Ok, just given Louis his first real bone from the butcher. He loves it :) problem is he doesn't want his lunch now...the bone has bits of meat and fat on and hes having a good old chew!!
You can all roll your eyes now :) but will the bone go off cos of the meat and blood etc? do I put it in fridge when he doesn't want it? Its HUGE and will take him forever to get through it...ha ha
don't mind him missing one meal but what if he doesn't want his dinner? I might take the bone away a couple of hours before his dinner tonight so hopefully he will be more interested.
Suggestions?
Thanx

I take bones off Bonnie after half an hour or so and wrap them in a carrier and put them in the fridge. I keep letting her have a gnaw a couple of times a day for a few days by which time she has sucked and chewed all the fleshy bits off---then I leave it out in the garden!!
The reason I don't leave it with her too long is that she doesn't know when to stop and my last dog did the same and ended up with very stiff and sore tendons in her jaw!!!

Oh!! I hadn't thought of their jaws getting sore - what a good idea. Thanx for that

I only give middle cut marrow bones to my dogs. one bone that gets passed down the line, so by the time pup get it it is pretty clean, but still interesting. my bones(or should I say dogs bones) stay for months, as they have cleaned them so well, but will still go back and suddenly find a bone thats been around for ages interesting. but having said that, once they take a bone outside it stays outside!

Ah,  i've only got the pup so should i pick the bits off? or should i give the sterilized bones from the pet shop but put something tasty in it? all the other bones are smoked or the parma type. My daughter gives these to her akita with no trouble but they are too salty for Louis, as it is we have to wash the salt mark off his nose every morning :)

As far as the dog is concerned the whole point of the bone is the bits and the marrow.  Mien woudl never bother with sterilised bones or rubber chew toys.

Just popping out to try to get some bones--thought it might cheer Bonnie up while she has restricted exercise.!
On a slightly different thread (sorry OP) do butchers generally charge for bones? I popped in to one the other day and bought some bacon, asked if he had any marrow bones and he wanted to charge me £2, without even chopping it into a couple of pieces! Previously in another butchers they suggested a few coins in the collection box on the counter.

I agree, cant see the point to a steralilzed bone. Mine knaw and knaw till its worn away to nithing sometimes. which means of course nice clean teeth and healthy gums.

I have a very good butcher who, even the other saturday when I went in for my shopping came and handed me a big bag of bones.  I wasnt going to ask as it was a saturday. But them I am good to my butcher, I always hand in chocs at christmas time.

Depends what butchers it is i guess. Bones are a waste product so for them to charge you is a bit cheeky!! Contribution to charity seems reasonable and fair :-)

I paid 50p for a large bag :)   enough for little fella and daughter's large doggie....

I have 2 butchers who don't charge me any thing and will cut bones down if needed.The bones generally last for ages and I don't put them in the fridge as the kids would moan!They are moaning now as I have just bought some liver in the fridge to cook ready for Crufts tomorrow.I just discard the bones if they are smelly or dirty.Guess I am lucky with my butcher as he only charges me 50p for a kilo of organic beef or lamb mince.He once minced a whole joint of brisket and charged me 50p.The funniest thing was once he accidently put 2 packs of organic best minced beef in with my pet mince(vac packed dated and priced up at 5.50.Made a lovely Spag Bol -LOL.Don't tell the Kids.

Sadly i have only got the 1 butcher so have to make do with what he has  and can't even think where the next closest is :( they seem to be a dying breed as most go to supermarkets nowadays.

I prefer to go to ANY local butcher. The two I use have the names of the farms (local) that the beast came from. I would not use a supermarket for meat.

silly question but what do you guys ask for when getting bones? im veggie and have never been in a butchers (please dont laugh) and a bit unsure of what to get. also, my ridgeback is 13 weeks, but weights around 15kg, what size of bone would be best?

Beef marrowbone, postman's leg, or thigh bone.  Preferably with the knuckle sawn off, but often they are already in two pieces one half with the knuckle on.  With determined chewing the knuckle can be broken up, and some dogs may swallow the larger pieces (mine always grind them down without problems) and this could cause problems, so any bits broken off need to be binned.  One they have just the shank of the bone left it takes some grinding down and is pretty safe.

>or should i give the sterilized bones from the pet shop but put something tasty in it?

Stay away from those cooked artificial pet shop bones.Better real raw bones then pre-packaged doggy sugar, sodium and methyloxytriglycerides.

I stuff our marrow bones after the dogs have dug out all the marrow,they make for perfect stuffers :-D

thanks, went to village butcher today, tried not to look around much! asked for a thigh bone, told them size of puppy and hey presto! didnt charge but said they usually ask for a charity donation so i gave a donation. i then felt bad as i had never been in the butchers before so i bought some chicken for boyfriend. oh dear...

>Bones are a waste product so for them to charge you is a bit cheeky!!

I've always been charged for bones,offal etc. They're not a waste product as they are bought by pet owners.I doubt much, if any get thrown away.

Actually most butchers have to pay to heve their bones disposed of, and charging pet owners is a nice little extra.  The ones around here take the mick with marrow bones charging 80p for half of one.  the old fashioned butcher still asks for donation to childrens hospice, but he never has enough at one time for my lot.

I was in the supermarket today and noticed they sell bones (ideally to be used for stock) packaged up for about 30p.  There were a few bones in the pack and all too large for my dogs to swallow.  They were meaty as well.  I have no idea what type of bones they were or what part of the animal they were from.

Would these be ok to give to the dogs as I have no local butcher as such?

Also can you give them frozen if they are meaty so the dog really has to work at it, or would you increase the risk of bone splinters by doing this?

Just want to get it right before I give some to my two :-)

I have never given my smaller ones bones, which type would suit 10kg dog? Sorry for being thick.

Lois i also have small dogs,and they get:

Lamb ribs
Pork ribs
chicken necks
chicken wings
Ox tails
Briskett bones,marrow bones,knuckle bones,cut down to size.

You can feed just about anything that the butcher can cut down to size for you.

Ktee, Thanks for your reply.

I'll pop out later and get them a yummy treat, I'll get some ribs to start with and see what they think, the whole lot of them are fussy eaters!

Lois :-)

Also supermarkets tend to reduce a lot of thier meat down on a saturday or sunday night so you can pick up some cheap deals. Ive bought it and frozen it for the dog.

Thanks Freds Mum i will look later. (Maybe a bargain to be had!)

I was at sainsbury's yesterday and saw they have frozen hearts and livers prepacked in frozen and was just wondering how many of you have fed hearts and livers before?

Lois

Heart and liver are both fine to feed. You want to start off by only feeding a very small amount though as both are quite rich and can cause the squits. If you use the Google sitesearch at the bottom of the page you'll find lots of old threads (try searching: raw feeding heart, raw feeding liver).