Dog Bone Curing

[manxman]

The Wife® often accuses me of being a food nazi where the dog is concerned...so I'm not at all sure I'd recommend curing bones for pooch, especially if it involves any kind of cooking or close-to-cooking-like process.  Doing so can make bones brittle and much more hazardous for dogs.  Even if you're talkin' about cold smoking, I'd be leery of introducing curing agents to a dog's diet without more research.

Like a couple of others before me I agree with the above. The local butcher gives dog bones away for a small donation to charity, the dogs get them raw and after a couple of days they get thrown away.

On occasions I have made a beef broth and boiled the sh*te out of marrow bones but never give em to the dogs afterward, all cooked bones always seems to upset their tums and that spells trouble with unwanted presents when you get up in the morning!!  :o

As as already mentioned, they seem to splinter easily.

[dewy]

Looking for shed deer antlers about 2 years ago I walked through an area the state DNR had burned off and found a fresh set of sheds that had survived the fire.Even a quick heating up from a fast moving grass fire was enough to make them brittle.I accidently clicked them together while carrying them out and they both lost big flakes of bone off the outside.Aside from splintering you dog may also get much bigger pieces of bone in thier stomach then they would with raw bones.Dont know if this would cause problems digesting or not but Id be carefull if you try it.

[Bricco81]

Here is the thing with bones.  They are one of the best things for a dog to have for many reasons.  The best bone to give your dog would be a raw bone, but they can be tough to find and also messy.  Slow smoked bones are also great but unfortunately the bones that you find in big pet stores are no longer slow smoked because the process takes too long and it cuts into profits.  Lots of times they are baked and then liquid smoke added.  They cook them at high temps which makes them brittle, splinter and dangerous.  This is why people say smoke bones are not good.  However, I just found a new company at a local show here in Florida called Drago's Smokehouse.  These guys slow smoke the bones for 12 HOURS!  They smoke them at such a low temp that the bones will not splinter.  You get the benefits of a raw bone with out the mess.  I tried a few and they provided hours of chewing without splintering (IF THE 220LB MASTIFFS DON'T SPLINTER THEM I THINK THEY'RE SAFE).  It is three weeks later and they are still in good shape.  There website still needs lots of work (www.dragossmokehouse.com) but you can order from them by requesting a price list at [email protected]
Let me know what you think.