Feeding raw bones/food
So I'm thinking about getting some raw bones from the butcher at my local grocery store (if they'll give it to me) and was wondering how I should give it to Ein. If I feed it to Ein indoors, I'm thinking that it'll get messy and start to form bacteria. If I feed it outdoors, won't it attract ants? (we have ants) How do you guys feed raw bones / food? Just cut open the meat packaging and feed?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cathi on
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Hi,
We give Bunny bones, knuckle bones that have been roasted about 15-20 minutes at 300 degrees to kill any bacteria. The vet suggested roasting them. I buy them at the meat counter or pre-wrapped and store them in the freezer after roasting them. That way they don't get old in the fridge and start smelling.
She has a rug in the house that is her bone place. Works really well when I'm taking a shower or she needs to have something to do. They don't have anything on them long enough to smell inside. She has a small pile in the house and when they get down to the nub, I throw them outside or away.
She also get one outside when we leave for work in the morning 3 mornings or so a week. The cooked bones don't seem to draw as many ants as raw when I do the raw bones outside. She has several in the yard and chews on them for several weeks, moves them around the yard etc. I pick them up and put them in a pile once a week or so, and take that opportunity to throw out the ones that look pretty bad. I can hear her outside chewing on bones when she goes outside at 3:30 or 4:00 am. sometimes she chooses to stay outside and not come back in until I get up around 5:00 or 5:15.
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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on
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That's interesting. I've always read to NOT cook bones (in big letters just like that). I've never looked into why since I don't feed them, but it might be worth checking out. I think it might have something to do with cooked bones splintering which could be dangerous?
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I think I heard it makes them splinter more easily. Knuckles are pretty soft, though, so perhaps it's not as big an issue with that type?
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Permalink Reply by Derek on
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Beth is right. The splintering is really bad with chicken bones. People who give their dogs a cooked drum stick are asking for trouble. But it depends I think on the part and the amount of time cooking it. When in doubt I tend to trust the vets opinion.
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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Derek, I think we know that chicken bones are bad. It's good that you mentioned it, just in case someone here was unaware. we're talking about beef knuckle bones. :)
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Permalink Reply by Potus on
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When we buy bones Potus gets them within 1-4 days otherwise we chuck them out. We feed him marrow bones, our butcher sells the whole marrow bone slit in half. But we get the butcher to cut the knuckles off the long piece of bone and only give Potus the knuckles- they have less of the fattening marrow than the long piece. This was recommended to us by one of our trainers (yes- one of. Potus has some 'behavioural' issues). We give them to him in the kitchen aka his bedroom and that is where they stay. He's not allowed to take them outside or onto carpet. If he does, they get taken off him or he gets shut in the kitchen to chomp away. I'm not 100% sure but I think you don't have to worry too much about bacteria- dogs seems to be able to process that kind of thing better than humans- I mean my Corgi eats poo (sometimes) and is fine. Either way Potus gets his bone for the day and at night its put in a ziplock bag in the fridge (If it still has meat on it). After 2 days we throw it out and either give him the other knuckle or he just waits a week or two until we buy some more. Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Renee Kovacs on
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I buy bison bones from the local specialty pet food store - they're raw, frozen, and from a local ...um ...whatever you call people who raise bison and other animals for meat. Since the 'processing' of these bones is done at such a small scale by the farmer (as opposed to a huge commercial plant), I don't even worry about bad bacteria. *Imagine what you might find if you tested a cow's hoof-chewie?
As for ants - I give Ed the bone once it's thawed (I worry about splinters while it's frozen), he goes outside and has that bone looking sterilized in about an hour; no trace of tissue or marrow left at all. I will then bring it in the house, and just wash it like any other 'toy'. Within a few days, he's pretty much lost interest in whatever is actually left.
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AJ, I found a butcher shop that sells portions of bones for $1.50 a pound. They have great food for humans too!
It is T&H Prime Meats
735 E Mission Rd
San Marcos, CA 92069-1903
(760) 471-9192
I'm getting ready to put some in the oven like Cathi suggested, then into the freezer they go. I got about a dozen bones for $6.
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Permalink Reply by Deanna on
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Aj, like most of the postings here suggest, knuckle bones only, no T-bones, Porterhouse bones, or any kind of steak, chicken, or pork bones -- raw or cooked, those always splinter. The big knuckles, sometimes known in meat markets and butcher shops as "soup" bones are what you are looking for. The larger cuts are better. If they're cut too small, Ein may try to "swallow" the nubs whole and get them stuck in his throat, so it's a good idea to monitor the size as well as he is gnawing on them. Feeding indoors really shouldn't be a problem, unless there's a lot of raw tissue still attached. If so, yes, they can be messy.
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Permalink Reply by Mary M on
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The past several years I have NOT made it a practice of giving any type of bones to my dogs. The reason is my folks had this beautiful German Shephard that they gave bones to. It could have been a freak thing that happened to this dog, but a piece of the bone got lodged in her intestine. The surgery (17 years ago) was quite costly and the
outcome not promising. The dogs life was cut short. Since that time I have heard that it is not a good practice to give dogs bones of any kind. I usually get Radar the rawhide chewies which he gets once a week on Sunday, which we call Boneday. I monitor his time with the chewy so that it last him the week. He knows when Boneday comes around and knows where we stash them. We just tell him it is Boneday and he goes over to the end table and butts the door open and we let him pick out his chewy for the week. He's not a bit spoiled.... ;-)
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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Pinkwater, in "Superpuppy", (2002) says:
Leg bone of BEEF... trim off remaining fat, cut into 3-4" sections, boil 15-20 min. Cool before giving to dog. Keep some in freezer of refrigerator. THEY ARE THE ONLY KINDS OF BONES TO GIVE TO YOUR DOG --EVER! Do not let your butcher give you prok, lamb, or veal bones... a bone can splinter and seriously injure or kill a dog...the beef leg bone is the only bone your dog cannot splinter. [emphasis in original]
So the brief boiling is to disinfect; not hot or long enough to make the bone brittle. Note that this is considerably (88 F) cooler than the 300 F that Cathi suggests, but comparable and maybe easier.
We fed Siri all manner of raw whole chicken parts, including small drumsticks, wings, and even necks, routinely for many years. She gulped them whole. Raw bones, allegedly, do not splinter.
She choked to death on a turkey neck. So be aware of CHOKING HAZARD and stick to bones too big to swallow.
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We buy those sterilized bones they sell sometimes at the pet stores (unstuffed) on the rec of our vet. I have trouble imagining them splintering, as they are hard but not brittle.
The dogs wear them down, and if they wear them down unevenly so there is a bit that sticks out from the rest, I throw it in the trash.
They don't really like Nylabones (at least Jack doesn't) so it's the only thing we'll get. Having once had to pull rawhide out of a Lab's throat after he swallowed the softened chew nearly whole, I won't get rawhide (though I understand some dogs are ok with them).
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