My local pet store had a sale on rec bones when I was picking up dog food...I I picked up something with pork (as he's cleaned it off I'm pretty sure it's a femur) for Ryuk to play with. He'll most likely finish getting the meat off of it in the next hour, however this isn't like his previous bones which were sections of a larger bone, with the marrow accessable (I usually removed most of it since it tends to lead to er, "lovely" smells out of my dog later on). However this is a closed bone. To I let him keep it or should I freeze it again, or should I discard it? How to I handle the marrow in there?

Google-fu has turned up conflicting information about this....so, any ideas?

Bump.

I'd like to know the answer too.

You'll get hugely conflicting info because the individual dog matters almost 100%. A gnawing dog will probably be OK, and a "bite this sucker OPEN!" dog can fracture a tooth (and it can even be even invisible until bad problems become apparent), Some bones dry out and turn either shardy or cementy (and some don't). So that's why you see a ton of varying opinions.

My own is: I don't give recreational bones. But that's because my family experience includes thousands of dollars to Tufts for a young Border Terrier's fractured tooth: root canal and crown.

http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm#recreational

....so apparently my dog takes the "break this open by trauma" method....30 minutes of him throwing it down stairs and on my walls and he managed to break it a little, he then ripped it apart with his paws and teeth and cleaned out the marrow and crunched the bone, he ate some of the smaller pieces before I could get them away from him (poop was a little hard this morning, but behavior was normal). He gets lot of tooth care, I'll check tonight when I finish scaling his bottom jaw for any damage.

He's had weight bearing cow bones in the past and those he gnaws. I think this one was a little to soft for him to gnaw properly. I'll stick with fully edible or not at all edible in the future. He's never been an aggressive chewer with bones (he reserves "shark jaw" power for rubber), he licks and gnaws unless the item can be crunched like dried trachea.

Connie, can you recommend a "safe" to crunch bone that won't be gone in under 30 minutes? Is there a happy medium?

 Quote: jamie craig

.... Connie, can you recommend a "safe" to crunch bone that won't be gone in under 30 minutes? Is there a happy medium?

I don't give any bones but their RMBs.

I do give the LB antlers, though. http://leerburg.com/1302.htm Also the larger of the bully sticks. http://leerburg.com/1182.htm


I'm sure you'll get other responses from folks who have found what you're looking for.

Yes and no.

Sometimes, but mostly never.

Could or couldn't.

JMO.

When in doubt, I will play it safe. Why take a risk if you are not sure. JMO

 Quote: Michael_Wise

Yes and no.

Sometimes, but mostly never.

Could or couldn't.

JMO.

Yes, this is the conciseness I was striving for.

My dog is a light chewer so I give her raw beef back rib bones, she eats off the meat and barely touches the bone then when shes done I toss them. I don't give her any heavy weight baring bones or any I've seen from the pet stores most of those I've seen were cooked some way and most hard as a rock.

I feed rec bones(marrow bones) alot,to pups. I have occasionally fed them to adult dogs,but if I do...I take them away after they lick the marrow out. I don't want to risk tooth fractures, as my dogs go pretty hard at bones.

I also have fed them frozen, as the dogs are really after the marrow. After that they start to chew. I don't ever refreeze or save in any way. They are tossed. A knuckle bone I may feed for a while & then refrigerate it for the next day, for a pup. But not if it has been out in the yard exposed to the sun. They start to dry out.

I have found that pups do ok (& adults) on marrow bones, but I find that all my dogs have gotten the 'runs' from knuckle bones, so I have rarely ever fed them. I used to buy marrow bones in 40lb cases when I had pups around. So the adults got some, too.

Maybe a dog that is NOT on a raw diet(mine are)may go a bit easier on a rec bone & not chew as hard, I don't know.

I, personally, also, just don't think it is not worth the risk of a fracture on an adult dog.

Just my experience.