Hello I have a few questions about feeding my 7 month old puppy certain things. My first question is about raw soup bones. I know that people feed their dogs raw beef and chicken meat. What about e coli bacteria can't your dog die from this?
Also What about rawhide chews how much is too much?
And Peanut Butter my girlfriend wants to feed the dog PB. I heard a Vet tell some your dog can get Pancreatic Cancer from peanuts?

Raw soup bones should be fine as long as he can't get the whole thing in his mouth and choke on it.

I don't worry about E-coli, they eat week old dead squirrels and all manner of other nasty stuff without a problem, so chicken and beef should be just fine. For game it should be frozen for a length of time to kill any parasites.

My dogs love peanut butter in their kongs, but giving them PB on bread scares the daylights out of me because I had to scrape it off the roof of one of their mouths. I try to use real peanut butter rather than jif or peter pan because that stuff has added corn syrup.

I give only the big rawhide bones, never the strips and only in moderation.

Thanks for the info Jennifer I do appreciate it. We give our puppy PB in her Kong also, but I was concerned because I heard our Vet telling another customer that peanuts will give your dog pancreatic cancer. I feed her the all-Natural PB so I should be ok. Thanks again for the info Isis appreciates it.

Michael, I just wanted to say what a beautiful pup she is!

1. Dogs are not as susceptible to E.Coli and salmonella as people are. Their systems are evolved specifically to eat raw meat. Think of all the other things your dog eats (poop, roadkill, garbage, etc) and is just fine.

2. My guess is your dog is an American Bulldog. These are powerful dogs. Be careful when giving soup bones as a strong chewer can damage his teeth. I have a Husky/Catahoula mix all of 50 lbs who crushed and swallowed a frozen beef knuckle bone in 30 minutes. How he did not break all of his teeth I have no idea. I no longer give soup bones to my dogs after this. So watch the dog carefully.

3. Rawhides are a big no-no in my house. Many have been cured with chemical cocktails that include arsenic. Not only that, but they swell to five times their original pressed size in the dog's stomach, which is a good risk for a bowel obstruction. Bully sticks are more expensive, but in my opinion, safer. Rawhides have been discussed on this forum before, you can use the search feature to see other people's opinions on this.

What I consider safe are nylabones (flavoured or not), bully sticks, rubber toys like Kongs, and the toys Leerburg sells such as the orbee balls and orbee bones.

Soup bones would be OK if your dog does not try and crush them.

Edited to add: statistically your dog is more likely to die choking on a rawhide than from E.coli from raw meat.

 Quote: Angela Burrell

1. Dogs are not as susceptible to E.Coli and salmonella as people are. Their systems are evolved specifically to eat raw meat. Think of all the other things your dog eats (poop, roadkill, garbage, etc) and is just fine.

2. My guess is your dog is an American Bulldog. These are powerful dogs. Be careful when giving soup bones as a strong chewer can damage his teeth. I have a Husky/Catahoula mix all of 50 lbs who crushed and swallowed a frozen beef knuckle bone in 30 minutes. How he did not break all of his teeth I have no idea. I no longer give soup bones to my dogs after this. So watch the dog carefully.

3. Rawhides are a big no-no in my house. Many have been cured with chemical cocktails that include arsenic. Not only that, but they swell to five times their original pressed size in the dog's stomach, which is a good risk for a bowel obstruction. Bully sticks are more expensive, but in my opinion, safer. Rawhides have been discussed on this forum before, you can use the search feature to see other people's opinions on this.

What I consider safe are nylabones (flavoured or not), bully sticks, rubber toys like Kongs, and the toys Leerburg sells such as the orbee balls and orbee bones.

Soup bones would be OK if your dog does not try and crush them.

Edited to add: statistically your dog is more likely to die choking on a rawhide than from E.coli from raw meat.

Thanks for the information Angela actually you were close my puppy is an American Blue nose Pitbull so here jaws are like a machine and can crush anything. She demolishes the soup bones. She is 8 months old now. I love the Bully sticks but the prices are ridicules my puppy will go through the largest Bully Sticks in minutes. I started to get concerned the other night with the soup bones as I found a few pieces on the floor that she had broken off that were very sharp. My puppy is a tenacious chewer. I bought the so called indestructible ball chew toy that you can put treats in the middle and the round treats on the outside. Ed has them on his site and recommends them. Ed showed one in his videos that was in his dog yard for years and it looked like it was in perfect condition. Let me tell you my puppy has destroyed that in 2 months. It looks like someone took a saw to it and cut it apart. I'm just glad my puppy hasn't eaten our house yet. Just kidding she is one of the best dog we have owned so far.

Thank you Lynne! And I think you dog is beautiful also.

i have an olde bulldogge which is an aggressive chewer. i buy the largest bone i can get and when it starts to look old i get another one. i personally give pig ears but some people don't. i've found it helps clean my dogs teeth.

Hi Michael, Isis is quite a stunner!

Just wanted to add my 2 cents here:

1. Rawhides scare the crap out of me - in addition to all the processing chemicals Angella pointed out, and the swelling in the stomach, choking is a big concern of mine - had it happen twice with my dog before I wised up and stopped giving them to him.

2. Soup bones (by which I assume you mean marrow bones/recreational bones) - some dogs are soft chewers and neatly gnaw and lick these bones until they're clean - great! but some dogs (you sound like you have one) literally try to chomp THROUGH the bone. My dog used to get these bones until he broke a molar on one and needed a $2,000 root canal to save the tooth. The dentist said he had numerous smaller chips as well and was none too pleased with me... I don't give marrow bones for recreation anymore, and I'm so concerned for the rest of his teeth (and my wallet) that I rarely even give mammal bones as RMBs - mostly just poultry and rabbit now (muscle meat is VERY varied). Just keep this in mind and watch your dog.

3. The pancreatitis/peanut butter link > Your vet was probably giving a warning about dogs ingesting too much FAT:

 Quote:

High fat diets, especially in combination with low protein intake, appear to contribute to the development of pancreatitis. A single high fat meal may cause pancreatitis in a pet whose normal diet is moderate or low in fat. We see an increase in cases of pancreatitis around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter almost every year, presumably due to the ingestion of high fat leftovers from the big meals associated with these holidays.

from vetinfo4dogs.com

PB in kongs is a tried and true recreational technique, and one that most puppies and young dogs enjoy on a daily basis, so I don't think you should be spooked about that amount of fat, though if your dog got into a whole JAR of PB, then you might want to see a vet...

As with anything, everyone has their own experience - I know dogs who have eaten entire bags of chocolate chips, bottles of aspirin, and dog's who have spent their lives chowing down on marrow bones - all none the worse for the wear. The key, in my opinion, is knowing your dog inside and out, and supervision at all times.

Good luck with Isis!

~Natalya

I have been wanting to ask this quewtion since I started reading this site a few months ago. I get confused about all this bone and raw food eating. So someone help me out PLEASE!

Back in the day werent chicken and turkey bones/necks/legs etc thought to be very dangerous for fogs because of splintering and choking? I was expressly told NEVER to give my GSD anything to do with them I remember it clearly. SO.. what changed?