Can the bones be given instead of normal food?

Ok this may sound silly, but I got the dogs some large bones from the market again this week, and as last time they were eaten in a day, in Diesel's case a matter of hours I was wondering could I give the dogs a bone each for the day, instead of their normal food, as last time they did have a reduced amount of biscuits, but I don't know if its neccasary for them to also have biscuits at all with these bones, but didn't want to do anything like that until I've asked people who know

Here are some pics of one of the lovely bones to show you how big they are,





And with my hand to show a better idea of size, but I don't know how much the bones weigh, and just to say my ring finger isn't as straight, as thats how its been since a incident with Punch, a bull terrier that I had, and the other scars are just burn marks incase your wondering, I didn't realise about that until after I took the pics.





And thats the smallest of the bones, so what do you think, on days that the dogs get these bones do they also need their normal food, or will it just be trail and error to see?

Ok, personally, I wouldn't give these bones at all! From the look of it they are roast bones - ie ones that have been cooked - the bits round the outside are all greasy and revolting? I seem to recall giving one to a dog a long time ago and ended up with a very horrible mess to clean up the following morning.

If you want to give your dogs recreational bones - ie large bones that get gnawed on as opposed to eating bones which are a meal - I would suggest that you get a large completely raw knuckle bone from your butchers (stalls on the markets sometimes do them, local farm shops etc).

Any recreational bone I would only give under supervision and for a short period of time. Mine have them of an evening two or three times a week in fact they are at present lying outside in the garden gnawing away (i freeze mine in between gnawing sessions).

Must admit I agree with KateM I have given these in the past but would give raw bones now

Thanks for the reply, I'm not really looking for a bone to replace a meal per say, but as the bones are quite large, and the dogs love them, and will eat them well espcailly Diesel without these bones really hitting the floor, its straight to bed with them, see you in a few hours when I'm done thanks, but I'm thinking that these bones will take up a large percentage of the amount of caleries, fat etc that they will need a day, so I'm wondering really how much food the dogs will need with these aswell, as the bones themselves must be at least a meal, or whether something like this will be enough to feed a average dog of their weight and then go from there as to how much I feed on the days that they get these

Ok, definately, if they are eating these then they won't need as much food as yes, they are very high in calories - made up mainly of fat and oil. But they are no actually balanced in terms of what they would usually have as a meal so I personally wouldn't be wanting to skip a meal to give the roast bone instead.

I don't count the recreational bones my lot get as food or at least not a meal - they rarely dint round the edges of a large bone in a session (the bones mine have are, well, bigger than the dogs heads normally).

Those bones are quite calorific so I would just cut down the amount of food you give them in a meal to compensate, instead of missing one out.

Jed had a bone the other day, it was a raw meaty lambs leg, and I counted this as one of his meals. I have to watch his weight carefully anyway so I do tend to count bones they have as a meal but as i've said, they are RMB's, not roasted knuckles.