Hi,
Can anyone tell me if it's ok to freeze marrowbones? Well, I ask because it's so darn hard to find a 'real' butchers these days I do manage to visit my uncle (who is a REAL butcher :)  every month or so and get a bone, so wondered if I could get a few and freeze them? Also, how long should you let a dog have the bone for if there is marrow in the middle they can't get to (presumably it goes off at some point?!).

Thanks in advance for your advice

Ali

The time when I consider it has gone off is the time my dogs love it.  I was very concerned about a funny smell in the car the other day and upon investigation I found a bone that had probably been in the back for 24 hrs it was crawling with maggots!!!  Ugh!  My dogs ignore bones when new and like to leave them in the garden for a few days to get smelly, before bringing them into the house.

I also saw my marrow bones in half.  The butcher used to do it but obviously got fed up as he now charges £1 for the priviledge.

I don't see a problem with freezing them.

Dogs are fantastic scavengers - they don't have the same reactions to the smell of off food as we do!

My dog found a VERY dead rabbit festering in the woods and wolfed down the lot before I spotted her.  She thought she was the most fantastic dog ever and proceeded to try and lick me with her stinky tongue!

I don't mean to cause panic but now might be the time to start freezing them if you're in the UK, my butcher told me yesterday he has heard that they won't be allowed to sell or give away bones soon but will have to pay someone to take them away and burn them. I thought I was going to cry.

There was something in Dog World about this but apparently an EU spokesman said: "Regulations like this are formulated in general terms and it's up to each goernment to interpret them"

I think this comes under the same list of gobbledegook that meant we could not longer collect tripe etc from abbatoirs without having a permit.

Yes I think you are right. I get my bones from my supplier and when I raised this question with them they said that bones are classed as a by product and under the new regs you need a licence to collect/sell them and butchers would not fall into this category.   I have the bones either fresh or frozen and if fresh I freeze them and find there is no problem with freezing bones.

you can still get bones from the butcher, have a look at this
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/by-prods/publicat/letter_LACORS_petfood.pdf
i have saved a copy to give to butchers if they start being reluctant to give out bones, mine is pleased when i turn up and take them away so hopefully wil stay that way!
kelly

we have bones from last year which are clean on the outside and considerbly alot smaller but the marrowbone is still there...its now funny to watch the dogs trying to get inside as its abit too far in...We keep them outside untill they are clean and stoped smelling too badly and then we keep them until they get too small when the dogs could sallow and choke.

Rox

I usually pick them up a few at a time and freeze them.  Then take them out of the freezer and throw them outside when the dogs are ready for a new one.

Wendy

Sorry to be thick but does that mean I won't be able to get them from the butcher but will be able to get them from somewhere else?

You can still get them from the butcher, just because the EU regulations say 1 thing it is up to each individual country to make up their own minds.

My butcher is still giving me mine.....................

Thanks for that, I have a tendency to be a bit dim (as demonstrated when I drove up and down the road 12 times trying to park near said butchers only to discover they have a designated parking area....) 

Thanks for the replies everyone - I shall stock up and freeze (esp since loony government might do something silly!)

Thanks

OH went into a butchers with a workmate today (as in a person, he wasn't carrying his carpentry bench around ;-) ) and (because he's a chicken) got his mate to ask for a bone for the dog.  The butcher was more than pleased to get one from the back, chop it in half and bag it up for free, even in the middle of money-making London.

We put one on the floor for Millie tonight...she had a sniff....licked it all over...and then sat barking and growling at it, before jumping on the settee to hide! Oh well, never mind! There may have been a bit too much raw flesh left on it for her liking!

However, an hour or so later, we'd gone into the pc room, and she trotted in carrying her bone and for the past 45 minutes she has been in a deep concentration of gnawing and devouring, chewing and biting, and is having an absolute whale of a time (on my dining room carpet!).

The peace and quiet is wonderful (as well as the guilt-free feeling of us being able to sit on the pc's with our backs to her without feeling guilty that we're ignoring her as she is more than occupied!).  Needless to say, I shall be ensuring that OH goes back to that butchers as often as he can - and I really hope they don't stop giving bones away just as we have got into the whole idea!

My only (slight) concern is that i haven't got a clue what type of bone this is but as they asked for "a bone for a puppy", I'm putting my faith in the butcher and that he knows what he's giving out!

It don't 'alf stink though!!!