# Question about beef bones



## MyRescueCrew (May 8, 2008)

I've been buying beef bones from a local pet store. They were being sold by Nature's Variety and I was paying $4 for two tiny (about 3-4 inches long) beef bones. I found a meat market nearby that was selling beef bones, large and small mixed together, for about $4 for a gigantic bag (probably 10-15 bones). They have some meat left on them. Bo LOVES them, the rest aren't too crazy. He chews them for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the bone is completely clean. I'm giving him one a day, after his dinner, to help (hopefully) clean his teeth and help with tarter.

Question: I am new to feeding raw, is beef bones okay? Everyday? (He's been getting one a day for over a week now, stools are fine). Is getting them from a meat market as opposed to a speciality pet store okay?

Bo seems to enjoy them. Here's a pic of tonight's bone (he doesn't mind them right out the freezder, no defrosting) and a pic of him enjoying it.

Thanks!


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## wyx (May 23, 2008)

We had a problem with one of our corgies breaking teeth on beef ribs, and we ended up getting four of his teeth pulled. On the other hand, he's probably the world's dumbest Corgi. The other two dogs were ok with them but I still am leery of beef ribs, marrow bones or any bone that may be too heavy or hard for them to crunch up and eat.


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## Wimble Woof (Jan 16, 2007)

MyRescueCrew said:


> I've been buying beef bones from a local pet store. They were being sold by Nature's Variety and I was paying $4 for two tiny (about 3-4 inches long) beef bones.


Another way for the pet food industry to get your money


> I found a meat market nearby that was selling beef bones, large and small mixed together, for about $4 for a gigantic bag (probably 10-15 bones). They have some meat left on them. Bo LOVES them, the rest aren't too crazy. He chews them for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the bone is completely clean. I'm giving him one a day, after his dinner, to help (hopefully) clean his teeth and help with tarter.


Much better deal indeed



> Question: I am new to feeding raw, is beef bones okay? Everyday? (He's been getting one a day for over a week now, stools are fine).


Beef bones are perfectly fine, however, not as the daily requirement for bone content in the meal. 
Large weight bearing bones are more for recreational chewing.



> Is getting them from a meat market as opposed to a speciality pet store okay?


Absolutely!!!! There is nothing better about the petstore bones. Nothing at all.
Plus its much cheaper to get through a butcher shop


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## MyRescueCrew (May 8, 2008)

Whew, glad to hear it's okay AND I got a good deal!!

Bo doesn't eat the bones themselves, he just eats all the meat, chews on the bones a bit (but not to the point of breaking or chipping them) and then he's done. He just likes the meat as a snack, and the chewing on the bones is good for his teeth and keeps him occupied for a short bit. 

I'm slowly working my way into supplemental raw feeding, so the bones were our first step. He's on Canidae kibble, mixed with a high quality canned food (such as candiae, solid gold, ect.) and we've been mixing raw chicken (in small amounts and removed from the bone), raw and cooked eggs, and fresh veggies to his diet in addition to his kibble.


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

> =MyRescueCrew;301009]I'm slowly working my way into supplemental raw feeding, so the bones were our first step. He's on Canidae kibble, mixed with a high quality canned food (such as candiae, solid gold, ect.) and we've been mixing raw chicken (in small amounts and removed from the bone), raw and cooked eggs, and fresh veggies to his diet in addition to his kibble.



Mixing kibble, canned, and raw food with veggies cause GI difficulties because they're not digested the same, so should not be mixed together. When I feed raw meals, that's all they get - raw meaty bones and NV frozen raw venison. No kibble.


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## Motebi (Apr 8, 2008)

Hi there,

I get bones for the dogs at the local farmer's market. I pay $3 per bag and there are usually about 3 bones in the bag. 

Here's a picture:








They are buffalo bones and the dogs love them. Mostly they are femur bones with the ball joint on top which gives a lot of cartilage for the dogs to chew and nibble on.


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## Rupert's Mom (Jan 31, 2008)

My dog loves beef bones almost as much as the pet store ones but the raw beef always comes in first, I was feeding him these bones about 2 or 3 times a week and then was told that a friends dog was ill from digesting meat that had bacteria on it from the beef bone.

And as we know if you were to boil/cook the bones so there’s no bacteria the bones will splinter and can get lodged into the dogs throat, so what I was told to do was get a pot of boiling water and just before you are going to give the raw beef bone to the dog dip it in the pot of boiling water (maybe 10-15 seconds) and then if there’s any bacteria it would hopefully be burnt off but the bone doesn’t get a chance to get soft and splinter. Anyways just letting you know my story about beef bones haha


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Although it is possible for a dog to get sick from bacteria in raw food, it is generally uncommon for those dogs who have been fed a raw diet for more than a few weeks. Once they have had a chance to build immunity to low level bacteria exposure...illness should be uncommon.

It is very common for my dogs to bury half eaten bones, with meat still on them, in our pasture and then go back a few days later, dig them up, and finish eating the meat off them and use them for recreational gnawing for a few days. Those bones are covered with dirt and bacteria. But my dogs have been on raw for a few years, their immune systems have been slowly exposed to probably a higher bacteria level in raw meat than is found in kibble. I take every precautiona bout storing and preparing their raw food, but as a medical biochemist, I will be the first one to admit they are receiving a low level of bacteria exposure, to which they have built immunity over the first few months of exposure. 

That being said, I compare it to a child whose parents have sterilized everything and used antibacterial cleansers fanatically. That child's immune system hasn't been challenged and has not had a chance to form immunity to things in the eeryday environment. The child starts school and all of a sudden is exposed to all the other kids and germs around. That child will get sick a lot for the first few years.

Dogs' stomach secretions are much more acidic than a human's. And their digestive tracts are much shorter. This provides a less hospitable environment for bacteria to hang around long enough to cause illness. 

The likely causes of a dog getting sick from raw meat are: meat not properly obtained/butchered (particularly wild game cleaned in the field, possible stored incorrectly), improper long term storage, improper thawing methods, using dirty surfaces/utensils/bowls to serve meals, or leaving food out too long. All of these situations increase the bacteria load in the meat to an undesirable level which could make the dog sick. 

And lastly, what may appear to be true is not always true. One of our dogs got sick with an intestinal bacterial infection last year, while on raw. The vet took fecal samples to culture and sent us home with antibiotics, and we both assumed she had somehow gotten it from the raw meat. The antibiotics did the job and there was suspicious bacteria in the fecal specimen. But when it was cultured in the lab for identification it turned out to be a bacteria not commonly found in food, but often found in bird droppings around bird feeders. I have since moved my bird feeders to an area that is off limits to my dogs.


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## MyRescueCrew (May 8, 2008)

briteday, that was an extremely informative post, thank you so much for posting that!


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## Motebi (Apr 8, 2008)

Yep - that was a very good post.  
The chances of your dogs getting sick eating those horrid pigs ears are far greater than the chance of getting sick from a nice, juicy bone.  
Meat and bone is far better than formaldehyde.


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