Raw Bones For Dogs

The Raw is very important when it comes to bones for dogs. The biggest reason being that cooked bones can splinter which is what gets caught in their throat/esophagus.

A friend of mine was just telling me about how her parents dog got into the garbage and ate a chicken bone. It stuck in the back of her throat and she spent hours trying to dislodge it without a whole heck of a lot of noise or gagging. Finally they checked to see what was going on and her dad pulled out a chicken bone that had splintered and lodged itself into her throat...I guess thankfully instead of going down any further.

We have been feeding raw bones to our dogs forever. They are a part of the raw diet and an essential part for their overall health. The thing is we feed bison or elk bones that are larger than their mouths and studier bones overall. Our border collie used to be able to break the bones apart but they never splintered.

If you get a pre-made raw diet, most companies will grind bone up in their raw food. At a health pet store I worked at we would get a lot of people complaining about finding large chunks of bone in the food. This is worrisome and dangerous because it could get caught in their throat if the piece is too large.

That's why you need to make sure it's ground up really good or is a large enough bone for them to chew on.

Bones are a source of calcium and phosphorus and the marrow contains some high quality nutrients.

Are they a huge factor into the diet? Maybe not as much as the meat and vegetables etc... but they do offer some nutritional benefits as well as a natural toothbrush for dogs.

Grainy food can stick to your dogs teeth just like it does to ours and if you feed kibble than it's most likely got grain in it.

A bone can clean that up. That's why there are all these preservative filled 'bones' that are not bones that are marketed as good for cleaning teeth. Why do they have to look like bones?

It's another form of what I call 'Our kibble is full of real meat and vegetables BUT don't feed your dog REAL meat and vegetables cause it's not good for them.' ... Whatever that means.

They are also a good way to expel energy and keep your dog busy.

But my caution here is that always supervise your dog. That way if you hear something that doesn't sound good you are there.

We always know what's happening our dogs and they don't get to chew bones alone.

So raw bones are left to the dogs owner discretion but keep in mind the rules:

1. NEVER COOKED BONES only raw
2. Supervised bone chewing only
3. Bone should be big and sturdy. Our favorite is elk or bison bones. Our little min pin can tackle a pretty big bone.
4. If they are pre-ground into a meal make sure there are no big bits in there.
5. Freeze bones that are for future use to keep them as fresh as possible.