How Often Should Dogs Eat Bones?

[austen]

We feed our dogs Royal Canin twice a day and have been experimenting with different types of bones - chicken necks etc.

On the advice of our vet we have started feeding lamb necks as they are much chunkier and require much more chewing.

My question is how often should we be giving them lamb necks?

[Nekhbet]

depends how your dogs handle the necks and if they gain/lose weight. If you find they are constipated or starting to loose interest then cut down to once a week. Mine get a chicken carcass every day with their Royal Canin or some other meat scrap I get from the butcher.

Try once every 3 days and see how they go

[jillybean]

Chloe gets some kind of raw meaty bone every day for one of her meals each day, and Eagle Pack kibble for the other.

She has all different cuts of chicken, lamb and beef.

[Just Midol]

Quite often I will ONLY feed my dog a carcass or a lamb neck for a meal.

Gizmo doesn't even finish his carcass sometimes, he only needs 300grams or so.

I feed bones everyday.

[Charles Kuntz]

Hi, Charles here. I am a specialist small animal surgeon and I would like to warn people about feeding bones that are too big. I have treated about 40 patients with oesophageal foreign bodies (almost all bones). Most of the bones were cooked, but some were raw. Greedy dogs tend to scarf down the bones which are too big to pass all the way down the oesophagus. Most of these cases incur large costs- up to $1,000 for endoscopic removal and 3,000-4,000 for thoracic surgery for removal of the bones. We have seen a few fatalities- what is quoted is 15% mortality rate for oesophageal bone foreign bodies. The ones that don't need surgery can stricture (scar down) in the months after surgery as well.

I am really careful about feeding bones to my labs. I only feed raw bones, and only ones that are too small to get stuck (chicken necks) or to big (beef thighs).

Charles

[persephone]

Yep- for smaller dogs- chicken necks aren't suitable--they are 'just' a good size and shape to get gulped,and stuck in the oesophagus

bones which are completely chewable seem to be better .

Our dogs get bones every day...

[SparkyTansy]

I would be more careful giving a chicken neck to a larger breed... they are small enough to swallow whole if your dog is a scoffer...

I much prefer carcasses as they tend to chew them better and cannot scoff. I also like Turkey necks.

Austen, where do you get your lamb necks from? I wonder if they are easy to obtain in WA.

[austen]

I would be more careful giving a chicken neck to a larger breed... they are small enough to swallow whole if your dog is a scoffer...

I much prefer carcasses as they tend to chew them better and cannot scoff. I also like Turkey necks.

Austen, where do you get your lamb necks from? I wonder if they are easy to obtain in WA.

Used to go to a pet food supplies place (I'm in NSW, so no good for you) but it closed down, so now I go to a normal butchers - he usually has them in stock - and he saws them up for me. If not in stock, they can usually get them for you.

[SparkyTansy]

Thanks Austen I will give my butcher a try.

[Sandra777]

The whole problem with "only give them big bones" is that the point of the exercise is for the dog to chew up the bone and if the dog chews a piece of the big bone which is still too big for it to swallow you may as well have given it a small bone to start with. I raw feed and my dogs always have some sort of bone every day, but never unattended as they will chew off a piece and then will try to swallow it whether it fits or not.

[persephone]

The whole problem with "only give them big bones" is that the point of the exercise is for the dog to chew up the bone

not neccessarily

I give my dogs and cats large bones... BUT

They have the meat still on them for whatever meal it is .

The point of the exercise is for the animals to gnaw and chew and work to get the meat off- to exercise their jaws, and ,using the sideways,molar, chew chew chew to slice meat off bone- clean their teeth!!

Then- if they want, they can eat the bone as well... or they can wait for softer bones.

[Guest Tess32]

Mine get bones every day, that is their main meal. They get a meat meal in the morning (offal, fish etc).

Chicken necks are too small and useless for many breeds.

Watch and know your own dog...

[Andisa]

Mine get bones every day along with other foods.

[percyk]

i dont leave my dogs with a bone

we are on bone alert at our house

my dachsie years ago had a problem with a bone- never want to see that happen again

so someone has to be within view of the dog who has a bone

we feed chicken necks and there are no scoffers here but i still insist on vigilance

i often am tempted to leave them with a bone but when theyre outside they just bury them and then it becomes a walking on eggshells situation for everyone

so i give them a little food to take the edge off their hunger and train at the same time then they get their necks then their top up with mince etc

[Bokezu]

I feed bones everyday, I believe bones in the diet = healthy dogs

[dead sheep]

my dogs get a bone of some sort every day

one boy is a fat plonker so he doesn't get lamb very often and it's a very lean piece with minimal meat and fat