Hi all,

Having listened to you all about the dangers of feeding cooked (fried) marrow bones and knuckles, which my two JSI's were enjoying, I have decided to go with raw marrow bones, provided I can find a friendly butcher to sell me some - the "danger" bones are now in the bin (they were never given without my supervision anyway, but best not to take the risk).

My question is, how much meat is on raw bones and how do you minimise the mess to your carpet?  I would happily put a towel down if I thought Lennon would keep the bone on it, or happily give it to him in the garden only, but he'd never want to come in again LOL.

Any other suggestions appreciated.

Cheers

When mine have bones they have them either in the kitchen (moppable floor!) or in the garden. I don't like blood on the carpets either!

Thanks JG, yes, the kitchen would be perfect, if only I had a door...........bugger, I knew there was something I missed when I had the kitchen done.........

I always wait until it is a nice dry day,get them out of the freezer in the mornig,give them the bones  in the garden in the afternoon,dont like them having marrow bones inside far too messy.........

Sheila.

Thanks - definitely looks like it's the garden then.......roll on nice dry weather (perleeze???)

Cheers

My kitchen doesnt have a door either, I have a baby gate on there :)

I never thought in a million years i could get my dogs to stay on their blanket to eat their bones

But it was easier than i thought,every time they got up and moved with their bone, usually only 1 foot over onto the carpet :rolleyes: I picked up their bone and put it back on their blanket,i only had to do this 4-5 times,before they realised that they didnt get their bone if they wernt on their blanket. Now,i give them their bone in the kitchen and they toddle off over to their blanket by themselves,which is in the lounge.

Before enforcing this, i had greasy bone stains on my carpets and my house looked like a graveyard with bones scattered from one end to the other.Now theyre all in one place :)

Even if they wanted to take them outside,which they dont,i wouldnt let them as the ants come and their bones are covered with them within minutes and then they make their way inside

I would prefer to give the bones inside if poss, as I have two JSI's who need separating when having high quality treats, or there's usually a rumble :( - Roxy (9 y/o) is fine, she will eat on her "bed" which is washable and not a problem.  Lennon, however, may have to be encouraged to eat his in his crate, which has vet bed in it (nice and washable too).  Unfortunately, I had the kitchen door widened due to having a large American style fridge freezer installed, and there's not a baby gate in the world that would stretch that far :)

Cheers

Hi vicki...
are you sure about a gate?? i too have one of those large walkin (lol) fridge freezers but didnt need to widen my door holes.i took the doors off the fridge to get it in :-) i have a dog gate as oppose to a baby gate (slightly bigger and stronger) and you can get extension bars aswell to make it a bit wider if needs be. how big is your door gap? as one like mine might fit.

Hi Jane - this sounds hopeful....kitchen door is 4' wide.  Where did you get your dog gate please?  This could be the answer to my prayers.  BTW, the door was not widened to get the FF in, but so we would open both of the doors....you'd have to see the kitchen to really get the reasoning behind it :)

hi vicki
i have just had a look at the measurements and it says with the extra extension bars it will go to 112cm (44 inches) so it looks like it will 4 inches too short :-(
but if you could attached a couple of pieces of 2 inch thick wood to each side of the door hole  perhaps that would be ok... i did something similar with a smaller gate at a previous house and it worked for me..
i got my gate from argos its on page 863 if you have a book handy (cat no 870/4346 if u havent :-) )

hope that helps :-)

Whats JSI stand for?

Just going to ask that too Frodo:D Been wracking what few brains I posses but no luck ;-)

Anne

Im guessing at Japanese Shiba Inu  ( probably spelt wrong :rolleyes: )

Correct Claire!  And you spelt it correctly too!

Thanks for the info Jane... :)

Thanks for that Frodo - blimey, I'd forgotten all about the bloody ants!

Looks like it's indoors for me.  Roxy on her bed in the hallway, and Lennon on a towel (if he will) or in his crate in the lounge.  All a bit academic really, as I haven't even got the bones yet LOL :) :D - still, I DO like to be prepared!

Thanks never thought of that :D
Anne

Generally we give them outside.  I can't stand the thought of them inside.  I also let them have blankets outside (spoiled whippets) to chew them on as 2 of them won't chew them if there's grass/dirt on them.

After they've been well chewed (and I've gotten tired of playing goalie and keeping them out) I will occasionally let them have them inside on the blankets and as someone else said, it doesn't take them long to realise if they want to stay inside with them they need to keep them on the blanket.  Have pics of one of my girls asleep on her blanket beside her bone.

About the agression issue - my girls were very possessive when I started giving out marrowbones, but once they realised they were going to be a regular thing they don't tend to be.  If someone checks out someone else's bone there's the odd 'grrr' and they respect that, but often they go and play swap about.  I just gave bones for the first time since getting our pup last year (she's now 10months) and there was still no problem even adding her to the mix.  She respected the other two and just chewed on the choice of bones I gave her.

Wendy

I give my two marrowbones outside - one is in the run and the other in the rest of the garden :)

Outside or in kitchen (wipeable floor) - Only thing with outside are the blasted fly's who lay eggs on the bone within minutes   Prob dont cause any harm but I really dislike the thought of Lana eating fly eggs!

argos do a baby gate that extends to 4'

Fab - thank you :)

are you sure rogaz... i just checked my argos book again and the biggest the baby gates go is 110cm just over 43 inches (with extensions)  so they wont fit. 4' is 48" at least it is on the tape measures lol :-)

your right just checked my book they must of stopped doing them the one we got extends to 52" if my tape measure is right lol

rogaz, what the makers name of your gate? as they might still make them that big. perhaps vicki could contact them and ask where to get one from or they may sell direct . its worth a try :-)