Recreational Bones

Part of feeding our pets a healthy diet is also feeding our pets safely. I hear the phrase, recreation bones, thrown around a lot when talking about raw. For those of you who do not know what those are, recreational bones are, non-edible, raw bones from weight bearing animals that have been stripped of most, if not all, meat. Non-edible means they cannot be crushed into smaller pieces to swallow safely for nutritional purposes.

Examples of Recreational Bones:

Photo courtesy of US Wellness Meats

Photo courtesy of US Wellness Meats

Photo courtesy of US Wellness Meats

Even though recreational bones are raw, they are not okay to feed for several reasons:

- They are dense bones from weight bearing animals such as cow or elk and can chip, crack or fracture teeth which is painful for the dog and expensive to fix.

- They are a choking hazard.

- They do not clean teeth; they wear down the teeth by destroying the enamel. The gnawing on hard bone files down teeth over time. Cleaning teeth is more than just crushing up bones but also the flossing and rubbing action when eating meat.

- They do not provide any more mental stimulation that feeding whole pieces of raw meat cannot provide.

- Wolves have been documented leaving these types of bones at the kill site; stripped of meat and then left untouched.

When I first started feeding raw, I paid no attention to the warnings of those more experienced than me about the dangers of recreational bones, such as beef shanks, femurs, marrow bones, and knuckles. I ignored them because I felt I was doing everything right and Balto was not an aggressive gnawer. Well, a month into feeding them, after one particular session, I noticed Balto had chipped two of his back molars. Thankfully they were only superficial chips and no real damage was done for the vet to fix. I was lucky in that sense, but I put Balto at risk simply because I felt I knew better. It was then I swore off of recreational bones. I believe that the costs outweigh any benefits people may feel recreational bones might provide.

However, weight bearing bones with lots of meat still attached is fine to feed. Feeding big pieces of bone-in beef, elk, venison, buffalo, moose, etc. with plenty of meat attached is okay because by the time they get down to the bone, their excitement for the food has dwindled and they are much calmer to gently tear at any remainders of meat without damaging their teeth or chocking. When the bone is bare of meat, it should be discarded.

*I would consider antlers to be an unsafe recreational bone to feed as well.

Safe Recreational Treats to Feed:

I feed Balto bully sticks which are dried out bull pizzle (penis). It is a healthy and safe alternative to recreational bones. He loves them, they help clean teeth, massage the gums, and they exercise the jaw. In addition, they are not too hard that they will crack, chip, or fracture any teeth. You can’t ask for a better treat! 

Pictures of Balto eating a bullystick.

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