The truth about dog bones as dog treats, & which ones are healthy for dogs.

There is much misinformation and conjecture of the roles of bones in a dog’s diet. As I believe in a raw diet (sans vegetables) for your dog, it is very important to know how to safely feed your dog bones, and what value (nutrition, entertainment and otherwise) they are receiving from various bones.

Firstly, the main reason that dogs should be give bones is that they form part of the complete diet that the domestic dog’s recent ancestors the grey wolf consume. The wolf whenever possible attempts to eat the majority of an animal that it kills or is given. The wolf’s body has evolved over a long time to utilize all of the nutrients from the various parts of the kill including the bones. The same is true of your pet dog.

Anti –raw / anti-bone groups have cited the reason for not feeding dogs any form of raw food is because of the chance of Salmonella and E.coli ingestion. In the wild dogs don’t make this snap judgement, but then again they will take a fresh healthy kill where they can. Dogs also bury their meat as a way of storing food for lean times and to soften the bone structure which you might think could lead to poisoning. But as they have a high acid stomach and short intestinal tract, meat and bones in many forms can easily be processed quite fast, by the vast majority of dogs.

To keep your domestic dog healthy, it is best feeding it a variety of healthy meat from different sources (i.e. a quality that you would also eat), offal AND bones. As an extra precaution, it is recommended that if you are not sure of the quality or source of your offal, that you should freeze it for 48 hours before defrosting and feeding it to your dog.

The only other main issue seems to be the question of bone impaction (in the mouth) or intestinal perforation. However, as will later be discussed, the chances of this can also be greatly reduced by feeding your dog the RIGHT bones.