Raw Bones, Cooked Bones, or No Bones for Pets?

If you do a search for information on these topics you will find a raging debate. The camps often divide up as follows:

• The Purists who feed ONLY raw bones with the meat and organs, nothing else.
  

• Dry and Canned feeders who warn against RAW feeding practices and only trust their companions diet to the dog food manufacturers who they feel have made a study and profession of creating nutritional meals.

• The Tweens are those who feel commercial dog food is nutritionally worthwhile, but also feel some raw food is a good idea, so they divide the meals between raw and processed foods.
  
• The BARF crowd feeds raw meats with the bones and organ meats, PLUS they include some combintion of any or all of the following: vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, legumes, and grains. (I caution against the use of any grain.)
  

COOKING bones makes them brittle and dangerous to consume. Raw bones are softer, clean the teeth, and rarely cause problems in the diet. These would all be smaller bones, such as chicken, rabbit, or game hens. The big bones are too large to chew and consume, and are mostly used as toys or treats. Feeding raw meat on a large bone where the bone cannot be consumed also interferes with the necessary balance between Calcium and Phosphorous that is provided in perfect ratio by nature. When meat is taken off the bone, this natural ratio is broken resulting in a diet that is not out of balance.

The various feeding methods will be discussed in more detail in upcoming blogs.