Are Bones Safe For Dogs?
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My mom's boyfriend gave our dogs beef rib bones. I don't think they swallowed anything, but I would like to explain the dangers behind giving them bones. (Chanjire Kenyon - Nevada)
People often give their dogs bones as they assume they can not be harmful as they are full of nutrients and completely natural. As you are well aware, even though both these statements have some truth in them, in my opinion it is never a good idea to feed your dog a bone. The main reason for this is that the dog naturally crack the bones open to get at the bone marrow. If not chewed sufficiently broken fragments of bone can be swallowed, and as stomach acid is very slow at dissolving bone these fragments can cause blockage/perforation of the gut, which if left untreated will be fatal.
Different types of bones have different amounts of risks associated with them. Chicken bones for example are in my opinion a definite no, they fracture into sharp spears of bone when broken, which are inevitably going to puncture the animals digestive system at some stage. It is also quite common for broken fragments of bone to lodge between the back molars in the dogs mouth while he is crunching the bone.
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Actually no dog should be given COOKED bones of any type. Cooking a bone causes it to become brittle and it can break into sharp shards that can cause at the least expensive and painful problems and at the worst death.
Dog's stomach acid is about 10 times stronger than that of a human. They are designed to eat RAW MEAT (80%) RAW BONES (10%) and Raw Organs (also 10%)
Never feed a dog a heavy, dense weight-baring bone, such as the leg bone from a steer or other large animal, as these bones ARE too dense and can cause teeth to crack.
The percentages are not specific to every single meal the dog gets, but should equal out more or less over the entire week’s worth of meals given to the dog. You feed about 2% of the dog's ideal body weight, adjusting as needed if your dog needs to gain or loose weight.
Dogs and Cats who are fed a SPECIES APPROPRIATE DIET generally have fewer health challenges because they are eating what they were designed to eat!
Kibble, grains, fruits and veggies are not easily digested by dogs and cats, and can lead to tarter and other tooth problems that will usually result in healthy Vet bills.
One of our cats used to have challenges with crystals and UTI's; even when we fed her only a so called top line canned food. After her first month on raw meats, she no longer had a single problem. Meat naturally has a reasonable amount of water in it.
Surprisingly enough it is also less expensive. I belong to a local Raw Feeding Coop and we get some great prices, I haunt sales, of course; and I get FREE MEATS off of my local Freecycle! My old feed bill was between $75 to $125 for 2 dogs (small and medium) and 3 cats, including cat litter. NOW I spend between $35 to $80 per month.