Simple question about dog bones

sarabe

You may be pleasantly surprised, if you ask your butcher, as they often have to pay to dispose of bones and carcasses and will usually give them away or sell them very cheaply.

suki1964

As to how many - be guided my your dogs toilet habits,

Gets the runs - ease off

Gets constipated - ease off

Other then that go ahead, the meaty bones should be in place of a meal

foreign_correspondent

My butcher puts sawed bones aside especially for dogs and gives them away for free - they often have quite a bit of meat on them - otherwise I have often found small packs of very meaty bones in morrisons quite cheaply!

BeenieCat

Thanks i'll have to wait til i need to actually buy some meat as i'll feel a bit cheeky just strolling in and asking for them

sarabe

BeenieCat wrote: »

Thanks i'll have to wait til i need to actually buy some meat as i'll feel a bit cheeky just strolling in and asking for them

I'm a vegetarian and I do.

I do buy my eggs from him though.

Spudette

zebidee1 wrote: »

Our pup has had his first ever proper bone today. The silly beast hasn't moved for hours....he's in doggy heaven.:D

The bone is now only about 3 inches long.....should we take it off him now in case he chokes on it as it's so small, or do dogs just chew and bite it until it's completely gone?

You should always take a bone off of a dog when it gets too small as it becomes a choking size.

What types of dog bones does everyone use? Real, Smoked, Nylabones?

foreign_correspondent

real raw bones - why pay for the others when these are cheap or free and nutritious? - I canot see the point in buying processed (ie. smoked etc) bones which are probably not as healthy.

moomin5

I know bones should be raw, but what are these smoked, roast and white filled bones at the the pet shop. Roast to me suggest its been cooked which surely would make it brittle

I'd like to try my dogs on a bone and prefer something there not likely to gulp down as they can be greedy, so what sort of bone should i be trying to get from the butcher? I notice some say weight bearing bones are too hard on the teeth, would they be marrow bones?

MrsTinks

I only give raw FRESH bones - whatever is left at the end of the day gets removed. When they start to dry out they can become brittle and splinter so it's only so long as the bone is fresh she's allowed to keep it. Get knuckle bones if you can - Mine has about 1 a week - and her teeth are beautiful! She does get white poop (all the calcium basically ) but you do learn to strike a balance between how much to give your dog I don't mind the white poop so long as she can easily pass it. If you give it regularly then you find that they seem to adjust to it - initially Kira could only have a small amount of bones before getting clogged - now she (if she were allowed) could happily eat almost any quantity without problems because her digestive system is used to it.

On a very rare occassion she'll get a hide bone (or pigs ears when I can get to the sunday market) but never the roast bones etc - not because she doesn't want them mind!

Moomin - I'm not sure about the white filled bones - I assume that they have been cooked but they seem incredibly solid even for bone... Have to admit though that when we first got our dog and I let her have the occassional one she didn't bother much with the bone other than in her attempt to get to the filling... once that was gone the bone had NO interest to her at all...

Raksha

moomin5 wrote: »

I know bones should be raw, but what are these smoked, roast and white filled bones at the the pet shop. Roast to me suggest its been cooked which surely would make it brittle

I'd like to try my dogs on a bone and prefer something there not likely to gulp down as they can be greedy, so what sort of bone should i be trying to get from the butcher? I notice some say weight bearing bones are too hard on the teeth, would they be marrow bones?

'Roast' bones are actually deep fried. The commercial bones in the pet shop will all be cooked, as that's the only way to sterilise them. Yes - they are brittle

Yes, weight bearing bones from a larger animal (cow) will be what you'd know as marrow bones. If your dog has to rely on them for a food supply regularly they could damage their teeth - the odd occasional one shouldn't do too much harm. Most of the bones I've got from the butcher have been cow or lamb rib bones - you can hold one end and let the dog chew on the other if you like.........