Bones, What Are Your Thoughts On This Controversial Issue.

[Jackandgrey]

Our dogs get some kind of bone every meal but we don't provide weight bearing bones from any large animal (cow,pig, etc). They eat chicken backs, wings, feet, necks, and small drumsticks. Turkey necks, wingtips, duck neck and feet are the other types. All of these are available at local grocery stores but we can buy the chicken backs in bulk from a butcher.

 

 

We, as well, have seen the benefits of raw bone chewing but prefer to stick to ones they chew and swallow.

 

I don't feed exclusively raw but these are the kind of teeth cleaning raw bones I give mine 2-3 times a week for teeth cleaning purposes as well as shear joy of eating purposes. None of mine have ever needed a dental yet. Hopefully they won't.

[greytpups]

Brooke loves chicken and turkey necks, but Ben doesn't. Does anyone have any recommendations for bones that can be eaten raw and are swallowed? Please note I supervise constantly to make sure that the bone doesn't gets too small and risk choking. He does not like fowl and I haven't found any other suitable bones.

[tbhounds]

Brooke loves chicken and turkey necks, but Ben doesn't. Does anyone have any recommendations for bones that can be eaten raw and are swallowed? Please note I supervise constantly to make sure that the bone doesn't gets too small and risk choking. He does not like fowl and I haven't found any other suitable bones.

Bullysticks???

[Guest mariah]

Brooke loves chicken and turkey necks, but Ben doesn't. Does anyone have any recommendations for bones that can be eaten raw and are swallowed? Please note I supervise constantly to make sure that the bone doesn't gets too small and risk choking. He does not like fowl and I haven't found any other suitable bones.

 

How about lamb necks?

[Guest DragonflyDM]

Brooke loves chicken and turkey necks, but Ben doesn't. Does anyone have any recommendations for bones that can be eaten raw and are swallowed? Please note I supervise constantly to make sure that the bone doesn't gets too small and risk choking. He does not like fowl and I haven't found any other suitable bones.

 

How about lamb necks?

 

Boomer loves raw bones. I don't know about lamb necks, but I know that he will eat the heck out of pigs feet, chicken, turkey and ribs. I would only worry if you think your dog would try and swallow something too large and choke. Everything else I mentioned has to be chewed or is pretty small.

[Guest Angelique]

Thanks for all the input

[Guest 8fleetfeet]

Thanks for your comments all. I feel better about giving my boy bones I bought one of these http://www.brielledogboutique.com/s/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/red-barn-naturals-filled-bone.jpg a few months back and he ate through about 2" of the 6" until he had eaten all the filling. Now he could care less about it, but with the bone he has now, (a real huge cow bone) he just keeps chewing and chewing and chewing.

Has anyone had any problems with bone splinters in organs or broken teeth?

 

 

My greyhound Mambo, now at the Rainbow Bridge, broke both of her upper molars (the big ones) on two different occasions while chewing raw marrow bones. Even though extracting the broken teeth was expensive, I still believe in the power of raw meaty bones, though I think knuckle bones are less likely to break teeth than marrow bones (that's just my own personal theory since it seems like they have a harder time getting a good enough grip on the knuckle bones to bite down with the force that Mambo used on the marrow bones).

 

 

I'm finding it difficult, though, to find good knuckle bones, especially since I recently moved to a new area. One of my dogs needs to do some chewing desperately, and he's way too snarky to let me brush his teeth.

[RedHead]

I would be especially careful about feeding rec bones (marrow/knuckle) to dogs who already have bad teeth. Their teeth are already in a weakened state due to the plaque eating away at the tooth, so chewing on a really hard bone can easily cause a slab fracture on a back molar. Smaller meaty bones like necks, meaty thighs, etc. do an even better job of cleaning in my experience anyways. It is more the tearing and chewing of tough meats, tendons/sinews that cleans the teeth, you don't even need any bone.

[Busderpuddle]

I give Ruby a frozen turkey neck one to two times a week and also brush her teeth about twice a week with CET toothpaste. Her teeth and breath are great. I buy the necks in a big frozen box that I get from the local Mexican market, my husband cuts them in half, and we bag them individually and put back in the freezer. I think the box costs about $30 and lasts about 4-5 months. They can be hard to come by certain times of the year though so we keep our eye out each time we get close to the store.

[Guest SueG201]

I have always bought my dogs beef marrow bones, I carve out a little of the marrow and then freeze them, None of my greys has ever needed a dental and my current greyhound is 13 yrs old with pearly whites

[Guest Angelique]

My boy got his first chicken neck today, it lasted about 3 minutes... Uhmmm....

[Guest sirsmom]

What type of rib bones do you feed? Beef, Pork, chicken? We tried marrow bones and even though they are raw they still manged to splinter.

[Guest greyhoundgirl1]

Do you give the turkey necks raw?

[Guest Mom2Shiloh]

All bones RAW, none cooked -- not ever.

 

I've discovered beef (small) and lamb ribs at one of the local meat producers booths at the farmer's market-- they don't always have them but they are non weight bearing and so don't fracture or splinter. I also prefer knuckle to any kind of leg bone. I Want to try turkey necks when I can find them-- but Agnes swallows chicken necks whole!! eeeeek! and I'm half afraid to try them with her.

 

I use PetzLife and an enzymatic toothpaste alternately with Bravo who is my poster child for bad gums. He had to have a dental in August in which they packed his gums with doxygel to try to get them to adhere again. Has chronic gingivitis. I also use an herbal dental product called FidoDent which you can get on Amazon (What Can't you get at Amazon?) it is to help control gingivitis -- it's April now -- his teeth are still white and his gums, while they occasionally get slightly inflamed, go back to normal pink quickly with the FidoDent.

[Guest DragonflyDM]

I give Boomer turkey necks and he almost devours them whole. To date, he has never had any issues with that== other than missing all the good flavor!

[Guest IndyHound]

I feed mine raw turkey necks ( not the smoked ones) as a meal or treat depending on the size of the neck, once or twice a week, t they occasionally get raw chicken quarters or chicken backs. Works really well as I have one that really builds up plaque quickly

 

So I'm guessing the necks aren't raw. do they come cooked or is that something you do? Beckett has really bad teeth that seen impervious to whatever I try. Plus he isn't a big chewer so i can't get him to chew on the rope toys or bones.

[seeh2o]

I give raw turkey necks, duck necks, cornish hens or chicken feet (Carl doesn't do chicken very well, so I try to stay away from it). Never any cooked bones or marrow bones - raw or otherwise.

 

Claire just had a BIG dental and when I was talking with the the vet about what toys they like to chew, especially Carl, she cautioned me to take away Carl's beloved Nylabones and the Nylabone dinosaurs (his favorite) because of the potential for cracking/fracturing molars and slab fractures as TBHounds mentioned. She said that as they age (mine are both 9) their bones and teeth aren't as resilient, just like with us, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (in this case $24 of hard rubber Kong bones vs $1600 root canal which I hope to avoid by replacing the Nylas). She said her rule of thumb is, if you hit your knee with it and it hurts, don't give it to the dog.

 

I buy all the raw meaty bones at either a local butcher shop or a local meat distributor who sells in bulk.

Edited April 4, 2012 by seeh2o

[Guest Cris_M]

Brooke loves chicken and turkey necks, but Ben doesn't. Does anyone have any recommendations for bones that can be eaten raw and are swallowed? Please note I supervise constantly to make sure that the bone doesn't gets too small and risk choking. He does not like fowl and I haven't found any other suitable bones.

 

How about lamb necks?

 

Boomer loves raw bones. I don't know about lamb necks, but I know that he will eat the heck out of pigs feet, chicken, turkey and ribs. I would only worry if you think your dog would try and swallow something too large and choke. Everything else I mentioned has to be chewed or is pretty small.

 

An easy to find bone that can be eaten raw, swallowed and takes a while is a "rack" of ribs. I give 3-4 that are still connected. Being connected is kind of a big deal. The string-y stuff acts as dental floss, and it takes some time to separate the ribs.

 

Ribs obviously aren't weight bearing bones (which I refuse to feed my dog), so you can feed beef ribs if you want. I prefer pork because it is cheaper and the bones are a bit smaller.

 

Another great thing about ribs is that they are always available and often on sale in the summer. You can get deer ribs free if you know a hunter.....

 

Mack would love to try lamb necks so he can let your pup know if they are good. He probably would need about 10 to run a fair test. Ha, ha, ha. Seriously, you can feel most neck bones -- they aren't weight bearing.

[NeylasMom]

My boy got his first chicken neck today, it lasted about 3 minutes... Uhmmm....

Chicken necks are too small imo to have much value. Turkey necks are much larger if you want to feed necks, but necks have a high bone:meat ratio so I prefer whole chicken quarters or half/whole chickens when I feed poultry.

 

I feed mine raw turkey necks ( not the smoked ones) as a meal or treat depending on the size of the neck, once or twice a week, t they occasionally get raw chicken quarters or chicken backs. Works really well as I have one that really builds up plaque quickly

 

So I'm guessing the necks aren't raw. do they come cooked or is that something you do? Beckett has really bad teeth that seen impervious to whatever I try. Plus he isn't a big chewer so i can't get him to chew on the rope toys or bones.

The necks ARE raw (she typed it right there ). You absolutely cannot feed cooked poultry bones. They become brittle and dangerous. Raw bones are rubbery and can be digested safely.

[Guest BrindleBabes]

Ok -- going to go against the grain here- the op should be aware of the dangers of giving bones. Sure dogs love them and I'm all about letting dogs being dogs and all that but, I see the dangers of giving bones all the time. Can't begin to tell you how many carnassial teeth I have extracted due to slab fractures caused by-- yes, feeding bones. So, do bones help scale teeth- sure but, they can also cause damage. The op must take that into consideration when feeding them. They are not without risk. You must weight out risk vs benefit for them.

I agree. One of my greys sheared off the side of an upper premolar with a raw bone. That cost me $350 -- and she had to be anesthetized. The vet said she heard a canine dental specialist say to give them nothing that doesn't soften in water (including nylabones), so I'm sticking with turkey necks (which I buy at the farmer's market), greenies and daily brushing.

Edited April 10, 2012 by BrindleBabes