Grind up chicken bones?

Raw chicken bones are supposedly fine for dogs and the main reason you're told not to get them cooked ones is because they can splinter and tear up your dog's insides.

I recently ran into someone who says she just grinds them right up in her KitchenAid meat grinder and she doesn't have to worry about it at all. I've never heard of this. Would it be safe? Does that essentially remove any danger of feeding them the bones anyway then?

 

If you grind the bones into powder, there's no splinters and therefore they should be fine. It negates the teeth-cleaning benefits, but still provides the benefits of bone meal. I feed my TFTs raw chicken feet and chicken necks, and feed my collie chicken backs all of the time and they love them--plus they have nice clean teeth. I've never had a problem with choking and they've never had perforated stomachs or colons from any bones.

 

I agree with LoupGarou. The reason why boiled bones are not encouraged to be fed to dogs is because it may puncture their throat, colon or stomachs. That's also the reason why sticks are not such a good biting toy as they can possibly get splinters from it as well.

I think grinding the chicken bones is a great way to add the needed flavor to make your dogs enjoy a flavorful meal.

My personal preference are still large beef bones or large pig bones (preferably the one of the thighs). Although I still have to boil them because my dogs don't like them raw.

 

I agree! I give my dogs large beef bones! Grinding up the bones I guess is OK it just seems like a lot of work for a little flavor. I'd rather give them some beef ribs or something they can gnaw on.

 

I also thinks that grinded chicken bones are safer for dogs.
Beef or bigger bones can be a very good treat for them as they enjoy biting it.

 

He gets beef and pork bones, too. Actually, I'll have to dig around for the pictures of when we bought a whole hog, had it butchered, and got a whole trash bag full of bones that were all for him. I've never seen a dog so happy in my life!

But as for the chicken, I don't like wasting things. So if I'm already buying chicken for us and it'd be safe to let him have the bones this way, then I don't mind having to grind them myself.

 

I give my dogs pig bones once a week just to have something to gnaw on. The chicken bones I give them come from a chicken rice vendor who has already cooked the bones until they are really soft. So there's no problem about splinters.

 

Hmmm, I'm curious about this then. I cook my chickens for hours in the crockpot until the meat falls off the bone just by looking at it, heh, but if I were to let a bone cool off enough to snap it in half, I'd still find that it would have splintery bits. I'm not sure just how long or by what method you could cook the bones to make them soft enough to not splint when gnawed on.

 

We just usually give our chicken bones to the feral cats that we feed so they aren't wasted, but it is a good idea.

 

So very true! Giving ground chicken bones will totally eliminate the risk of splinters puncturing the dogs internal. But the downside to this is that it will really deprive your dog of such benefits like natural cleaning of their teeth and the other one is the excellent exercise to your dog's jaw and neck muscles. What I would do is just chop the chicken bones into chunks that is appropriate for the dog's size. Appropriate in the sense that it's not too small that they'll just swallow the bones, but not too big that they will have a very hard time breaking them down.

 

I think somehow we are under the impression that our dogs have got stomachs like us. I am sure dogs have stomachs which are tougher than ours. Plus I believe dogs have more powerful digestive juices to take care of the bones they eat.

 

Dogs really do have tougher stomachs and stronger acids in them. They are also better prepared to digest foods that are slightly spoiled and to handle bacteria in their food. All that being said, chicken bones are still bad for them. They won't (usually) die if they accidentally eat one or two, but bones can splinter and tear before they even reach the stomach--and dogs are still at risk of having their esophagus torn by bones. Raw bones of any sort are always better than cooked bones and cooked beef knuckles and knee caps are better than the majority of other cooked bones.

 

That "impression" is because of all the dogs who die every year because their stomachs are ripped open by splintered chicken bones, or occasionally the rare case of it getting stuck in the esophagus. No, it won't always happen of course and I'm sure there are plenty of dogs who eat chicken bones and get off just fine. But specifically chicken (and I'm assuming some other poultry?) bones tend to splinter when they break and that turns them into little mini-daggers that can puncture things they shouldn't. Bleh.

 

I totally agree with the first two sentences here. No offense but I don't believe chicken bones in general can harm our dogs. Part of my toy dog's diet includes chicken heads and also chicken feet. The trick in my opinion is you have to give your dogs bones (not only of chicken) that are appropriate to their size. Mine is toy dogs so what I do is chop the bones into sizes that are just right for them.

 

I think it has something to do with upbringing. If the dogs had been taught from young to eat chicken bones, then I believe that they can handle it. However, if a dog had been feed only dog food all it's life, just one little piece of chicken bone might be more than it can handle. I know cats that can't handle fish bones, too. Mainly because they had never eaten any before.

 

Nice point Victor,

Dogs are highly adoptable animals. even though some dogs are raised from birth with kibbles, its never too late to introduce new form of food. The trick is try to switch food gradually. I got my male yorkie when he was 5 months old and he dont know any food except kibbles. What i did was fast him for two days with only wster on his crate. This will remove all the traces of kibbles in his body. After that I started feeding him raw beef and chicken feet.

 

I save appropriate fruit and vegetable scraps and scraps from meats we eat. I make broths for our family. After I skim the fat and take the broth we humans will eat, I cook the bones to where I can grind them in the food processor. I grind everything and can it in the pressure canner to have a healthy supplement to my dogs' grain-free kibble.They love it and their health has improved. This takes about three hours a month. It may sound like a lot of time but it's very satisfying as I'm making sure the whole family eats more healthily and we aren't wasted so much food product. It's technically safe for people to eat, but I'd have to be pretty darn hungry to try it! Especially when there's liver in there somewhere, lol.

 

I think I could add some of grind bones to Homer's food if it's safe, I've never thought about it. Usually, I just buy him these special dog toys made from bones, he loves them, a toy like this can keep him busy for a few hours

 

Lol, I do the same thing! I don't just hold onto the scraps, though. And yes, I agree that sometimes it looks good enough to eat. The girls would sometimes come home from school while I was still preparing the dog's food for the month and would be all excited about what we were having for dinner. They always seemed rather disappointed to find out that it was actually the dog's food instead, ha!

 

Lol, Jessi, then your dog's food must look and smell quite yummy . I'm sure no one would ever want to eat Homer's food because he loves quite disgusting things . Anyway, we rarely cook for him.