# Lamb bones for my dog



## bassington

Hi, I was given the left overs from a leg of lamb, including the bones which I gave to my Tia. Now being a Red Setter and not having that amount of brains cells, she started crunching and eating the bones. Is this okay or should I not have given it to her in the first place.

Thanks


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## andrea 35

Bones are fine as long as they are raw , not cooked bones , cooked bones splinter into sharp shards , sharp like glass and can get easily lodged in the throat and gut . A raw bone will still break up but not into sharp pieces and therefore are ok to eat . NEVER give cooked bones unless they are the roasted knuckle end bones that you can sometimes buy from pet shops .


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## carol

like andrea said ok along as they are raw.
go to the butchers they will give them to you free ours do


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## Freyja

As the others have said don't give cooked bones except the knuckle bones from the pet shop. If Tia is anything like my setter Zoe she eats absolutely anything she even once ate the plastic tray out of her cage. Zoe loves raw chicken wings as a treat you just have to watch she doesn't snatch them. I hold the end so she has to chew them properly


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## StaffieMad

andrea 35 said:


> Bones are fine as long as they are raw , not cooked bones , cooked bones splinter into sharp shards , sharp like glass and can get easily lodged in the throat and gut . A raw bone will still break up but not into sharp pieces and therefore are ok to eat . NEVER give cooked bones unless they are the roasted knuckle end bones that you can sometimes buy from pet shops .


cooked bones are ok as long as they are not bird bones (chicken, turkey etc) you can give cooked lamb bones- i gave my two a cooked lamb bone last night.

My staff crunched it and ate the hole thing within 5 mins. they are supposed to eat it all.


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## andrea 35

contrary to common belief it isnt ok to feed cooked bones at all , you may be lucky enough to have a dog that can crunch up the bone sufficiently to not cause problems , but in most cases if a dog has not learnt to eat bones correctly , with most dont to start with then cooked bones can cause all sorts of problems due to the nature of the bone as it splinters . All bones should be raw as this gives the most amount of nutritional
benefit and also the bone fragments differently when raw reducing any risk of obstruction or injury to the internal organs or intestines .

Im not saying that some dogs cant cope with cooked bones as i used to have a GSD x who would eat cooked lamb bones and pork hock bones cooked but that was before i knew about the risks associated with them .


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## Guest

God dont give your dogs cooked bones if they splintered and seriously injured your dog you'd be devestated x


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## JANICE199

*For what its worth, i wont give any dog of mine bones that they can eat..Years ago when we had our 1st german shepherd he had no end of problems because we gave him bones.. and i might add, never cooked ones.*


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## bassington

Thanks all for all the advice and as it seems to be the consensus was NO, then the bones have gone in the bin. I'm really glad I stopped her as being only 10 months, it might have caused problems as most of you have pointed out.:thumbup1:


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## Happy Paws2

Please don't give your dog cooked bones they can splitter. But on saying that I'd have never given Amber a bone.


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## Freya'n'Sassy

My GSD is raw fed, boy you should hear her munching through a lamb bone or chicken wings... It is amazing.

Cooked (edible sized) bones shouldn't be given to dogs, as they can splinter. Mine have the huge knuckle bones from the pet shops that are cooked, but they also have raw knuckle bones as well... And Sassy eats all nones, even the ones from chops... After all it is what a dog is designed to do


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## gillie

I have always believed and heard over the years that only beef bones are ok as all the others can splinter. They can either lodge themselves in the throat or cause major problems along the route!

I think personally it is best to err on caution.

Actuallu...probablt best to ask a Vet!


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## shortbackandsides

Only cooked bones shatter or splinter as the cooking process weakens them,my dogs have munched their way through many raw bones no cooked bones should ever be fed to your dog,apart from the knuckle bones you can buy from petshops


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## PoisonGirl

I scrape all the meat off leftover bones whenever we have chicken or beef.. she gets it mixed in with her dinner.
Her fave bones tho are the filled ones. Not sure what they are filled with! But I get them from my petshop..

We used to get bones from the butchers for my 1st dog, raw ones with marrow in, he loved them  (but they stank as he hid them around the house!! )


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## Roy L

Everyone that keeps saying you should only feed dogs raw bones, i'd check the rspca and aspca guidelines for feeding dogs, you'll get a shock.

According to both the rspca and aspca you should never feed raw bones to a dog for the same reason that people here are saying you should not give them cooked bones. 

I don't give my dog any bones from home, all his bones are ham knuckles specially prepared at the pet store and are safe for him.


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## smokeybear

Roy L said:


> Everyone that keeps saying you should only feed dogs raw bones, i'd check the rspca and aspca guidelines for feeding dogs, you'll get a shock.
> 
> According to both the rspca and aspca you should never feed raw bones to a dog for the same reason that people here are saying you should not give them cooked bones.
> 
> I don't give my dog any bones from home, all his bones are ham knuckles specially prepared at the pet store and are safe for him.


Nothing in life is risk free.

Dogs die from kibble.

I have fed raw for over 11 years with no problems.

I certainly would never touch ANY cooked bone (especially those from the pet shops) there is nothing "special" about them apart from being full of fat from an unknown source etc etc

It would be like giving my dogs cigarettes..........


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## Lola71

I no longer feed raw bones after following advice on here and i can see the difference in how the bones break up, or rather dont break up with raw, between cooked and raw. The cooked ham bones i used to give Molly used to splinter and break up, the raw ones i now buy just wear down gradually or if she does manage to break it apart it just remains in a chunk and not splinters.
I now get mine from my local farm shop, who sells big bags of raw bones for about £2.


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## kateh8888

We feed raw bones and the dogs love them. The sound of the crunch is amazing to listen to. Personally, I will never feed cooked bones or kibble again. Just my personal opinion after doing a lot of research.


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## Shenty

Just wanted to jump in and try and make people aware that the cooked knuckle bones etc that you see in pet shops are STILL NOT SAFE to give to your dog 

Please please be aware of this - they are cooked, and as so many other people have mentioned, cooking (ie roasting) changes the structure of the bone

My jack Russell died a horrible painful death because of a knuckle bone bought from a pet shop - she crunched it up fine, but the splinters became like shards of glass in her intestines and caused a blockage in her intestines

Please, to anyone reading this, please be aware of the dangers of pet shop bones - you automatically think they are safe because they are being sold in a pet shop. I know I did

And for those of you who are thinking "I've always fed my dogs those bones" all I can say is that Bonnie had been having those bones for 8 years, and then we lost her to them. I'd give anything to have my little daft as brush dog back, and not to have had to be sitting next to her on the operating table saying my goodbyes to her


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## babycham2002

Roy L said:


> Everyone that keeps saying you should only feed dogs raw bones, i'd check the rspca and aspca guidelines for feeding dogs, you'll get a shock.
> 
> According to both the rspca and aspca you should never feed raw bones to a dog for the same reason that people here are saying you should not give them cooked bones.
> 
> I don't give my dog any bones from home, all his bones are ham knuckles specially prepared at the pet store and are safe for him.


ha ha there is NOTHING special about the bones in pet shops, apart from being full of fat, overpriced and extremely dangerous

To the poster above me, I am so so sorry for your loss. I commend you for being able to tell your story which must be very painful


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## Shenty

babycham2002 said:


> ha ha there is NOTHING special about the bones in pet shops, apart from being full of fat, overpriced and extremely dangerous
> 
> To the poster above me, I am so so sorry for your loss. I commend you for being able to tell your story which must be very painful


Thank you Babycham, it's been just over 3 years since we lost her and I still miss her and think i always will

If I can just make one person think differently about roasted 'cooked' bones in pet shops with our story and save somebody else going through what we did, then it's worth bringing up the past x


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## Goblin

For treats it's not simply a case of being cooked though. You often do not know the source of the treats and some countries, such as China for example you do not know what contamination can occur. This isn't a case of non "reputable" companies and I'll link in Plants in China that produce U.S. dog treats blamed for killing thousands of pets 'refuse to let FDA inspectors collect samples' | Mail Online as an example.


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## Shihtzu

I agree that bones can be dangerous for dogs but we always give ours our lamb shank bone after tea but only so he can have little chew for half an hour and we always watch him closely with it. He is only a little Shih Tzu and so doesn't really get a chance to demolish the bone within that time, but if we notice it splinters or hear him really crunching it we take it off him and we NEVER leave bones laying around if we are not in the house.


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