How Unsafe Is It to Feed Dogs Cooked Bones?

The common advice nowadays to not feed dogs cooked bones doesn't make much sense to me.
I think it's supposed to be because cooked bones can break into fragments and cause intestinal bleeds and possibly death?

Why it doesn't make sense to me:

  1. Weren't dogs initially domesticated because they started hanging around cavemen's fires eating their scraps? That's hundreds of thousands of years eating cooked bones.

  2. It used to be an extremely common practice. Commercial dog food didn't even exist until relatively recently.

  3. Commercial dog food still doesn't exist in much of the world and people commonly do it there.

  4. If a dog chews up a bone, how different is a cooked versus raw really? I've seen raw bones become fragments.

  5. I've had dogs who've eaten them for years and been ok.

I don't want to hurt my dog, or pay a huge vet bill to save him - or encourage others to hurt their dogs - but I also don't like wastage.

Are you a vet? What are the probabilities?
Or a dog owner? Do you feed your dogs cooked bones?
Are you a person who's dog has been hurt by eating a cooked bone?

Poll Options

  • 5
    I am a dog owner and I feed my dog cooked bones.
  • 103
    I am a dog owner and I never feed my dog cooked bones.
  • 6
    I have fed cooked bones to my dogs in the past but I stopped out of caution.
  • 3
    I accidentally hurt my dog by feeding them cooked bones.
  • 0
    I accidentally killed my dog by feeding them cooked bones.
  • 0
    I am a vet and I think it is OK to feed dogs cooked bones.
  • 0
    I am a vet and I only advise against feeding cooked bones to cover myself legally.
  • 0
    I am a vet and I think it is too dangerous to feed dogs cooked bones.
  • 0
    I am a vet and I have treated a dog who was injured by eating cooked bones.
  • 1
    I am a vet and I have lost a dog patient because they ate cooked bones.
  • 31
    I am a dog and I only eat uncooked bones

Comments

  • +9

    How unsafe is it to feed dogs cooked bones?

    Very

    Don't do it…

    https://www.rspcapetinsurance.org.au/pet-care/responsible-pe…

    "Never feed cooked bones as these can splinter, causing internal damage or intestinal obstruction – which can cause death"

    • +13

      yeah but my gran says cavemen fed wolves bones and thats why they're our dogs now so checkmate old ways are the best ways

      if it caused problems back then the archy o lologists would of dug up vet bills carved on stone saying "grok your dog have bone in throat that 3 bison skins"

      but they dint yeah

      • +5

        yeah but my gran says cavemen fed wolves bones

        That was before they discovered fire for cooking.

        • +2

          yeah i get it cavemen scientist come along and is like "cook them bones" and everyone else (sheep) just does it

          and yeah every single source in the modern world tells me it's an unnecessary risk and a dog i purportedly love shouldn't be playing russian roulette with a shard of bone skewering through its intestinal wall, and there it is, confused and not being able to understand what's happening to it or and me being like "oh gawd now i gotta pay those vet bastards they're such vultures" and this confused animal that's only ever supplied me with love is haemmoraging internal blood and wonders if its being punished and it's probably better off not fully understanding the amount of control i had over the chain of events

          but

          imma not going to waste those bones yeah

        • Im not so sure

          There have been some amazingly old evidence

          750,000 years ago

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_hum….

    • In RSPCA website, I'm confused what a "human grade meaty bone" actually is…

  • +9

    Your first point is entirely redundant because dogs today are nothing like what they used to be generations ago

    My Moodle gets an upset tummy if she eats too many treats.

    She's hardly going to have the ability to hunt her own food or eat scraps

    Do not feed your dog cooked bones. It's pretty obvious. Just Google it

    • +3

      Not sure the store snacks are that healthy either. For example this one:

      https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/657197/sch…

      With Beef: Meat from beef, lamb and/or sheep and/or pork; vegetable protein; sucrose; cereal protein; humectant; salt (sodium chloride and/or potassium chloride); flavour; preservatives; colours; antioxidants.With Chicken: Meat from beef, lamb and/or sheep, poultry (including chicken); vegetable protein; sucrose; cereal protein; humectant; salt (sodium chloride and/or potassium chloride); colours; preservatives; antioxidants.With Liver: Meat and liver from beef, lamb and/or sheep and/or pork; vegetable protein; sucrose; cereal protein; humectant; salt (sodium chloride and/or potassium chloride); flavour; preservatives; colours; antioxidants.

      You can absolutely feed them lots of treats. Try this recipe with only chicken breast:

      1) Cut the chicken breasts to be as thin as possible

      2) Put them in oven where liquid can drip away (catchment tray at bottom a must!)

      3) Turn oven at 70C or the lowest temperature

      4) Wait until all moisture is gone. Takes ~6-10 hours for mine.

      Bam, the treats lasts for many many months (well, not in this household, hahaha). No sucrose or other crap added.

      • +3

        My kids would finish them off before they got to the dog…

        • You have kids jv? Im very pleased to hear that, congratulations

          Are you teaching them the way of the bargain?

      • +1

        Our cats adore poached chicken breasts. We do them in the InstantPot and shred them before serving. We only do this every few days because they need a balanced diet of other food. We really have a Pavlov’s reaction with the InstantPot. When they hear the pressure valve drop one of them growls and they both head into the kitchen.

        • What else do you feed them?

          My pets have a similar response when ever that hear plastic crinkling, which is how i know i need a less processed diet

          • +1

            @bargain huntress: They get Feline Natural wet food and Ziwipeak air dried kibble. They get the Royal Canin Oral as a chew treat. We have tried them on the raw diets before but they refuse to eat them.

            We get a similar Pavlovian reaction when we brush them out. They jump up to the designated spot and purr like crazy when brushed.

      • Thanks for the recipe i shall try it

  • +4

    Vets are educated by the Pet Food industry, good luck trying to get a non-biased opinion. Look up "Pet Fooled".

    I had a dog die from early age and vet said it was due to liver failure. I never really understood why until I saw that documentary. Turns out dogs eating dry food all their life is bad for dogs.

    Disgusting that the industry successfully pushed the cereal propaganda.

    I now feed them raw food for 5+ years, generally unprocessed foods graded for humans. Far less piss/poop too.

    • +2

      Dogs and cats need wet meat every day. Dry food is like candy to them, which is why I free feed my cat dry food from a hopper, because if I were a cat I'd want unlimited candy too. And 35g of wet food every six hours, roughly 40g per 1kg of bodyweight per day.

    • +7

      Don’t know why you got downvoted, it’s 100% true. The pet industry literally took the cheapest possible ingredient in the world, corn/maze, and convinced the world this is what your animal needs to eat. No animal ever grew up with a diet of 75% corn! It’s capitalism at it’s finest, take an industry, squeeze every $ you can to create the cheapest item, convince the vet industry this must be fed as part of a healthy diet, then rake in the profits. Does not hurt that Mars owns almost the entire dog and cat food kibble market..

      Disgusting vultures

      • +1

        @Iwantthebestprice obviously you've been looking at US video/websites …
        corn/maze is REALLY a US thing not AU (as US has an oversupply of its offshooots - hence soo much homemade alcohol/slygrog that uses corn).

        If you look at ingredient list of dry pet food sold in AU (this I must stress is AU brand pet food - not US brand) … will take some looking to find 1 that has corn/maze as a main ingredient

        Just saying.

        • +1

          I agree with you, AU pet food main ingredient in kibble is usually meat meal (any form of protein) but my comment was not specific to AU pet food, it was in general that the pet food industry is pushing this and my comment of Mars owning almost all of the pet food industry is true. I feed both my dogs Royal Canine, thought I was buying an independent pet food for my dogs, was shocked when I found out Mars bought them to 5 years ago. My main point is what’s happening in America right now is criminal. Feeding dogs and cats food where 75% of the food is maze is disgusting, and your right they do it because majority of farm land in America grows maze as it’s extremely cheap to plant and farm and is in almost everything America eats, including their animals

    • +1

      Raw food all the way, our German Shepherds eat a kilo of chicken wings or drumsticks each most days in addition to yoghourt, eggs, vegetables, herbs and leftovers.

    • even on their website … it talks about "personal choice" + "feeding habits" + "owner preferences" +++ ETC.

      We used to have 2x pedigree dogs … 1x was actually bred for breeding.
      used to give them a mix of …

      a.) COOKED mince meat + rice (this was their main meal).
      b.) dry biscuits from a brand-name company.
      c.) pigs ears … as a treat (every now and then),

    • Far less piss/poop too.

      how is this a measure of 'health' ?

      Probably because you aren't giving them a dry food they are getting water from the food so don't drink as much water and don't pee as much,.

  • +1

    You forgot poll option
    "I listen to the science", which coincidentally you could have absorbed and saved posting this (another) thread.

    Where you there when the cave 'ppl' watched their canine intruders die after stealing cooked bones?
    Can you understand evolution at all? (cave man dogs VS the dog pussies we have today)
    How's the wood burning going?

    • How's the wood burning going?

      Still waiting for the postman

      Can you understand evolution at all? (cave man dogs VS the dog pussies we have today)

      Fair point you and others have made.

      For the sake of arguement though;
      What if i dont have a chihuahua or a pug or a greyhound etc
      instead what if i have a husky?
      Or an actual wolf? Or a dingo?

      • +5

        jesus christ can someone just say to her "yes feed your dogs bones its fine" its obviously what she needs to hear and then we can move on with our lives (i mean, not the dog but that's a price i'm willing to pay)

        I mean, I could get why despite dozens of humans saying "don't" a dog would still constantly want to eat the forbidden thing but it's not the dog asking its the

        its the

        holy shit the dog has figured out how to access her account

        its the dog guys WE'RE TALKING TO THE DOG

        • 😄 CR you actually made me laugh for once!
          (Probably not on purpose but thats ok)
          Im roflmao here

          Yes youve caught me red pawed

          Woof… i mean i dont know what youre talking about

          Why should all those delicious roast bones go in the bin. I can… i mean… the dog, can handle it.

  • +4

    Everyone knows cooked bones are brittle and can shatter in to shards. Only raw bones are safe. It's like the first thing you learn about dogs as a kid.

  • +1
    Suggested I am a dog and I only eat uncooked bones

    Why risk it. Pull the cooked meat off the bones and throw the bones away if you want to treat your dawg to scraps.

  • +2

    wtf its well known to feed you dog raw food and kibble.
    it doesn't want your kfc bones

  • +4

    Try it yourself, I have! Cut the bone at 45 degrees and cook in different methods ;)

    Raw bones are easy to chew through and the remaining bits after chewing are not sharp …
    Baked / Roasted bones are harder than raw and more brittle, chewing can make the ends sharp …
    BUT
    Boiled / pressure cooked bones (pressure cooked ~ 3 hours) are extremely soft and just melt in your mouth with very little chewing and no sharp edges …

    From extensive research it appears cavemen actually boiled the bones for 24-48 hours for dogs / themselves (easier to break open - I suspect the cavemen ate the marrow and actually gave the remaining shell to the dogs - still being way softer than raw/baked bones)!

    • +1

      I was wondering about pressure cooked bones, I completely agree with you in principle but could you source this as being safe?

      • +1

        Try it yourself

        The bone turns quite soggy after ~ 3 hours of pressure cooking (which equates to ~ 24 hours of boiling / slow cooking) ;)

    • Best comment
      Thats very interesting and makes a lot of sense.

      Thats what people do now to make bone broth right?

      Ive even heard people take bones leftover after the meat has been eaten on the bone, and boil them to make bone broth which they then eat.

      I love the zero waste but i cant seem to wrap my head around doing it with bones that have been in peoples mouths though. Despite the sanitisation the boiling would provide i assume?

      • +1

        Thats what people do now to make bone broth right?

        Yeah, usually for bone broth there are some additives (onion / celery / etc) that actually makes the broth a bit acidic which speeds up the process!

        Despite the sanitisation the boiling would provide i assume?

        Yeah, hard for anything to live through the pressure and temperature of a pressure cooker!

        Bones have a metric ton of protein (via collagen) and minerals!

        • Yeah, hard for anything to live through the pressure and temperature of a pressure cooker!

          I see the logic, but can i get over it emotionally? 🤔

          No germs but if using bones that have been eaten off it will still have saliva in it though right? Am i gonna be sipping my broth and thinking about how i am drinking tiny amounts of all my family members saliva?

  • +3

    My friends bought a $3,000 dog. They fed it turkey bones. Turkey bones pierced the dog's throat and it soon turned into a $10,000 dog. After the dog was saved, the wound got infected and it ended up being a $17,000 dog.
    Not to mention the heartache and pain that went along with deciding the dog's fate.

    • Raw or cooked turkey bones?

      • I don't recall. It was so long ago. But…do you really want to risk it?

        • The trouble is some people say even raw bones are dangerous, and other people say commercial dog food is dangerous.

          They have to eat something

  • +4

    Why risk it? Just give them raw, and stop being a tightarse by recycling your leftover KFC.

  • +2

    I think my favourite option, if I had to pick one, would be "I am a vet and I only advise against feeding cooked bones to cover myself legally." because it seems to come from a wishful thinking aspect to feeding bones to dogs is … somehow otherwise fine … and yet there's some (small) legal reason they have to still say that, but it's probably some administrative thing?

    Like, if you met the vet in a pub and they didn't have their white coat on, they'd be going "oh yeah, Big Bone doesn't want you to know you can basically play KerPlunk by ramming as many chicken bones as you wanted down the dog's throat but … when I'm in the 'office', you gotta, you know, toe the line and be like "Oh yeah, no bones for dogs (wink)"

    Someone who desperately, desperately wants to feed as many bones as possible to their dog designed a poll and was worried they might not get to hear what they wanted unless they explored all the possible avenues, and this is where we landed.

    I think it's a beautiful thing. As long as you're not a dog in their care, anyway.

    • You can see a few comments about how there is growing concern that commercial dog food is bad for dogs.

      Similar to how people cant agree what the human diet should be.

      If the veterinary industry will tell you to feed your dog a grain based diet, and that is possibly wrong, maybe they have also been wrong about other things?

      I dont know, thats why i wanted to discuss it.

      • -1

        Playing russian roulette with your dogs' inner throat and intestines to save all that valuable money you spent on the bone part of the meat you bought, because Who Can Say, Just Asking Questions

        I'll do you a deal, I won't not-so-silently judge you if you crunch down and gulp a bone in equal portions to your dog on an ongoing basis.

        Lovely bone-based nutrients for you both, everybody wins and especially me because I won't have to wait for you to come back to discuss the results, I can just read about you in the paper.

        I might even check out the Daily Mail as a kind of send-off tribute, just to see what 'wacky' clickbaity headlines they write it up as.

        • +1

          I plan to get a pressure cooker so i will

  • +1

    I wouldn’t give my dog cooked bones, but he has had them before with no issues, but that could have been a fluke. After we eat a bunch of wicked wings (obvs from a KFC deal posted here) we put it all in the bin, the bastard tipped the bin over and ate all 8 wicked wing bones and the scrap of meat on them, followed by licking clean the potato and gravy and coleslaw containers. He was the happiest I’ve ever seen him, very proud of his achievement, but I was worried as hell for the next couple days until it passed.

  • +2

    My dogs eat cooked bones every time they make us walk them past all the nearby factories where the staff throw their cooked bones onto the nature strips after stripping half a chicken carcass for lunch. Of course, the minute our dogs pierce something critical due to bone shards we're getting a new dog. YRMV.

  • +2

    Weren't dogs initially domesticated because they started hanging around cavemen's fires eating their scraps? That's hundreds of thousands of years eating cooked bones.

    the cavemen and women didn’t care if the dog died from the cooked bones nor pay vet bills trying to save them if it did go wrong. Enough dogs would have been able to reproduce successfully before succumbing to injury that would mean genetic ability and eat cooked bones and survive hasn’t evolved.

    I’d also say it’s individual dog and breed dependent. If the dog properly chews and swallows the bone it’s probably lower risk. My late doggo was a Labrador and unfortunately they’ve been bred to be so food motivated that he’d have a high chance of injury from cooked dog bones as he’d pretty much vacuum up food - Labradors can eat themselves to death if they get access to too much food.

    But you are correct, it’s a risk, not a death sentence for them. I’d lean away from taking that risk personally.

    • +1

      Neighbours labrador once ate a whole bag of apples including the bag, and a whole pineapple including the top

      • +1

        Yep, we use to grow pineapples and the Labrador would eat them before we got a chance. He also once got into the garage where we keep the dog biscuits and tore open the pack and ate the lot. Luckily it was a mostly empty bag but still found him in a food coma and the trail of destruction behind him. Was an absolutely lovely and hilarious dog beyond the love of food, but I do always feel a bit sad for labs that feel constantly hungry.

        • Why breed a dog to be a vacuum?

          I did have a horse that way once but i dunno if that was his breed

  • +1

    I have GSD and I only feed raw chicken. I go to the local market and get a box of chicken bones for $7. My dog gets fat and goes mentally unstable when supermarket kibble fed.

    • +1

      gets fat and goes mentally unstable when supermarket kibble fed.

      Just like humans when they eat too much processed supermarket kibble food.

    • Not surprised. What are his mental symptoms?

  • +2

    I find it intriguing that dogs are carnivores, yet the pet food manufacturers are selling products that principally consist of grain, with some animal offal from abattoirs to give appropriate flavour. Of course appropriately cooked or heated to kill all the 'nasties'.
    Should we be feeding dogs a diet of meat products with a minority proportion of grain type products?

    • Its bullshat isnt it. Some as the human food pyramid with grains as a base

      For years my poor dogs at slop from tins

      I had one die young from cancer not seen in her breed

      Then we got a dog who farts epically and just generally stinks

      Finally i could convince the olds we need to feed them real food

      It helps that recently alternative pet food companies have started for the lazy

      My dog currently gets a raw chicken frame or turkey neck or several chicken necks for brekky

      And a barf raw food frozen meal with frozen veg for dinner

      Doesnt evacuate a room with his farts anymore

    • If I don't give my pup occasional vegetables she will forage for weeds in the garden, some greenery is normal. (She loves carrots, beans and potato). Also in nature carnivores will get the small plant content they need from consuming their herbivore prey. (and herbivores are often opportunistic carnivores, cows have been documented scavenging meat) I'm not saying the grain crap in dog feed is good though.

  • doesn't make much sense to me

    sounds about right

  • Dogs are not stupid they chew up the bones to get the marrow. We have fed our dogs cooked bones from chicken, lamb and pork roasts with no issues for decades across a vaireity of large and small breeds.
    Could a freak accident happen? Sure. Every year over 100 humans die from choking on food. For most of human history dogs have only got left over scraps and bones. And in the the wild they will also crunch up and eat the bones. Chewing bones also provides benefits for the dogs teeth and jaw strengthn and provides them with calcium. Dogs don't drink milk. I think the don't eat bones advice is more undercooked information based on feelings, confirmation bias and not evidence.

    • +3

      In the wild they don’t get cooked bones.

      • Predators eat animals remaning from forest fires etc.
        It's also how humans likely discovered you could apply fire to meat.
        Some predatory birds even spread fires on purpose.

        • +1

          Crows are basically flying monkeys man

        • +3

          That would constitute almost no part of the standard wild animals diet. I suspect they would only eat this meat if there was nothing else. Fresh prey is the best way to minimise the likelihood of food poisoning.

          The birds carry fire to flush out prey to catch, not so they can have a cooked meal.

          I can see raw bones as part of a diet as a teeth cleaner. I can also see value in sawing them to give access to the marrow. Brittle cooked bones are not recommended by vets. I would stick with the experts on this.

    • +1

      We seem to be on the same wavelength

      Ive been planning to get a pressure çooker for years so ìm currently thinking thats the way i can keep doing it without anxiety and improve my own diet and health too

    • +2

      almost all science and vet advice is to avoid cooked bones.
      What other than good luck and anecdotal opinion negates that real evidence?

      This is one of millions of sound science based articles>
      https://animalemergencyservice.com.au/blog/cooked-bones-dang…

    • No dogs are not stupid, and they often don't consume food until they have been taught it is OK by their parent/guardian. Also puppies will eat rocks, poop, cat litter, glass, socks, toilet paper, sticks etc etc.

  • +1

    I appreciate the post. I gotta admit I was ignorant on this subject. TIL.

    I'm really concerned seeing you upvoting the rubbish posts supporting feeding dogs cooked bones. I hope you learned something too.

    • +1

      I'm really concerned seeing you upvoting the rubbish posts supporting feeding dogs cooked bones

      I appreciate diversity of opinion and thank them for the effort of their post. I upvote lots of things

      I hope you learned something too.

      The pressure cooking section has been very useful

  • +1

    Much of the world also don’t give a sh*t about animals either and often see them as pests.

  • +3

    We were always told as kids dogs could have cooked bones, as long as it wasn't chicken. We were always wrapping up bones after getting ribs at a restaurant, or t bones etc.

    • I remember that being the advice for ages

  • I shop at Hardly Normal so his dog gets more expensive food!

  • +1

    If you have a small dog and you give them a large cooked bone to pull scraps off that is too big for them to chew should be fine. If there's a chance they can chew or swallow a cooked bone they shouldn't have it.

    • +2

      I still remember my tiny dog getting the roast bone half her size and pulling scraps off it. So adorable

    • +1

      Don't think anyone else has mentioned this other risk of giving dogs cooked bones-

      Two of our small dogs have both broken the tips off an incisor tooth chomping on cooked bones, which then led to the tooth having to be removed and expensive vet bills.
      Therefore, after cutting off the bits of meat for them, we always put all cooked bones straight in the outside bin so there's no chance of them raiding the kitchen bin (which one of the dogs did).

  • +1

    No,I don't feed my dogs cooked bones. The old owners (family) who no longer wanted their dog , dumped her on her on me when she was 11 months. they used to feed her everything and anything, unfortunately. All vets are different when it comes to things. One vet told me that feeding cooked bones just makes them fat and raw bones makes them conspiated

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