Eating raw bones is as completely natural as eating fresh meat for dogs and cats. They come hand in hand, in the wild. Both dogs and cats are natural hunters, cats always eating their food fresh, and dogs happy to eat fresh, or decaying. Either way, catching and eating prey has always involved the consumption of bones. Feeding bones to domestic dogs has been a time honoured tradition, and is still practised by knowledgeable dog breeders and pet owners. The feeding of bones to cats has had less emphasis in the past, as cats have always been able to catch and eat their own prey, complete with bones. Since the advent of "ready to serve" commercial pet foods, there has been a noticeable decline in the practice of feeding bones to dogs by many pet owners, particularly raw bones. And now that the modern domestic cat's natural hunting abilities have been limited by their confinement, there is a marked decline in the consumption of raw bones by cats also.

bones are consumed first and foremost for their nutritional value to the cat or dog. A natural, and highly digestible source of calcium is provided by raw bones, and is required to provide a natural balance to the higher levels of phosphorous found in raw meat.

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They offer some dental hygiene effects, but minimal nutritional effect.
They do however, keep many a dog happy for several hours a day.

Try and get bones with some meat left on, as it encourages the dog to exercise the front incisor teeth while tearing at the meat. This is very important during puppy-hood, when the milk teeth are replaced by the adult teeth. The chewing and tearing action helps to dislodge the puppy teeth, and allow normal progression of the adult teeth.

Bones for Cats :

Cats will prefer slightly softer, smaller bones. Chicken necks and wings are the most popular, as are rabbit pieces, and smaller roo tails. My cats happily devour an entire chicken carcass with ease, and will tackle a large roo tail, but usually leave the big bones for the dogs to clean up. Many people I see in practice do not believe cats can eat bones, but once you have seen them devour a rabbit, head first, you understand they are quite capable..many cats just prefer to avoid the hard work !!
It can be hard to get an adult cat to start eating bones if it is not used to eating fresh meat. It can be equally hard if they all ready have bad teeth, or need dental help. The best thing is to get your cat started as early as possible, as a kitten, and then keep up a regular routine.

How Often
Puppies and kittens should have a bone offering every day during their growth phase. For cats and small breed dogs, this ends around 6-12 months of age, for medium sized dogs at 12-18 months, and for large and giant breeds, at 2 years old. Puppies and kittens can tackle soft macerated meat and bone pieces as soon as they develop their milk teeth, at around 4-5 weeks old.
Adequate calcium is vital for normal growth and development, for correct mineralisation (strength) of the teeth and bones, and structure of joints. It is vital for muscular contraction in the body, including the heart muscle, and is involved in a wide array of metabolic processes. The calcium in raw bones can be up to 4 times more digestible than most common calcium supplements available. Bones also supply smaller amounts of cartilage, bone marrow, and other minerals, like boron, which are vital for bone health.
Raw bones also play an integral role in dental hygiene for dogs and cats. The process of macerating the meat and bones actually massages the animal's teeth and gums, cleaning away any food residues or tartar development. This prevents plaque formation, bad breath, dental cavities, gingivitis, and expensive veterinary teeth scaling and extractions. A good supply of calcium and other nutrients during the early growth stages of puppies and kittens will also help to ensure strong healthy teeth.
And finally, a good bone feed actually has a beneficial effect on the dog or cat's digestive tract. It has a cleansing / scouring effect, providing much needed roughage in the diet, and provides bulk for healthy faecal motions that stimulate anal gland emptying.

Why Raw
The benefits of eating bones are greatly reduced by cooking, and it can actually create dangers. Cooking bones renders the natural calcium almost unavailable for absorption, losing that vital source of mineral availability. Cooked bones are much tougher, and more brittle than raw bones, and will actually blunt an animals teeth after regular chewing. They also break into large chunks more easily, and can result in your pet swallowing a piece too large to digest, and then a quick visit for some veterinary attention. Cooked bones are very slow to breakdown in the animals gut, and can cause gut pain (colic), scarring of the gut lining and bleeding, and can lead to constipation.

Bones For Dogs
The basic guide for choice of bones is really decided by the size of the dog. Large dogs can handle larger bones, like lamb necks, lamb shanks, beef leg bones, whole rabbit, whole chickens or chicken carcasses, kangaroo tails. Smaller dogs will fare better with chicken frames, chicken necks or wings, lamb flaps, brisket bones, ribs etc. My favourites are roo tails and chicken frames.
Remember that there are two distinct types of bones; those that are eaten easily and quite quickly, are nutritional, and provide all of the above listed benefits. Bones that are too large or tough, and end up scattered over the back yard, or buried in the lawn, and dug up or chewed on over many days, are more of a "toy".
Adult dogs and cats can still happily eat a bone every day, but can get by with bones at least twice weekly. Older pets should get more bones, as they start to need more calcium in old age to maintain good health and prevent arthritis..

What To Avoid
Avoid cooked bones full stop. As a general rule, avoid bones of a size that will tempt the dog to swallow them without chewing..they can still get caught in the gut, or wedged across the roof of the mouth. I have once seen a labrador that choked and died trying to swallow a whole lamb neck. Although whole raw bone will digest slowly, it does not yield as much health value to the dog, as a well-chewed raw bone
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"Always remember serious problems should always be treated by your vet"

3% hydrogen peroxide solution

is an excellent all- purpose wound cleaner for both skin and mucky ear canals. It foams up when it cleans dirty material from a wound or ear.

Tea tree oil

is a powerful natural anti bacterial and anti fungal agent. It can be used on skin lesions and in ear canals. But remember, if the animal can lick it off, you must dilute it to about 25%

Cold chammomile tea

is a safe and soothing eye wash for sore eyes (conjunctivitis). You must be sure that there is nothing more seriously wrong with the eye.

Aloe vera jelly (pure)

will speed the healing of all sorts of cuts and skin injuries.

If your dog has itchy skin, don't use any shampoo on it.

It will only make the skin problem worse. Try starting adding flax seed oil to the diet instead.

If you suspect your dog has a grass seed in the ear,

and you cant get to a vet, try filling the ear with warm olive oil and gently massaging the ear. If you are lucky, the grass seed will float to the top on the oil, and you can remove it.

If you have a very nervous animal,

try treating it with Rescue Remedy (from a health food shop). You can also try vitamin B6 and Magnesium Orotate.

If you suspect your pet is constipated,

you can try giving them aloe vera juice, vitamin C powder or epsom salts (dissolved in water)..they are all powerful laxatives.
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A Grain of Truth
Dr Bruce Syme BVSc(Hons), MRCVS
Dr Bruce Web Site

For those of you who have been reading and researching information on natural diets for dogs and cats, it is time to set the record straight on the issue of grains.

There is conflicting information being published on the use of grains, as part of a natural diet. Some vets advocate no grain at all, and believe a diet based on raw meaty bones is all a dog needs. Others recommend a small portion of grains in the diet. So what is the truth ?

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The basic controversy has arisen because of the very high cereal content used in processed pet foods. Many canned and dry dog foods contain up to 4 times as much cereal content as meat. This cereal is cleverly flavoured with meat render (boiled offal and carcass remains), and is often disguised as "meaty chunks" using food dyes. The simple fact is that dogs and cats are not designed to eat such a high content of highly refined starch (cereals ground into flour). These cereal flours are used as cheap fillers, to bulk out the pet food, and increase profit. Cheap starch has little nutritional value, except for calories, and can result in a diet with too much refined sugar.
It is this fact that has lead some vets and nutritionists to broaden the issue on cheap carbohydrates, to encompass grains in general. But this is not true. I agree that cheap carbohydrates used in commercial pet foods are not good for health, but this does not mean that dogs and cats do not actually eat grains.

We must remember that both dogs and cats do ingest grains whenever they catch and eat live prey. The natural source of prey for dogs and cats is generally herbivores plant eaters. When a dog catches its prey, it will first eat the gut content of the prey animal, which is full of semi-digested plant and grain material. This can make up almost 30- 40% of the weight of the prey animal. Next, the dog will eat the organs, and finally the meat and bones. The order in which they consume the prey is a simple and clear indication that the grain / vegetable content of the diet is vital to their health. Why else would they eat it first ?

Dogs are classified as omnivores, not carnivores (unlike cats). This means that they are able to survive on a diet that does not contain meat. The most basic indication here being that they can survive on a diet of plant based material..grains, fruit, vegetable matter etc. It simply stands to reason that if an animal can survive like this, then their bodies must be fully equipped to digest and process these types of food groups.

An important point to mention here is that dogs and cats cannot digest whole grains. They do not graze fields of barley and eat the grains. What they do is ingest the grain from the gut content of the prey animal. This grain has all ready been masticated (chewed), partially digested, and has been fermenting in the animals gut at 38.5'C. Presented like this, a dog or cat can now easily digest the grain material. The same goes for plant material. Dogs and cats have a poor ability to digest intact plant material (they lack the enzymes to digest the cellulose plant cell wall). When they eat plant material, it is either direct from the gut of the prey, predigested, or they scavenge old composting vegetable matter, which is auto-digesting (decaying). The same goes for fruit material.
Dogs generally also eat fruit off the ground, not off the tree, where it has all ready ripened, and started to decay.

The only time cats and dogs can digest fresh plant material, is when they eat very young shoots. If you watch them eat grass, for nutrition, not as a means of making themselves sick, they are very selective, eating only the very fresh green shoots, not the bigger, greener leaves. This is because the new shoots have a thin cell wall that can be digested, whereas older plant cells develop a tough, indigestible, lignified cell wall.

Cats are true carnivores, which means they must eat meat to survive.

They are not scavengers like dogs, and will only eat fresh prey. They do eat the gut content of their prey (grains and all), like dogs, and do consume small amounts of fresh green plant material, but in general, their diet is much higher in fresh meat content. Grain material would make up only 10-15 % of their diet.
When I developed my grain mix (Complete Mix), I modelled it on the way dogs and cats would naturally eat grain. The grains are crushed / cracked, the vegetable matter finely chopped or powdered. The mix is soaked (fermented) just as it would be, in the gut of the prey. The carbohydrate in the grain is then readily digested by the dog or cat. The nutritional value of the whole grains are preserved, and not damaged by processing and bleaching, as is the case with cereal flours. The amount of grain to meat has been carefully calculated to meet the energy and growth requirements of the animal, and its natural dietary intakes. The cat mix has only 10% grain matter (dry weight), and the dog mixes vary from 15% (puppy) to 20-25% for adult and senior dogs. This is an accurate reflection of the normal carbohydrate intake of a wild dog, and is presented to the dog in a state that it would naturally digest it.

So the final word on grains. They are ok, as long as they are unprocessed, cracked or crushed, pre-fermented, and make up a smaller portion of the diet than the meat content. It will be true that some dogs and cats may fare better on a diet with little or no carbohydrate, but on the whole they are a valuable source of nutrition.
Dr Bruce Web Site

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