Big Paws Only Dog Forums
BPO Food Forum => Food Discussion & Information => : Yaz March 09, 2006, 12:58:20 PM
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Wondering if anyone else out there buys beef soup bones as chews/treats for their dogs? I have bought them for years from the supermarket or butcher because they are incredibly cheap ($1.54 or so for two large ones), and my dogs act like they have died and gone to heaven when they eat them. I boil them in salted water and let them cool down before I give it to them. They will chew for hours - much better than spending a small fortune at PetSmart for stuff that cost six times as much and is devoured in minutes.
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Cute Picture!
We went to a local butcher to hope to score some bones, and the butcher said "Cows don't have bones now-a-days" (Yes we live in the south)
Seemed kind of a strange comment to me :-\ He said the new breeds aren't nearly as bony as cows of the past. We're still looking for them :)
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We buy them for Sophie. She loves them. You do not need to boil them the dogs can eat them raw. Boiling them in salt water just sounds like it wouldn't be very good for them... but I don't know. I like Sophie naw on it till she has cleaned the meat off the outside and some of the marrow inside then I put it back in the freezer for the next day. If she gets it really clean then you can leave them out and do not have to refreeze.
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Cute Picture!
We went to a local butcher to hope to score some bones, and the butcher said "Cows don't have bones now-a-days" (Yes we live in the south)
Seemed kind of a strange comment to me :-\ He said the new breeds aren't nearly as bony as cows of the past. We're still looking for them :)
We get them at the grocery store. They are usually next to the beef products and are labeled soup bones or something like that. You can ask grocery butcher if they have any marrow soup bones sometimes they keep them in the back or run out up front.
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You do not need to boil them the dogs can eat them raw. Boiling them in salt water just sounds like it wouldn't be very good for them... but I don't know.
Only add a dash of salt if there is a lot of meat on the bones because a dog's body cannot process excess salt.
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I used to get my dogs the femur bone at the grocery store. They don't always have them but when they do it only cost me about $5 for two big juicy bones. I let my guys chew them in their cage until they get the yucky stuff off and most of the marrow out, then I refreeze. After one more sitting they have usually cleaned them out good. We have a few bones laying around, I put them in the dishwasher every few weeks, just in case.
Rocco has been able to break a few of the older ones, so just be careful and keep an eye on your pup when he's chewing.
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We have a small market here and I can request dog bones from the butcher and get them within a day or two. Sadly, since Cowboy has had stomach issues (the ulcerated gastrointestin al lining) he can't ever have bones again. He's SOOO sad. :( I've tried to explain to Chester that it wouldn't be kind for him to have a bone and leave Cowboy out, but I don't think he understands! ::)
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Hi,
We get them at the supermarket, Winslow gets them raw, I've heard you should only give them raw, as cooked bones are more likely to splinter and cause injury to the pup? Is that true? I can see that occurs in Chicken bones but the beef bones seem so much more substantial.
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Our vet told us not to give them to Cesco. He said they were dangerous for dogs. Has anyone else heard this?
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I have not heard that. I've only heard that cooked bones are not good because they splinter easier but raw ones are great for dogs.
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I have been getting the small smoked knee bones from Petsmart for the girls but I recently got the full femur bones. In fact, Kaila is chewing on it right now and they love the smoked meat on the bone.
Kat
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So the raw bones won't splinter then? Even if the dog can chew through them? (Which Cesco would)
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The last time we fed a bone, it was one of those huge knuckle bones from petsmart, and bava passed sharp pieces of bone and it .. uhm, I don't know of a delicate way to say this, it made his bung bleed a little I think. Seems like the soup bones wouldn't break as sharply as the knuckle bone did.
Is that right? Will they still pass bone pieces with eating a soup bone?
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We asked our vet regarding bones that would be good for Kate, and we've never had a problem since following her advice...Â
She gets one or two a week, we buy from a specialty "health dog food" store. But any store that carries the BARF (or any raw diet) should carry them. Kate only gets raw uncooked bones (they are frozen in-store). They have bison, cow, moose - everything you can think of. Kate has done absolutely wonderful with them. We've never had one splinter, she's never gotten the runs - nothing! I'd definitely recommend them, Kate will never get anything else (for bones that is - she still gets dog cookies)! Oh - and they cost around $2 or $3 each, they have different sizes (knuckles, legs, etc) :)
Another bonus is that it cleans their teeth really well too... ;)
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I give Flynn a whole raw one and he's a very happy boy. He prefers the shin bones to the rhigh bones as there's more meat and sinew left on them for some reason. He likes them best when they have matured for a few days and go a bit pongy. ;D
I personally wouldn't cook them as cooked bones go brittle and if they do splinter, they can be really sharp. Raw bones still have the natural collagen in them, so are more flexible. I usually find they are very resillient for the first day or two then the dogs can usually grind very small pieces off as they gnaw which can be safely swallowed.
Flynn never has diahorrea or constipation with the raw bones and never splinters them despite having teeth, jaws and a head like a Canadian black bear.
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We used to give zoey bones from the butcher, but we don't anymore. We had boiled them because we heard that's what we were supposed to do, but one must have splintered or something because the day after we gave zoey a bone we ended up at the vet with vomiting and diahrea.
I would suggest giving them raw just because my bad experience involved a cooked one
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The last time we fed a bone, it was one of those huge knuckle bones from petsmart, Â Seems like the soup bones wouldn't break as sharply as the knuckle bone did.
Is that right? Will they still pass bone pieces with eating a soup bone?
Knuckle bones ARE soup bones - same thing. They are Beef Knuckle bones from the joint of long bones. Grocery stores all carry them and their benefits of feeding the as recreational chewing is as raw bones - no value to cooked and those would be more dangerous since if consumed so large, would have a much harder time passing and breaking down. There is little meat on them but dogs tend to scrape the raw meat and this is an excellent teeth cleaner - I have never had my dogs' teeth cleaned in their life and they better than the kibble fed dogs who get cleanings.
Beware however of the grocery store variety as these are "cut" bones and some are small relative to their orginal state. Cut bones, if you have an aggressive chewer who consumes them, can do damage and come out scraping the intestines. Ideally, if you can order them uncut from a butcher or farmer - huge - at least 8 inches long - that is the best and safest manner - Oh and always RAW.
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I have been able to find knuckle bones at walmart, was looking for something other than for my dog. Be careful though, if the bone does start to splinter, or even your kongs, throw them away, no matter how small the pieces. Last year went through a stomach issue with Navarre, my GSD at the bridge now, and on one of the x-rays there where all these tiny pieces of stuff getting ready to enter his intestines. It was some of his kong, which he had started to pull apart from the top and a bone (now this was a raw hide which my vet told me to NEVER give again). He did love his knuckle bones when he got them though!! On a bit of a different topic, I've read a few of you talking about feeding your dogs raw. I had a lot of problems with Navarre and someone suggested that I look into that. Unfortunately for him it was too late, but could someone tell me what you're feeding?
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We get Drake Beef Soup Bones all the time and he loves them. We will buy 3 or 4 at a time and freeze the ones we don't use right away. He invariably doesn't completely eat them and buries them in the backyard, and digs them up again weeks later after they are nice and rotten. YUCKO!!! Our Gardener brings him little bones every Friday too, so he and her Golden Retriever, Taka, can have a nice mid-morning snack.
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I used to buy the raw soup bones from the butcher for Bubba but he demolished them so quickly into small pieces that I was worried he was going to choke on them. These were the knuckle type bones though. I can never get the leg bones they always sell out of them first. :-\
They really should be given raw though, then they don't splinter.
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No prep.. I just thaw and rinse them under the tap. As for the ick factor. You might want to give it to them somewhere easy to clean up.. I usually make Bubba stay on the kitchen floor since I just give it a quick mop once he's finished. The gross part would have to be the crunching since turkey necks are mostly bone. But once they get into it they tend to eat them pretty quickly. And yup I give the whole thing....
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I get raw beef bones from a local family run locker plant & they give them to us for free!!...Ya' know they don't look nearly as bloody when you hand them to the dogs as they do after they've chewed on them for awhile...They always look like they've just killed something in my kitchen! :D
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Our GP Cirra has frozen raw buffalo bones and the Merrick bones with supervision. Not free but available most of the time, and she loves to have a chew after evening dinner. Any small pieces can be traded for. Really helps clean her teeth, but again, she must be supervised for hazards. Collected afterward and given out if she has cabin fever.....
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I feed my dog these bones, but I do have a warning.
One of my dogs got one caught on his jaw. the hole was big enough that he managed to get it over his bottom canines and around his tongue and bottom jaw. It came off at the vet's office after they gave him a sedative that relaxed his jaw.
So, if you do feed them...watch the holes in the middle. Get the smallest ones you can. My vet said it was a very common occurance.
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Smoked pet store bones are still "cooked" it's the heat that changes the structure of the bone and causes splinters, bones should never be given after being heated, (so no bones from your T-bone, unless you eat RAW, too). Freezing is just as effective to kill any bacteria, I freeze them overnight to make sure they're frozen all the way through, then feed them that way so by the time they're thawed the dogs have worked off most of the meat and grease.
I buy whole femurs from the butcher, that's a long leg bone with both knuckles (joints) still on. Look for places that process game or do their own cutting, grocery stores these days are unlikely to have big enough ones. Our bones run a good 24" long. Our dogs know there are "bone zones" in the house, fresh bones are only allowed in the bedrooms, on the rug. Earnest knows the phrase "too messy". He'll stand in the door to the living room with a bone, asking to hang out with us, if I say "too messy" it's funny to see him decide which he wants more, company or the bone. Sometimes we win- sometimes the bone does!
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An awful lot of you are talking about feeding your raw bones indoors and this is very concerning to me. I want to preface what I am about to say by saying that I have been feeding raw for 5 years, several dogs, and prepare diets for people on a regular basis. I don't find handling raw meat "icky" or see what is gross about holding a turkey neck so....with that said:
Raw meaty bones in your house is a serious health hazard and not to be taken lightly. You can't rub a meaty bone on your floor and think a "quick mop" is going to do anything to effectively clean the surface. It would take serious chemicals - bleach, ammonia etc. to effectively clean the bacteria - even if it has been frozen you should not presume safety and bacteria free. I don't recommend using these chemicals as these are hazardous to your animals and would not want them walking on these surfaces afterwards. I do not recommend touching door handles, appliances or other surfaces before washing your hands thoroughly and definitely recommend against allowing your dogs to chew on bones on rugs or regular floor surfaces.
For those raw feeders I know who cannot allow their dogs outside to chew (either too cold etc.), they lay out plastic with a sheet on top so that then at least they can wash the sheet in extremely hot temperatures. I recommend this over allowing them on any other surface.
Personally, my dogs don't set food indoors with a bone - they chew them outside where they stay and since breakfast is always our RMB meal - I hand them their turkey necks outside in the morning.