Dogs and chickenbones

Syzygys

Syzygys

As a mother, I am telling you
Valued Senior Member
We are not supposed to give chickenbones to our best friend, well, because they have the ability of dying in the process of eating it.

I never understood that. Here is my problem:

Dogs are predators (well, domesticated ones) so are dogs the only ones that can die when eating chickenbones? I am not aware of any reports when foxes or wolves or jackals died while eating chicken. It is possible that they do die too and humankind just accidentally overlooked that fact.

So if only dogs die of chickenbones, how come? Are they so much stupider than foxes,jackals,etc? We like to say just how smart are they, nevertheless they can't even properly eat and diggest such a simple food as a chickenbone?

Is it possible that dogs during thousands of years of domestication lost the ability to eat chickenbones? And how about cats?

Specially wild, big cats? Are lions and tigers and other big cats known to have the same chickenbone death? I don't think so...

So something is up here! I just can't believe that dogs are the only predators that can lose to a dead chicken.
 
I used to ignore my parents and gave my dog chicken bones, as I didnt believe that they splinter of into sharp pieces. Its just a precaution more than anything, Its probably best to err on the side of it rather than not though.
 
Ahh, in the wild, the dog-like animals learn HOW to eat chicken-type bones at a very early age, so they don't have the same problems.

Your pet ain't never learned those lessons, so he'll try to swallow sharp splinters, and thus cause the problems associated with chicken bones.

I give my dog chicken bones, BUT, and ONLY, the knuckle parts of the bones. Those don't splinter into sharp shards and he loves 'em.

Baron Max
 
Baron Max said:
Ahh, in the wild, the dog-like animals learn HOW to eat chicken-type bones at a very early age,
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1. How do they learn it?
2. Only dog-types?
3. If a puppy is brought up by his mother, does he have the same ability?

I wanted to give my dog turkey neck, wifey said no. I think she was overcautious...
 
Baron's hypothesis sounds right. My relatives had a big dog that they fed chicken bones all the time. It died after being bit by a viper.
 
i've also heard the "chickenbone splinter" story.
i give my dog chicken bones, doesn't seem to bother him none
 
I have just heard a theory from my fellow dogwalker:

it is the cooking that changes the bones structure and makes it more likely to splinter. I am not sure if it is true, but this would explain why wild animals don't die of chickenbones. They don't eat it cooked...
She also said they can't diggest it, although i don't believe it.

Also it could be a old wife's tale, occasionally a few dogs died and it spread like wildfire...
 
Emm... Syzygys?

I'm not sure quite how to break this to you but actually your fellow dog walker is perfectly correct - it's cooked chicken bones you're not supposed to feed either dogs or cats. Raw is fine, but indeed - the temperature involved in cooking makes the bones more brittle and thus break into shards which can indeed get stuck in either the animals oesophagus or stomach....

I can't believe you have something to do with dogs and don't know this....
 
Speaking of cooking, if someone really wants to feed chickenbones, they can be cooked in a crockpot longer until they crumble. Then they can't choke anyone.
 
Mr Anonymous said:
Raw is fine, but indeed - the temperature involved in cooking makes the bones more brittle and thus break into shards which can indeed get stuck in either the animals oesophagus or stomach....
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Ahh, yeah, but the key phrase there is "...can get stuck..." Of course it can, but also it might not!

I grew up on a farm, and we fed our dogs anything and everything, including chicken bones, cooked and uncooked, warm and cold, slimy and unslimy, ....., and we never had a problem with any of them.

But as I've said, they grew up with it ...and either knew from instinct, or learned for the older dogs, how to eat the stuff. Pets that have been pampered from puppy-hood don't know things like that ...they grow up eating fine steak and drinking fine wine! :D

Mr Anonymous said:
I can't believe you have something to do with dogs and don't know this....
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Yeah, I agree with that assessement!

Baron Max
 
MetaKron said:
Speaking of cooking, if someone really wants to feed chickenbones, they can be cooked in a crockpot longer until they crumble. Then they can't choke anyone.
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Sure, but why go to that trouble and waste the energy? Just feed them the knuckle portions of the bones, cooked or not, and they'll love you for it. ...and there ain't no splintered bones to worrry about.

'Course, you could do like me and feed him fine, charbroiled steak and fine wine. He likes that, too.

Baron Max
 
Yes, that ought to do the trick - just bear in mind domesticated animals simply aren't particularly designed for dealing with cooked food particularly.
 
Vets see every kind of horrible mishap imaginable, and then caution you on just about everything because whatever it is they've seen a dog that fucked itself up doing it.
Doesn't mean it's likely to happen.

My dog could probably eat tin cans. Large pieces of hard plastic have come out the back end of him, nothing slows him down.
He ate a possum once, he caught it, killed it, plucked it, and ate it's entire body and later shat out teeth and claws.
 
:) ..... Kind of reminds me of an old fella I once owned, literally would and in practice did eat anything and everything under the sun - plastic, string, rubber, pens - you name it. Everything except certain brands of dog food. He'd just give you a filthy look if you tried to feed him certain brands of the stuff and saunter out in disgust.

Considering you'd find him happily chewing away on sheep shit on occasion, that never ceased to crack me up that...

Anyway - No, I perfectly agree with you old man. Back in the day when we raised both livestock and muttlings, used to feed them all sorts including chicken bones - well, legs, wings, that sort of kidney. But indeed, there was an older dog about to show them how to chew them up properly.

No, quite right. It would be really bad luck a dog having there first chicken bone and then popping their cogs as an immediate result, likely not to happen - but, at the end of the day it's just the risk of the thing and the itinerant vet bills that generally tend to go with unnecessary problems.

Safer in the end just to avoid.

It's like the chocolate thing. Owned dogs ever since I was a pup m'self, never thought twice about chucking them the odd chocie treat every now and then - turns out it's toxic for them. All the time never knew.

Can't say I ever lost a dog through anything much other than old age, but once y'become aware of a thing you tend to take it on board, why take the risk, just give 'em something else instead.
 
Mr Anonymous said:


I can't believe you have something to do with dogs and don't know this....
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1. I am a catperson, dog was wifey's idea.
2. We got the little bastard in May, so it is not like I am an expert...

Did I answer your inquiry???

P.S.: Looks like other dogowners didn't know it either...(4answers)
 
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Baron Max said:
Yeah, I agree with that assessement!

Baron Max
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You moron, you didn't give THAT answer (I did), so I must assume you didn't know it either...

Remember, you will NEVER win an argument against me... :)
 
Syzygys said:
Did I answer your inquiry???
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Well, now y'comes to mention it, though technically the answer's yes, a little more of "Oooooo, Mr Anonymous - what a love-God you are knowing all things bone realated.... " wouldn't at all have gone amiss.... ;)

By the by. The cooked bone thing is quite true for Cats also.
 
Heed what Mr. A has to say:

"Bad luck a dog having there first chicken bone and then popping their cogs as an immediate result, likely not to happen - but, at the end of the day it's the risk....Safer in the end just to avoid. It's like the chocolate thing."

Chicken bones are overall a lot thinner than any cattle bones and much more likely to splinter, most especially the thin fibulla bone in the hind legs. Pork bones can also splinter. They can easily choke on it to death:

"Nearly lost our dog last week when he pinched a chicken leg from the trash!Had to restrain him and shove pliers down his throat!This then resulted in the dog having a cut at back of throat and a phobia of tools!" http://brittany.angloinfo.com/forum/printtopic.asp?Topic_ID=11068
 
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