Simple question about dog bones

suki1964

LittleTinker wrote: »

Nothing wroing with dogs eating bones except for chicken bones, as those are too bittle and can splinter........they are good for their teeth, for their coats and for the calcium. Plus, they get loads of pleasure from them.

Chicken bones are perfectly fine for dogs as long as they are RAW. Raw chicken bones are pretty flexible and dont splinter. However for a pup with baby teeth I would recommend bashing any wings or drumsticks up slightly to help.

suki1964

SiuLoong wrote: »

There is a massive difference of opinion on the subject even amongst vets. I think everyone would agree that you should never feed cooked bones to dogs, however raw bones are a different matter. There are some experts who say raw bones are fine, yet there are others who would advise against it.

I would never recommend feeding bones to animals, raw or cooked, I've seen too many problems to support it. Cooked bones are more likely to splinter and cause problems internally but even raw bones carry risks with constipation and broken teeth etc.. Giving a small bowl of milk, effectively a laxative in some dogs is not really the best way of counteracting the effects!!

Use commercial dog treats, but be careful: there are plenty out there that can cause just as many problems. Rawhides with knots at the ends get stuck in throats and cause a lot of the same problems. Our dog gets loads of treats, and has a variety of things to chew on, has loads of fun and no problems. You just need to select carefully for the individual dogs size and character.

See , now heres another opinion, no way would I feed any dog of mine commercial treats. You seen what they are made off? You seen the behaviour and skin problems they can cause?

I would personally recommend only feeding natural treats, tuna bread, liver cake, rawhide, jerky, pigs ears etc (as well as raw bones) BUT I would never leave a dog to eat bones or rawhide unsupervised. I have had two dogs choke,one on a bone and one on rawhide. However it wont stop me giving them as treats, I just make sure Im around whilst they are munching

thriftmonster

It can depend on how they react. We have always been able to take the bones away from the terriers, no probs. However the lab cross we had would growl when we took them away so we stopped giving them to her.

lemontart

thriftmonster wrote: »

Our dog gets constipated with bones as well but I counteract that with a small bowl of milk at the same time as it has the opposite effect on a doggy digestion. I only give marrow bones from the butcher.[/quote

i was told not to give dog milk as they are lactose intolerant ...................so many confusing and conflicting advisors

scheming_gypsy

Rather than spending a quid on a bone for the dog to play with spend 99p at Asda for a turkey leg for its tea. Safe, healthy, a bone to chew on and you're also feeding the dog at the same time.

sarah*a

[Originally posted by lemontart]

thriftmonster wrote: »

Our dog gets constipated with bones as well but I counteract that with a small bowl of milk at the same time as it has the opposite effect on a doggy digestion. I only give marrow bones from the butcher.[/quote

i was told not to give dog milk as they are lactose intolerant ...................so many confusing and conflicting advisors

I was told not to give them cows milk but goats milk is OK. If you look at the commercial brands of 'dog milk' you'll see they are goats milk.

My dogs get a bone a week from the butchers - we always freeze them first to get rid of any nastys - then defrost and you're away Never had any constipation problems but our terrier does 70's white poo for a few days afterwards :rolleyes:

Edited to say: Our dogs don't get the bones as well as food they get them as food :cool:

SiuLoong

suki1964 wrote: »

See , now heres another opinion, no way would I feed any dog of mine commercial treats. You seen what they are made off? You seen the behaviour and skin problems they can cause?

I would personally recommend only feeding natural treats, tuna bread, liver cake, rawhide, jerky, pigs ears etc (as well as raw bones) BUT I would never leave a dog to eat bones or rawhide unsupervised. I have had two dogs choke,one on a bone and one on rawhide. However it wont stop me giving them as treats, I just make sure Im around whilst they are munching

I know exactly what the ones I feed are made of and no dog of mine has had behavioural or skin problems because of treats. The majority of dogs I see with behavioural problems are due to poor socialisation when young and if a dog has food allergic dermatitis (which itself is fairly uncommon) the allergy is usually due to a particular meat protein source, for example beef. So that dog would have skin problems if fed a treat containing beef, but also if they ate a top quality beef steak.

There are poor quality treats out there and I agree those need to be avoided, and rawhide bones can cause just as many problems, but I see too many dogs with serious health problems because of owners feeding them bones not to strongly advise against it. For the record, cooked bones are MUCH more likely to cause problems & I don't think there is anyone who would advise that.

Psykicpup

I would never feed a dog ANY type of bone if I wasnt around to supervise, also I would not tolerate 'bone aggression' either lol - My GSD had a bit of bone stuck/wedged in his teeth a few weeks ago -wedging his upper & lower jaw open - he was in great discomfort. Imagine if I couldnt take the bone off him (& bin it) or remove the offending object when it hapened! he allowed me to manhandle his mouth even tho it must have been awful as I had to force his mouth open further to get to the offending object! & then I took the remaining piece away as it obviously was not a 'good' bone anymore.He actually yelped at I forced the bone out - it was stuck upright between his teeth & it must have hurt to move it as you could see the pressure the ends were causing on his gums...he licked my face after it was out tho lol
Its only ever a treat in our house & Shads knows he must never object if anyone takes it away - he does look REALLY sad tho lol

Psykicpup

ps - I've also had to 'retrieve' a chicken bone from a different dogs(mine) throat when it got wedged - she would gulp things lol - its not an event I would want to repeat!
Love the way my dogs trust me .....

Shambler

I never gave my GSD bones and he was happy instead with a Galileo!

http://www.vetontheweb.co.uk/pet-shop-product-detail.asp?id=1892

You can get huge ones and they last for ages with no risk of splintering so the dog can be left alone with it.