I have just got a bone for Willow from the butcher's. She's 5 months old and she's never had a bone before. it's a beef rib and it's got quite a lot of meat on it. Should I just give it to her for a short spell? I'm worried about it upsetting her tummy, but I know some people feed raw food all the time. Thanks for reading.

Bones tend to have the opposite effect i.e. PREVENTING an upset stomach. :) If you feed them indoors you will find it smells a bit, and therefore when I give dogs bones indoors  (just the toydogs and any puppies, the large adults get theirs outdoors) I do remove it after a few hours. Those that have theirs outside have them left outside for days on end, if not weeks as eventually the meat will all have been picked off.

Hey lucky Treacle. I personally would not worry about any meat on the bone but there are probably loads of people who would say don't do it. I changed my last puppy from kibble to a meat diet in 2 days, we had no problems and no upset tummies, she has blossomed ever since. I am sure Treacle will be fine. :)

Sorry I mean Willow !! not  Treacle

That's OK :-) Treacle was an old cat I lost last year. It helps to keep her alive using her name. I gave Willow the bone for 20 mins and now I've taken it off her and put it in the fridge - she can have it again tomorrow for half an hour if there're no ill effects.

Depending on her size I wouldn't expect much of a beef rib bone left after 20 minutes with one of mine at that age LOL

I've had loads of fantastic advice from people on here as I was a bit sceptical about rawbones etc for my puppy, with my last dog that lived till she was 15 I didn't know any better than rawhide chews and roast bones but through reading and asking people on here I've given my puppy chicken wings and fresh/frozen bones and apart from the very first one shes been great on them. Then someone gave her a roast bone for xmas and I eventually thought maybe I should let her have it and against my better judgement I gave it to her and boy was it a BIG mistake. The noise coming from her stomach, well I blamed my daughter then realised it was the dog THEN we got the smell and we both knew exactly where that came from and as you can imagine I cleaned up the aftermath the following day off the lawn. NEVER will I give her one again its fresh ones all the way with us now. She doesn't have them all the time so when she does its a great treat and she trots off with her tail in the air and I'm sure a smile if she could lol

Also the butcher chops them into reasonable size bones and i freeze them so she eats it more or less in one sitting, it does take her a while so keeps her occupied and I've just thought when she had the roast bone she made the most horrendous noise gnawing on the bone we couldn't stand it lol but there's nothing left with the butchers bones but a contented puppy.

Willow had some after effects in the digestion department after her session with the bone yesterday evening and i was going to throw it out, but she enjoyed it so much I've relented and she's got it back again for a short stint and we'll see what happens.