Sunday, March 7, 2010

Bones

So, I need more help with the bone/dog chew issue.

Darby's breeder, Leda, asks at the meat counter of her store for beef femur bones which she gives (raw, I assume?) to her dogs.

Well, the poor English-as-a-second-language butcher staffing the meat counter at my Vons today, shrugged his shoulders (nicely) and pointed me toward "Aisle 5"--the frozen food section--when I asked for "beef femur bones for my dogs."

There I found this:

Soup bones.

Knowing very little about cattle anatomy, I have no idea the origin of these bones, but they don't look femur-ish to me.  (I picture a femur being more like a long, flatish, tubular-sort of thing.)   The bone on the top right is some sort of joint--a ball without its socket.

These bones would make good soup for humans, but are they OK to give to Bonnie and Darby?

Any advice is greatly welcomed--I'll pop the bones into the freezer until I get some.

Thanks, in advance.

P.S.  Glenn thinks I should cook the bones first--I think I should give them raw.  Who is right?  (I hope it's me!!)

4 comments:

Sammy said...

Hi Sammy's Human here--

Glen is wrong. Cooking the bones make them more likely to splinter. (Which is why vets tell you not to give them bones) You might have to go to a real meat store (if you have one), surprisingly one of our local grocery stores will order them for me. They are called Beef Bones, PCODE 06521. It is a thirty pound box and has about 20-25 bones in it. They are frozen, but easily separated. They are about 8-10 inches long which is why I said you might want to have them cut them in half (even in the frozen state). Since we have 7 large dogs here it is no problem for me and my cardigans can take care of a bone that size. They will work on them for days. My yard looks like a bone grave yard :-). One of my cardigans, Mystique, is never without a bone in her mouth.

If you can't get those, you can get the sterlized natural bones through the doggy catalogs or Internet like PetEdge or Carealotpets. My dogs don't like them as well, but they are good and hard for chewing.

Sammy said...

Sammy's Human again--

Make soup out of those bones. While cardigans will work on them, they are very messy and have a tendency to splinter off chunks.

Boo21's Mom said...

Great information! Thanks, Leda!

I'll ask if my store will order them.

And, will make soup with the ones I bought! (Just read a recipe in Cook's Magazine for beef soup that calls for bones.)

Melissa

betty said...

glad you got some help because I would be clueless on this. the only bones Koda has ever gotten are the rawhide ones (and now not even those since he is dieting)

betty