bones, just like I did, so - over to you and I look forward to your comments and advise.

John Bull

My dogs are raw fed and digest bones with no problem at all. Oscar swallowed a chicken wing almost whole the other day when he got a bit excited during breakfast. He had no problems pooing, none of my dogs ever have after eating bones. The only danger when it comes to dogs and raw bones is the owners lack of research prior to feeing them imo.

The only thing I would avoid is cooked bones, any type of raw bone is fair game in this house. Well for the dogs at least!

I raw feed mine and have done so for a few years. Though a rawfeeding group I know people who have been feeding that way for decades and their dogs are as fit and healthy as can be.

The only bones I'd be inclined to avoid are;

Weight bearing bones of cattles legs, these are much denser than our dogs teeth and run the risk of tooth damage.

Small chopped up bones (eg from a pork or lamb chop), incase of choking.

Cooked bones, these are dried out and run the risk of splintering.

Ive been raw feeding for a couple of years now and the bones are most deff digested in the dogs tummy - even pretty much whole chicken bones are totaly digested by the time they come out the other end

As well as what Evie says about cooked bones and stuff I think a big problem is giving too much bones to dogs whos insides are not used to digesting them, if you are feeding kibble and adding bones then the dogs arnt digesting them fully - it took a couple o weeks for Ben to be able to fully digest a bone without bringing it up for another go

First of all, cooked bones are much more likely to splinter into sharp shards than raw. Second, wild canines do sometimes die from eating bones. Third, bones really aren't good for the teeth. They wear them down and sometimes break them. Our Lab Aster never had a real bone in her life and had excellent teeth when we put her to sleep at 15.

I feel I have the right to post my opinion even if those that disagree with me don't like it.

Raw bones are fine. Nothing like a juicy marrowbone to give you total peace and quiet and your dogs lovely clean teeth. However, I do have to restrict the amount of marrow that's "available" as it does cause squitty bums with my two if they have too much of it.

My first dog was always loose motioned and the vet had us sprinkle powdered bone meal on her every dish - she was fed twice per day.

This controlled the problem and she had to have this treatment all her life. We adjusted the amount in accordance with her motions. It varied.

I have had it said to me many times that dogs that eat bones regularly get very hard motions - the Calcium I presume.

This causes the dog to severely strain and certainly can damage the rear end apparatus by rupturing the intestinal lining or membranes. Once this happens, Boy ! you are in real trouble, most likely permanently.

You see, just like us, dogs have become more fragile over the thousands of years they have been domesticated by man and can no longer tolerate their eating habits when being wild. This accounts for the difference between domestic animals and the wild animals of today in terms of what they can eat.

The digestive capabilities of domesticated and wild animals is incomparable.

I personally would never under any circumstances give my dog bones - powdered bone meal "yes" for controlled medicinal reasons.

I consider bones a real risk to damaging the stomach and digestive system as well as posing a problem of getting stuck or puncturing the delicate internal linings and membranes thus causing bleeding with possible infection.
John Bull

Too much bone causes the motions to be hard and therefore they might strain to get it out, thus causing problems. Getting the right balance of bone is the key.

As a raw feeder, mine get bones daily. I dont feed them large bones, the largest is lamb shank and they dont even eat that, just splinter it and clean out the marrow. They get chicken bones, lamb and pork ribs, turkey leg and pork hock. Sometimes I do worry that it could harm their intestinal tract, particulary as Flynn is very greedy and doesnt like to waste time crunching up the bones. Jed is a more methodical eater so I dont worry about him.

I did take Flynn to the vets the other week as he'd punctured a saliva gland, causing it to swell with blood, pus and saliva. The vet said as he was raw fed, it was probably a bone which did it and i'm happy to accept that.

I'm happy to give my dogs bones as I think it's natural, cleans their teeth well and satisfies an instinctual behaviour in the dog, that of chewing and gnawing. I am selective about the bones I give them and I always supervise feed time.

Not dogs that eat bones regularly, but dogs that are fed too much bone will certainly have very hard ,white, chalky like motions.

Bones, for my dogs, makes up about 10 - 15% of their diet, the rest is meat with a side of about 10% organs. So bone makes up a small, but important, part of the raw diet.

Certainly feeding dogs alot of bone will create discomfort at the least.

I disagree. How long do you think commercial food for dogs has been around? 50-60 years I expect, so what do you think dogs where fed before then? This is not enough time for dogs digestive system to evolve to be unable to tolerate digesting bones.