Ok, so I was reading Jennifer's post about what bones are better for cleaning teeth. The point/fact was brought up that some bones are pretty much a bad idea for dogs that are very determined chewers.

:frown: I've been giving my dogs bones for years and years and have always had - I mean every single dog! - determined chewers. I never had issues with tooth damage - perhaps I was lucky? I've been giving butcher's bones, the beef "soup bone assortment" type of cow crowns/knuckles and sections of leg bone(tibia/femur/humerus etc) along with deer and elk legs etc.

What bones should be avoided for dogs that have a drive for chewing? I always take bones after a certain amount of time - if a good amount of the marrow is eaten and the meat/sinew/tissue from the bone has been eaten, and I see the dog is just downright chomping on the bone, then I take it, scoop out the marrow and either give it to the dog or save it for use in coating pills with (smear warm marrow on anything, they'll swallow it like a dream..)

Should I not give my chew driven dogs dense leg bones, or just continue to take them away after a while?

Leg bones are the worst since they are weight bearing.

And if I am not mistaken, wild game weight bearing bones tend to get harder more quickly due to the fact they are smaller than say, cow or buffalo.

Ok, so I should not give them, or just keep an eagle eye on the dogs when they start to get down to the bone? The bones I buy and give have a fair amount of meat on them, and I give them mostly frozen as it slows the dogs down a bit.

So, for driven chewers, whats the option?

ditto to what jennifer's saying....i give the dogs those types of bones sometimes, i always supervise and take away after about a hour. is that okay? luc especially likes to crack into and really get the bone.

IMHO, I would not give them if the dog is so driven that they try and crack the bone. Cracks in teeth can be easily overlooked (although most of us are probably vigilant) and cause issues several months if not a year or more down the road.

Just my opinion. Connie? Yuko?

I know there are several discussions about this if you do a search....

I have been taking bones from my dogs for years simply because there was no/very very little meat/tissue left and the marrow that could be gotten out, had aleady been - without really thinking about the dog's teeth. I feel like a bit of an idiot, for though I was taking the bones and never allowed my dogs to crack them open or "go to town" on them too much, I was doing it for the wrong reason!

I love this web board. I learn every day, here!

ah - sorry I should have searched on it before I posted. Will do that now

thanks - think i'm going to be keeping to lots of the smaller bones then. being very careful w/the big ones.

on a related note (raw diet), i found some green tripe today - i'm sure i paid a ridiculous amount, but i was excited just to find it

Where did you find it?

a pet store! i stopped to get the cats food (wellness core) and they have the pre-packaged raw diets - i've seen that diet for sale in other stores, but have never seen the tripe. for some reason i decided to see what they were carrying, actually hoping for tripe (since i certainly don't want to pay $25 for a bunch of patties that would last 2 days, heh), and they had a bunch of lamb tripe i picked up 3lbs of it.