# Marrow bone



## veifera (Apr 25, 2012)

I bought marrow bone today, roasted it, cleaned off most of the meat and the marrow and later gave it to my dog. She loved it but threw up a small amount of kibble after gorging on it for half hour (bone is her red velvet cake). 

I'm wondering if this is to be expected the first time? 

She has ground beef often with her kibble so not a stranger to meat but never had home-made bone and I'm puzzled what caused the vomit. Thanks!


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## threefsh (Apr 25, 2011)

Cooked bones are dangerous because they become brittle & splinter. I hope your pup is okay.


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

I am obviously very dense - why would you remove the best bits - the meat and the marrow?

I buy marrow bones in packs of three they are about 3-4" long and my pup gets one frozen bone every few days. He just loves them. He licks the marrow out and eats the little bits of meat on the outsiide, keeps him busy for an hour or so. He has never been sick from eating one.

The most dangerous thing you can do is feed your dog a cooked bone. The bone can splinter with very dangerous consequences. :'( The splinters can cause the dog to vomit.


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## veifera (Apr 25, 2012)

Hi threefrsh and hotmischief:

I'm really confused about the subject of bones. Everyone seems to have a different opinion. Here's what i'm doing (and why)

- I scrape most of the meat and remove the marrow because I don't want to use the bone as meal replacement. Marrow is fat and blood, as I understand, and I want to be able to stick to kibble. I add ground beef to her kibble but in very small quantities (up to a table spoon for a cup and half of kibble). so yesterday I left just enough meat on the bone for her to be able to graze it off but not enough to make this more than a treat

- The bones I bought were very thick, weight-bearing beef bone. Each is about 7" long. My puppy is not a hard chewer, more a scraper and a grazer.

- I put the bone in the oven for about 15 minutes total. Lots of fat and grease came off and it was easier to remove the marrow that way. Not sure how I can tell if the bone got too dry or brittle but it's still perfectly intact next day. Is it really possible that 15 minutes would dry a bone this thick to such a degree that it would splinter? Whatever caused her to vomit yesterday wasn't a splinter - I checked the bone twice. And her poop last night and this morning was normal. 

- My vet is extremely skeptical about feeding raw (mostly because of E coli and stuff like that, which he says he sees all the time) and I don't plan to convert to raw diet either. 

Where am I going wrong here or making wrong assumptions/conclusions?


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

verifera,

I respect that you don't wish to change your dog to a raw diet, everybody has and is entitled to their personal opinions about what and why they feed their dogs a certain diet.

I am surprised your vet told you to cook the marrow bone. I personally don't see the point, but if you are happier doing this can I suggest you boil the bone in water so as to keep the bone moist - that might be a better option than drying the bone out in the oven.


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## veifera (Apr 25, 2012)

Another question: does raw bone need freezing during the night if for any reason the dog doesn't ear all the meat/marrow? 

Thanks!


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

I would never leave any meat product at room temperature for any length of time. In my opinion that is asking for problems. If I were to keep a bone like that I would put it in a Zip lock bag and refrigerate it.

As the bones I give to Boris are smaller than the ones you get he normal licks the marrow and any meat off within an hour, so I quickly throw it away when he isn't looking. He often leaves them on the lawn in the back yard and I worry about flies laying eggs on them - so out they go!!!

Where I buy them from is the company I buy my raw meat from, they said why don't you refill them and freeze them. The meat I buy from them is all ground up, I think I might give that a go. I know you don't want to feed raw meat, that's fine but what about filling it with something like sweet potato or similar??


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## finch (Sep 19, 2011)

Finch usually gets a marrow bone once a week during the day but she is so high energy, that I don't cut back on her regular kibble at regular mealtimes. I keep some in the freezer and give it to her straight of out the freezer, marrow, meat and all. Finch is 16 months, but I have been doing this is with her since she was around 6 months and with my other 2 dogs who are now 7... We have never had any problems giving them raw this way. Also, while you don't need to feed your dog a raw diet, know that dogs have a very short intestinal track and bacteria doesn't stay in their stomach like it does a human. 

Do be careful about giving a dog any cooked bones... they can become brittle and splinter. Here is some good info about raw vs cooked: http://www.rawfed.com/myths/bones.html


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