Is It Safe To Give Your Dogs A Bone?

The image of a dog with its bone is one of those classic images in media. You see it in all manner of television shows, cartoons, and paintings. Many people like to keep bones aside for their dogs for this purpose. It gives a dog something to chew on, and it allows them to enjoy the taste of any meat still connected to the bone.

Is it safe, though? Unfortunately, it's not. There are some bones that it may be safe for a dog to chew on, but by and large, bones are actually quite dangerous for dogs. This is because bones tend to splinter and chip. It's incredibly easy for one of those splinters or chips to get lodged into the skin of a dog's mouth. This can cause all manner of health problems, up to and including an infection that would end with needing to remove part of the dog's jaw.

Some of the larger bones, such as cow femur bones, are a bit safer. It's more difficult for a dog to splinter these bones with chewing. Any bird bones, however, are incredibly dangerous. You should never allow your dog to chew on chicken bones, turkey bones, or the bones of any other poultry. This is because birds have hollow bones, which makes them so much easier to splinter.

If you can't give your dog a bone, what should you allow your dog to chew on? There are a number of chewing toys available at most pet shops, and many of those are much more appropriate. The traditional one is a rawhide bone, and there's no reason not to go traditional. Many of these chewing toys are even flavored, allowing your dog to enjoy a taste they'll love while they're also chewing on things that are much safer for them to chew.

Due to a combination of tradition and popular media, it's really easy to think you should give your dogs the bones from you meal. Yet it's an incredibly dangerous thing to do. So you should avoid doing it whenever you can. If you want to give your dog some meat, then simply give your dog some meat. If you want to give them a chew toy, buy an actual chew toy. Giving them a bone is just increasing the risk of getting a bone chip splintered into their jaw or gut, and that can cause way too many problems.

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