Bones for Dogs - our top 10 tips.
1)NO cooked or smoked bones
Even if you regularly see them in pet food shops NEVER EVER feed cooked or smoked bones. Heating/cooking/smoking changes the structure of the bone making them more brittle and prone to splintering, and splintered bones can cause a whole heap of issues.
2) Be cautious of weight bearing bones
Weight bearing bones, particularly of larger animals, by their nature are very dense and hard and can break a dog's teeth. Use them only under supervision and do not leave them with your dog for too long.
Yes marrow bones are a great source of nutrition and knuckle bones can provide great entertainment, just be careful - you know your dog, if they are fanatical chewers perhaps you should use the bones to make bone broth to give to your dog instead.
3) Raw Meaty bones
The very best bones to feed your dog are raw, MEATY bones - bones covered in plenty of meat for them to gnaw off, offering them a challenge and entertainment, nutrition and teeth cleaning.
4) Supervise
When feeding bones always supervise your dog, never leave them alone with a meaty bone!
5) Size appropriate
Feed bones that are an appropriate size for your dog and are not therefore a choking hazard - an oxtail cut into portions could be a choking hazard to most dogs but probably not a chihuahua, whereas a whole ox tail would be a bit much for him but a fantastic feast for something a bit bigger!
6) Hand feed those ‘gulpers’
if you have a ‘gulper’ consider hand feeding them and/or feeding the bones frozen. My Toller wolfs down her food so instead of chicken wings she gets chicken quarters (not as easy to swallow) and she gets them semi-frozen to slow down her chomping.
7) Up to 10% only
Only 10% of the dogs total diet should be made up of bone so don’t feed bones every day and when you first start them out on raw go slowly so that their digestion can adjust.
8) Graphs are guides only
Graphs of bone content can be a good guide - but only that, do not rely on them - bone content varies depending on the age of the animal at slaughter, how it was reared etc.
9) Watch their poo’s
The best guide for bone content - your dog’s poo - crumbly, white, rock hard and straining are all indications of too much bone so mix it up a bit more.
10) What bones?
A good place to start when feeding bones are chicken or duck wings (go carefully with gulpers) you can also feed necks - chicken, turkey, duck, goat, lamb, venison. Ribs from lambs, goats and pigs, and whole carcasses of chickens, ducks and pheasants.
