Had the butcher cut up and provide me with all the big bones from our last moose. Still a bit of meat on them.
Any tips or secrets on prep (raw or?) before watching the hound lose his mind? ... thawing a few right now.
Cheers
/BigSlapper
Had the butcher cut up and provide me with all the big bones from our last moose. Still a bit of meat on them.
Any tips or secrets on prep (raw or?) before watching the hound lose his mind? ... thawing a few right now.
Cheers
/BigSlapper
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We always cut up our bones and feed them raw. Usually in 4”-5” lengths so they have to work at getting the marrow.
Iv heard that cooked/boiled bones can splinter, but not 100% sure.
Raw!
I have a 6ft deep freezer I keep all my bones and grouse carcasses and fish remains from the year that feeds my two dogs for the duration almost ! From fish broths to grouse minus legs and breast! Moose knuckles you name it.
We always give raw meat/trim and bones to our dogs. Moose rib bones are gone in about 5 minutes, knuckles last a lot longer.
Raw.
The size of the bone can be an issue with the dog, depending on the size of the dog, *maybe*, I *think*. Here's why. I've got a Border Collie. She gets every bone I can give her. For moose bones she just eats through 85% of things like the scapula, but the femur? She can't even begin to crack that. I bandsaw them and she cleans out the marrow and cleans off the bone. If she was bigger I might worry about her cracking her teeth on a bone that big if I hadn't sawn it (trying to get the marrow) , but it's not a problem for me. If you've got a big boy? I dunno. Might be a problem. Wolves do that, but you'd have to ask a vet how many times he treats wolves with cracked teeth. Might be hard to get good intel on that.
I've been feeding 100% raw for years, and the meat she gets is also raw and either game or a steer if I'm butchering that. Works great, but since that's all she's ever know anything like rib bones or small ones that she can break? They completely disapear and turn into little whit hard turds outside that don't stink. Fantastic system and great for their coats.
She even gets the big knuckle bones. Sometimes I split big ones with the axe and she cleans them out too.
Rob Chipman
"The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders" - Ed Abbey
"Grown men do not need leaders" - also Ed Abbey
Good stuff peeps - thanks .... fed Gunnar (my 80lb Drahthaar) a 8" piece of raw moose femur over an hour ago. Bugger is style out in the backyard chewing on it! .... and growling at me when I open the back door to check - he's not giving it up anytime soon!...LOL
This.
Feed raw 100%. Cooked bones will splinter. They can still get pieces/splinters off raw bones but they tend to digest better than cooked bones. Observe how your dog chews his bones. Some dogs will use the sides of their back teeth to gnaw on the bones from the side or their front ones to nibble etc. If your dog is a big chomper and they have a bone small enough they can work to their back teeth and try and chomp down on, they risk cracking their molars. This is a particular concern for the weight bearing bones of large animals. Because my lab does this I only give him large cut bones, knuckle bones (moose if i have it, or cow from the butcher) or deer ribs (haven't tried moose yet). Bones from smaller game (i.e, anything smaller than a small sheep) isn't usually of any concern.
There's always risks from feeding bones of any kind so it's always best to observe if possible. Especially for the first couple of times.