Dog And Chicken Bones

A Dog and Chicken Bones

Common wisdom has long told us that a dog and chicken bones go together about as well as elephants and bicycles. We've been taught that feeding our dogs chicken bones is dangerous for them, likely to cause intestinal injury and of little nutritional value.

Where does a lot of this information come from? Mainly from manufacturers of commercial dog foods who would rather you purchase their products so they can make a tidy profit. Pet owners who naturally want to protect their canine companions tend to believe this information and pass it along to other dog owners, thus perpetuating the notion that chicken bones are harmful to dogs under any circumstance. However, a dog and chicken bones can be compatible under the right conditions.

Raw vs. Cooked

How have most dogs received chicken bones? Most likely as leftovers from their owner's meal. In this case, the chicken bones have been cooked, turning them dry and brittle, which makes them more likely to break into sharp splinters. These splinters then have the opportunity to puncture a hole somewhere in the digestive system, causing what now becomes a veterinary emergency.

Proponents of feeding chicken bones to a dog maintain that raw chicken bones are somewhat flexible and are easily chewed down for proper digesting. This argument does have some merit, considering wild dogs ate their prey raw, not processed, for thousands of years before the advent of commercial pet foods. They seemed to have survived quite nicely too.

The BARF Diet

And so we come to the BARF diet. Forget the nauseating thoughts this acronym brings to mind. BARF actually stands for:

Bones

And

Raw

Food

As previously mentioned, dogs have naturally subsisted on raw meat and bones for thousands of years. Their digestive systems were perfectly adapted to render all of their nutrition from these natural foods, and proponents of the BARF diet believe that dogs fed these same items today are actually healthier than dogs fed commercial kibbles that also contain a lot of grain fillers, preservatives, and insecticides.

Most BARF diets are based on feeding raw chicken and other game hens since they are inexpensive and easily obtained while doing the family grocery shopping. This raises some concerns about salmonella and other harmful bacteria, since humans need to carefully cook the chicken to make it safe for us to consume.

A dog's digestive system has no such concerns. It was originally designed to make short work of these bacteria, so that wild dogs could take nutritional advantage of any leftover carcasses they came upon as they wandered through the wilderness. If you've ever had to frantically pull your dog off what he considered to be some tasty road kill, you've witnessed this instinctual behavior.

A Word to the Wise

The dog and chicken bones controversy will likely remain lively for a long time to come, so owners need to make their own decision about whether to feed raw chicken bones to their pets. Keep in mind that everything you feed your dog has the potential to become hazardous under the right conditions. Kibble can be choked on, rawhide bones can cause intestinal blockages, and some chemicals used as preservatives in commercial pet foods are known cancer-causing agents. As an owner, all you can do is weigh the risks and choose the feeding method you believe will be most beneficial for your dog in the long run.

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