I have taken the plunge and started to give Buster a bone to chew on, not as part of his diet, just something for him to do, allthough it has firmed his stools up a tad.

He has a shin bone, unfortuanelt, when I finally got all the wrapping off, I discoved it had been snapped in half, so he's only got one half at the moment (about 10" long), the other half I've popped in the freezer.

He'll have his bone one per day, for about 1-2 hrs, when he's not chompingon it, I wrap it ina bag and put it in the fridge. He's had the bone for 1 week now and it's starting to whiff a bit (there's still some 'tissue' on it, he hasn't managed to get off, prefering to actually eat the bone it self by grinding away the edges).
He is not phased the the whiff - in fact he likes it!, so my question is how long is it OK for this bone to be around. Does it matter that it stinks? Should I bin it after set amount of time?

I give my dogs butchers bones. I only give middle cut bones. the dogs clean them and they lay around ages, the dogs go back to the bones periodicaly. if your dog doesnt clean them I should bin them or the bluebottles might get a them.

> I only give middle cut bones.

What is a middle cut bone? I am new to giving bones and know nothing about it!

The bone I got for Buster was from the butchers, it's not a pet-shop jobbie.

> if your dog doesnt clean them I should bin them or the bluebottles might get a them.

I keep it in the fridge if the dog isn't chewing it - don't want a maggoty bone hanging around the house (Buster prefers to chew his bone, on his bed in the livingroom).

I feed mine barf. When they have a big bone like you have given Buster i throw it out the next day if its not been eaten.
Not because of the dogs, they would eat them months down the line. I just find them too smelly and they are either cheap or free so they get thrown the next day.

I've just got George a new one but the last one has been knocking about in the garden for well over a year now and he still used to go back and have a munch every now and again

I only bin mine when they have become so small the dogs could choke on them. The big dogs keep their bones outside. (We often tell visitors the bones are all that's left of the last people who visited LOL.) With the little dogs though, I had to have my Cavalier caged a lot about a month ago as I had a bitch in season. So we got him a big bone to keep him occupied. It was full of meat. It's still around, no meat left of course, has been chewed by the Cavalier and the 5 Papillons and is currently about a third of the size it was to start with. :) It doesn't smell as all the meat was removed long ago.

> What is a middle cut bone?

This is the piece between knuckle joints, so would have an open end..showing the marrowbone...The butcher will/should know what you mean if you say middle cut

>> What is a middle cut bone?
> This is the piece between knuckle joints, so would have an open end..showing the marrowbone...The butcher will/should know what you mean if you say middle cut

Thank you :) Sounds like Bust would love that.

Thanks everyone, you've all put my mind at rest :)

> The big dogs keep their bones outside. (We often tell visitors the bones are all that's left of the last people who visited LOL.)

LOL, that's funny, I bet you get to see some horrified expressions :-)

I've been taking Busters bone off him (when he's lost interest) and keeping it in the fridge, as it's the first time he's ever had a bone he can't seem to settle with it about. He'll get fed up with chewing it, walk away, then go back to it. He'ss settle if it's in the fridge. He did try to bury it once, but gave up after a couple of lame attempts at scuffing up the lawn!

I am like brain less. unless they are too small where I bin them they lay around the house and garden for years! my dogs keep going back to chew them. very off putting when trying to watch tv lol. one bone I threw away during the summer that my dog that died nearly 3 years ago used to chomp. the only reason I threw it was because it had broken in half! lol      they start off outside when they have meat on them then when they have cleaned that off they can bring them in. I have never limited the time they can have them.                  hth lea :)

Bones are kept for outside. I give them for a couple of hours most afternoons, when they have given up or come in for their evening meal, I pick them up and put them in the freezer for next time.

> We often tell visitors the bones are all that's left of the last people who visited LOL.

I love it!  :-)  :-)  Nice one.

I too, bin them when they get too small.

> This is the piece between knuckle joints, so would have an open end..showing the marrowbone...The butcher will/should know what you mean if you say middle cut

When my lad was a little pup, I carried him into my excellent local butchers (all dog owners themselves) and one said, Has he had his first bone yet?
No, I replied...
so the guy took out a whole cow's leg, and carefully and painstakingly sawed out just a small piece from the middle, about 6 inches long. Wouldn't charge me a penny for it.

Not a lot of meat on it but it was full of marrowbone, and once it was hollowed out and cleaned, it dried naturally. Call me sentimental .... but it stayed around for ages as it was His First Bone, it laid at the bottom of his toybox for 4 years and only got thrown out when I moved house.

If we are talking Beef Leg Bone, often cut in half, I let my dogs chew on them until bored the day I get them. 

I then put in a baking tray and put in the oven for 45 minutes on maximum.

They then get to keep them indefinitely or until chewed down too small to be considered safe from being swallowed.

I call it the shank bone..
But not sure if that's the correct 'butchers' term for that part of the leg bone.

In the oven?? Isn't that dangerous?

Never foudn an issue, it doesn't appear to amek teh boen any more brittle, not logn enough to really cook it but enough to quick flash any soft tissue and bugs.

Huh, never heard of anyone doing that before.
I don't feed beef or leg bones anyway, but interesting to know. :o)

middle cut is the leg bone below the knee. the knuckle part is easily demoished and can sometimes 'bung' dogs up.

Our pup is now 5  months old and a Dobe, So at what age is a good tme to be giving him butcher bones? Are some 'types' better than others or would the middle cut bone be a good one to start with?

Cheers

We get bones from our butcher and I used to leave them for weeks as the dogs would take all the meat/marrow out in the first day and then just munch on it afterwards.  Then, our dogs went through a stage of getting eye infections.  The vet told us that the infections were coming from the bacteria on the bones as I was leaving them down too long and when she was chewing, she would tilt her head so her eye would rub the bone.  I now just leave bones down 2 days then bin.  They are free so why risk it.