This topic was being talked about on another post but I decided to give it its own post because I had a few more questions about feeding raw bones for dental health. I've heard not to feed femur bones because they can break teeth, does anybody have any experience with this? I've also been told knuckle bones are the best because they are softer and less likely to break teeth. When you feed knuckle bones do you have the butcher cut them in half or do you just give the whole thing? How do you feed them (i.e. in a crate, outside, on a towel, etc) and do you refreeze or refrigerate whatever is left over or do you just leave it out for the dog to continue to work on when it wants to? And last of all, when you feed a raw bone once or twice a week, do you decrease or take away a meal that day?

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The bones I buy at All The Best (local pet store) look like femur bones, dense and heavy, 2-3" long. 

I've heard you can lightly parboil bones to disinfect the outside and that this does not render the bones friable, like cooked bones, if you don't overdo it.  We just give them to the dogs.  We're slobs.

Usually they clean them up quite fast, but sometimes we take them away and refrigerate the first night.

http://www.mycorgi.com/video/meditation-video

No broken teeth... yet... but I might break an ankle someday with all these beef bones obstructing the floor.

Haha John. We have many a time stepped on a beef bone! OUCH!

We give femur and knuckle. No broken teeth yet. The knuckle keeps them engaged much longer than the femur anyways and they will eat the entire thing up!

 

We have two sources for our knuckle bones. One is directly from the butcher which are cut and the other is from a company called Red Dog Blue Cat http://www.reddogdeli.com/ We purchase the small ones. I bought a large one for Mickey once and when he saw it I thought his head was gonna pop off he looked so excited! Haha....but it was really just too big for him.

 

We feed in the crate, on the floor, in the park when we sit and enjoy some sun while they chew in the grass...anywhere really. We leave them out until we give the next one then throw whatever is left away from the previous chewing session. 

 

I wouldnt worry about decreasing their food when you give bones as long as you stick to your exercise regime. We do not anyways. This is just our experience with feeding raw bones. They love it and have such a blast chewing and working on it. Im sure a bomb could go off and no one would care or move. 

 

 

The ones I get are femur bones I believe, usually about 3" in length. I only feed them outside because they come with some meat on them still and there is no way that is getting rubbed all over my carpet. I also wash off the dog's feet and chest afterward. Once they clean out the marrow (which takes a couple of hours usually) they tend to lose interest in it so I usually just toss the empty bone. I don't skip their meal if I give one, but then again I don't give them all that often. I've found bully sticks, tracheas, ears, etc do a pretty good job of keeping their teeth clean too.
i buy teddy cow knee bones. its not a raw but its roasted so it will not shatter or splinter. they look small but really are not. teddy goes ape sh*t over them. he spends hours trying to get the roasted skin off and even after wards he eats the bone its self. it cleans his teeth very well, i can brush all i want but some times there is hard tater and the bone does the trick. i have attached a pic of the brand i buy. its only $3 and it comes with 2 (teddy was eating the other one)
I use knuckle bones and they love them. I order them from the butcher and have them cut the length I want. They are very large around so I think I get about 2" or less ones. Can't remember it's been awhile. I freeze them and then get them out a day ahead and refridgerate. I pick them up after an hour or so refridgerate for a couple times and then either freeze or throw. I figure it's like raw food and should not be left out for long periods of time.
Our dogs have chipped their teeth from chewing bone, they don't have any dental problems yet, but i'm kicking myself. We are considering not to feed them bones in the future. Here's a 3 min audio interview with AVMA president.

yeah I have heard of several dogs chipping/cracking teeth on bones, mostly femur bones. I've also seen femur bones stuck around the bottom of their jaws that needed surgically removed. We actually had 2 of those at the vet last week.

I bought the "soup" bones, which are basically just the softer top of the femur bones and Franklin chews on them a bit but isn't able to get any big chunks off. The only thing is, after he has spent a few hours gnawing on and ingesting the bones he gets pretty constipated the next day and his stool is rock hard. Any suggestion in preventing this? I"m only giving him one a week and making sure it is the soft bone and not femur/weight bearing bones, he has good teeth from the dental diet I supplement him with, so maybe I'll just skip bones all together....

Sam  I have to agree with you...again.  I have given the babies bones in the past and they loved them but I have got a new policy. No more bones because I do not want to take a chance on a chipped tooth.
All cooked, smoked or processed bones from pet stores are harder than teeth (which is why they chip, break, scratch enamel, etc) and so are raw weight-bearing (leg) bones of big animals (cow, moose, etc). Aside from that, raw bones are great for teeth and jaw development. Sam, you can also opt to feed pork/beef neck and back rib sections to avoid the problems associated with the harder bones. They are meaty enough to get the dogs really in to them, lots of nooks to get teeth clean and all edible bone.

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