Bones and Slab Fractures

[Raw Food Eating Doodles]

In the main discussion forum, Nancy wrote that Ned had a slab fracture. And it got me wondering how many of you actually feed bone and what types of bones.

Riley, Molly and Jake all get some bone with just about every meal. Granted it's the softer more digestible kind like a chicken leg, thigh or breast bone, which are not likely to cause dental issues. However, I am just about to give them a pork hock each which has a more dense bone. It also has such lovely tough skin on the hock that gives their front teeth a good workout much like flossing. They need to chew on bones for dental health.

However, I have always read, and my other online raw feeding group also advises, to stay away from the large dense bones of cows, horses, deer, etc., as these large weight bearing bones can produce slab fractures.

So raw feeders, what bones do you serve up?

[Trudy Harlow]

Well, I took the advice of the online raw feeding group to heart.  They said that pork bones are pretty soft, so I've been feeding Paddy the bones of pork shoulder "ribs" -- "country style" ribs here in the US, very meaty with a different kind of bone than in regular ribs -- with no problem.  Also, in my fridge right now I have a pork "rib" that has a bone that actually looks like the bone in a beef shank, and I've wondered about whether he could handle that.  It just looks different from the other bones he's gotten.  It's not a shank, but part of the shoulder, but it does look a little denser than the others he's had.

Even when I don't give him the beef bones, I dig out the marrow and feed that to him.  That's always the part he eats first.

I'll have to go read up on the slab fracture. 

[Trudy Harlow]

What about shoulder bones?  He's already eaten a couple of slices of them.  They aren't leg bones, and they aren't rib bones....

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Cooper loves pork hocks and beef rib bones. She will sometimes eat a turkey neck, other times she will turn her nose up at it.