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raw soup bones


roscoe11
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Most beef bones are too hard for dogs and can indeed result in broken teeth.

 

Imo, weight bearing bones from cattle shouldn't be given to dogs for this reason, so I agree with your vet about this type of bone. The one exception could be the knuckle bones that dogs can chew and wear down, but there are many people who disagree even with these.

 

However, being a raw feeder, I disagree with a wholesale prohibition on raw bones. Many raw bones are completely edible and are an important part of a healthy raw diet.

 

I give my dogs pork, venison and lamb bones, as well as raw poultry bones.

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Some people avoid weight-bearing bones to try to keep their dogs' teeth safe. Instead they feed ribs, necks, etc. Dogs can also get their lower jaws stuck in the hollow of a marrow bone, so use caution when providing them. As the occasional treat I see no real issue, but if you're doing it daily you might want to be careful.

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I feed my dogs raw bones every day, but only the non-weight bearing bones of any larger animal (like beef or lamb). The soup bones I've found have mostly been leg bones sliced horizontally across the bone into one- or two-inch pieces, so I don't feed them for fear of slab fractures of my dogs' teeth.

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I feed my dog bones that are inside meat and only edible bones. I don't feed any cow leg bones and only let him chew a deer leg for a bit as neither of these are actually edible for him. Typically turkey legs, turkey backs, chicken quarters, pork necks, pork shoulder and venison bones (neck, ribs frozen inside other scrap meat and the occasional leg with meat still on) are the bone-in meats I get. I get them from the grocery store, local butcher, a farmer down the road sells me the pork necks and venison bones are from ourselves or given to us as scrap from those we know.

 

I know lots of people who feed their dogs cow leg bones and they do fine but I don't see any need to take the risk. I don't feed anything real small like chicken necks or a single rib as they just look like a perfect shape to choke on and probably don't provide much dental cleaning.

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I buy raw turkey necks from the grocery store and cut them in half and freeze them. Each dog gets a half of a raw frozen turkey neck each week. They all come running when they hear me open the freezer and see me get them out - then they race to their crates. It's the culinary high point of their week.

 

We buy all the meat we eat ourselves from local farmers, and rarely have bones we want to spare for the dogs. That being said, my spouse says that the next time we get a half a pig from a local farmer, the pigs' feet can also be given to the dogs. We tend to find ways of using bones that many would feed to dogs ourselves (chicken carcasses => soup stock; lamb riblets = DELICIOUS when grilled, etc.). Somehow it's OK to buy turkey necks from the grocery store for the dogs rather than to make turkey stock ourselves.

 

I stay away from weight-bearing bones (like soup bones) precisely because of the risk of fractured molars. I've read it's one of the biggest risk factors for broken teeth.

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