Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - The "A_J is a new dog owner & he needs help" thread

Acetylene · 12-19-2006, 02:26 PM

Oh, the bone issue, I see. Cooked bones tedn to splinter and make sharp bits, especially chicken bones but also any toher kind. The bones you buy from the pet store have been hardened by a very long baking process to help prevent this.

Your babies should not have any problems with breaking beef bones as they are not strong enough; however, bones you buy from the butcher have VERY sharp (knife-sharp sometimes) edges where the butcher sawed through it. They can easily cut their tender gums and the pups might not even notice, as dogs get kind of zen-spacey while they chew.

Proponents of raw bones say that raw bones are safe, but I have spoken to many vets that have operated on dogs with raw bone splinters in their stomachs who say otherwise. The truth is, in nature, the hair of the animal consumed wraps around the bone splinters in their stomach and emerges like a pellet, protecting the intestines. So unless you also feed your dogs a ton of hair, I wouldn't advise feeding them raw or cooked bones.

There was one time, though, when I found some weird, huge bone with a big area of easily-acessed marrow in the center. Dogs prefer the marrow so I gave it to my dog and let her scoop the marrow and soft bone out of the middle, after cooking the bone to kill germs, and then took the bone away once the marrow was gone and she began to chew the hard bone. You might try this if you find a similar marrow bone at your butcher's.

Otherwise I give her knuckle bones from the pet store with meat on them. They last her for weeks and they do not splinter and aren't as sharp. Granted, they are not much use nutritionally after being cooked for 9 hours; they are more of an enrichment activity than a nutritional supplement.

Here is what I do to balance food and wallet: you can try feeding a medium-price kibble with meat as the first ingredient and without ground corn or cornmeal (which is indigestable, although corn flour some say is ok and corn starch is fine) and supplementing it with very rare meat, chicken giblets, and nutritious vegetables like tomatoes, winter squash, or canteloupe. The rare meat is for amino acids that are denatured in the extreme cooking and dessication involved in kibble making, and the vegetables are for antioxidants that are also lost during cooking and storage. The giblets are to provide a more natural nutritional profile, since predators would not normally restrict themselves to muscle meats. I also save the juice that comes out while cooking the meat and drizzle it on the kibble, but this is mainly to make kibble more appetizing--a dog who gets steak every day doesn't always want to eat kibble. And I make the treats count--instead of milk-bones, give dried liver, boiled egg or other nutritionally advantageous goodies.

12-19-2006, 02:26 PM	#22 (permalink)
Acetylene Addict Location: under a rock	Oh, the bone issue, I see. Cooked bones tedn to splinter and make sharp bits, especially chicken bones but also any toher kind. The bones you buy from the pet store have been hardened by a very long baking process to help prevent this. Your babies should not have any problems with breaking beef bones as they are not strong enough; however, bones you buy from the butcher have VERY sharp (knife-sharp sometimes) edges where the butcher sawed through it. They can easily cut their tender gums and the pups might not even notice, as dogs get kind of zen-spacey while they chew. Proponents of raw bones say that raw bones are safe, but I have spoken to many vets that have operated on dogs with raw bone splinters in their stomachs who say otherwise. The truth is, in nature, the hair of the animal consumed wraps around the bone splinters in their stomach and emerges like a pellet, protecting the intestines. So unless you also feed your dogs a ton of hair, I wouldn't advise feeding them raw or cooked bones. There was one time, though, when I found some weird, huge bone with a big area of easily-acessed marrow in the center. Dogs prefer the marrow so I gave it to my dog and let her scoop the marrow and soft bone out of the middle, after cooking the bone to kill germs, and then took the bone away once the marrow was gone and she began to chew the hard bone. You might try this if you find a similar marrow bone at your butcher's. Otherwise I give her knuckle bones from the pet store with meat on them. They last her for weeks and they do not splinter and aren't as sharp. Granted, they are not much use nutritionally after being cooked for 9 hours; they are more of an enrichment activity than a nutritional supplement. Here is what I do to balance food and wallet: you can try feeding a medium-price kibble with meat as the first ingredient and without ground corn or cornmeal (which is indigestable, although corn flour some say is ok and corn starch is fine) and supplementing it with very rare meat, chicken giblets, and nutritious vegetables like tomatoes, winter squash, or canteloupe. The rare meat is for amino acids that are denatured in the extreme cooking and dessication involved in kibble making, and the vegetables are for antioxidants that are also lost during cooking and storage. The giblets are to provide a more natural nutritional profile, since predators would not normally restrict themselves to muscle meats. I also save the juice that comes out while cooking the meat and drizzle it on the kibble, but this is mainly to make kibble more appetizing--a dog who gets steak every day doesn't always want to eat kibble. And I make the treats count--instead of milk-bones, give dried liver, boiled egg or other nutritionally advantageous goodies. __________________ There's no justice. There's just us.