No, not 'him from Star Trek'. Nor the series with David Boreanaz. I'm talking about bones from the butcher. We bought some meat from our local butcher and, having chatted about Harvey on a previous visit, he offered some bones for him. 'Fantastic. Thank you very much.' I said. However, I've never fed bones to Harvey before. Is there anything that I need to know (I know not to give cooked bones) or look out for? They appear to be beef rib bones if that makes any difference (with plenty of meat left on too - I'm tempted to steal them for myself!)
Re: Bones Beef rib bones are probably fine. Lamb rib bones are better. You want bones that he can eat up in about 20 minutes or less. Avoid leg bones or 'recreational bones' that last a long time - these are too hard and will wear down and possibly break teeth. An easy rule of thumb is to avoid all animal leg bones. If he doesn't finish a bone then put it in the bin - bones that dry out and go rock hard are not good either. We give: Lamb ribs Lamb neck Any kind of chicken, duck, turkey, fish or rabbit Bones with a lot of meat and sinew are good (e.g. whole chicken thigh and leg with bone in).
Re: Bones [quote author=Oberon link=topic=5616.msg71229#msg71229 date=1398545747] Beef rib bones are probably fine. Lamb rib bones are better. You want bones that he can eat up in about 20 minutes or less. Avoid leg bones or 'recreational bones' that last a long time - these are too hard and will wear down and possibly break teeth. An easy rule of thumb is to avoid all animal leg bones. [/quote] This is interesting Rachael, i don't feed leg bones as such but do feed pig trotters which will take the best part of 40 mins for puz to eat, so are they bad for her. She is very sensible with her bones and they also have an ample covering of flesh and some meat on them
Re: Bones Don't take the 20 mins too literally - I really meant go for bones that can be totally consumed, not ones that provide hours of gnawing. The trotters sound fine, especially if she is not a 'power chewer' who will chew to the bitter end
Re: Bones When I worked in rescue one of the volunteers used to bring two black sacks of raw bones from the butchers every week. Sometimes they weren't cut up and we would have whole rib cages! We had to get the maintenance guy to saw them up for us! Anyway we used to have a huge variety - ribs, long bones, all sorts and we never had any issues with feeding any of them - only that the dogs poo would go pale and crumbly after eating them. They used to devour the whole thing - bone and all.
Re: Bones [quote author=Puppypal link=topic=5616.msg71249#msg71249 date=1398548187] [quote author=Oberon link=topic=5616.msg71229#msg71229 date=1398545747] Beef rib bones are probably fine. Lamb rib bones are better. You want bones that he can eat up in about 20 minutes or less. Avoid leg bones or 'recreational bones' that last a long time - these are too hard and will wear down and possibly break teeth. An easy rule of thumb is to avoid all animal leg bones. [/quote] This is interesting Rachael, i don't feed leg bones as such but do feed pig trotters which will take the best part of 40 mins for puz to eat, so are they bad for her. She is very sensible with her bones and they also have an ample covering of flesh and some meat on them [/quote] I don't feed any raw pork to my dogs, I believe there is some risk of parasites that comes with raw pork. Might be worth checking out in some guidelines on raw feeding.
