Giving your dog a bone feels like a natural instinct, but the answer to whether dogs can eat bones is rarely a simple yes or no. You need to understand the critical distinction between raw and cooked bones to prevent severe medical emergencies and ensure your dog enjoys a safe, healthy chew.
The Golden Rule: Raw vs. Cooked
The single most important rule you must follow is to never feed your dog cooked bones.
When a bone is cooked, the collagen structure breaks down, making the bone brittle and dry. Instead of crumbling safely, cooked bones tend to splinter into sharp shards when chewed. These shards are incredibly dangerous and can cause:
- Lacerations: Sharp edges can cut the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheek.
- Perforation: Splinters can puncture the esophagus, stomach, or intestines, leading to life-threatening internal bleeding and infection (peritonitis).
- Choking: Small, brittle pieces can easily become lodged in the windpipe.
This rule applies to boiled, baked, smoked, or steamed bones. It also applies to all types of animals, including chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, and pork. If you have leftover T-bones or rib bones from dinner, throw them away immediately in a secure trash can your dog cannot access.
Safe Options: Feeding Raw Bones
Unlike cooked bones, raw bones are generally safer because they are flexible and resilient. They do not shatter as easily. Raw bones are often categorized into two types: edible (nutritional) and recreational.
Edible Nutritional Bones
These are raw, hollow, non-weight-bearing bones usually from birds (chicken or turkey wings and necks). They are soft, pliable, and contain marrow.
You can grind these up or feed them whole to your dog as part of a raw diet. They provide calcium, phosphorus, and trace minerals. Because they are soft, they are meant to be crushed and swallowed, providing nutrition rather than vigorous chewing time.
Recreational Bones
Recreational bones are large, hard chunks of beef or bison femur or hip bones filled with marrow. You give these to your dog to gnaw on, not to eat entirely.
These bones act like a natural toothbrush. As your dog gnaws on the bone, the chewing action scrapes tartar off their teeth and massages their gums. They also provide mental stimulation. However, these bones are very hard and should be taken away once the meat and marrow are gone, or if the bone becomes small enough to swallow.
Potential Health Risks
Even when sticking to raw bones, you expose your dog to certain risks. You must weigh these potential dangers against the benefits.
Broken Teeth
The most common injury from recreational bones is a slab fracture of the upper carnassial tooth (the large premolar). Beef shank bones are incredibly dense—sometimes harder than your dog’s tooth enamel. Aggressive chewers are at high risk of fracturing a tooth, which requires expensive veterinary dental surgery.
Bacterial Contamination
Raw meat and bones carry bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. While dogs have highly acidic stomachs that can generally handle these bacteria better than humans, there is still a risk of illness, especially for dogs with compromised immune systems. Furthermore, you risk cross-contamination in your home if your dog drags a raw bone across carpets or furniture.
Constipation and impaction
If your dog consumes a large amount of bone, the calcium acts as a firming agent in the digestive tract. This can lead to hard, white, chalky stools that are difficult to pass. In severe cases, bone fragments can accumulate in the intestines, causing an impaction that blocks the digestive system.
Safety Guidelines for Bone Chewing
If you decide to give your dog a raw bone, follow these safety protocols to minimize accidents.
- Supervise Entirely: Never leave your dog alone with a bone. You need to be present to react if they start choking or if the bone breaks into large chunks.
- Size Matters: The bone must be larger than your dog’s muzzle so they cannot swallow it whole. For large breeds like German Shepherds or Labradors, avoid small femur rings; opt for large knuckle bones instead.
- Timing: Give the bone after a meal. A hungry dog is more likely to chew aggressively and try to swallow large pieces. A full dog will chew more leisurely.
- Discard Promptly: Throw the bone away after 30 to 45 minutes to prevent bacteria growth. If the bone wears down to a small size, take it away immediately to prevent choking.
- Avoid Pork Ribs: Even when raw, pork rib bones are more likely to crack and splinter than beef bones. Stick to beef or lamb for recreational chewing.
What to Do If Your Dog Eats a Cooked Bone
If you discover your dog has raided the trash and consumed chicken wings or a steak bone, remain calm but act quickly.
Do not induce vomiting. If the bone has sharp edges, bringing it back up through the esophagus can cause just as much damage as it did going down.
Check your dog for immediate signs of distress, such as gagging, drooling, or pawing at the mouth. If they seem fine, feed them a bulky meal, such as bread or white rice. This can help cushion the stomach and wrap around bone fragments to help them pass more safely.
Monitor your dog closely for the next 48 to 72 hours. Watch for:
- Vomiting
- Lethargy
- Bloody stool
- Straining to defecate
- Abdominal pain (hunched posture)
If you see any of these signs, contact your veterinarian immediately.
Safer Alternatives
If the risks of natural bones worry you, there are plenty of alternatives that satisfy a dog’s chewing instinct without the danger of splintering.
- Dental Chews: High-quality dental treats are designed to control plaque and are fully digestible.
- Rubber Toys: Durable rubber toys (like Kongs) can be stuffed with peanut butter or wet food and frozen. This provides long-lasting mental stimulation without the risk of tooth fracture.
- Bully Sticks: These are made from beef muscle (pizzle). They are fully digestible, high in protein, and soften as the dog chews, reducing the risk of choking or tooth damage compared to hard bones.