How many of you have dogs that don't like bones?

[Denyce]

I know giving your dogs bones like in raw beef bones is not always the best thing and is controversial but I thought she might like a treat. I was at the store last weekend and there was a really nice package of beef bones. It was just two bones with tons of meat and fat on them. One of them had about 2 inches of meat around the whole outside edge. I gave one to Sequioa that night thinking she was really going to enjoy this!

Well I was in for a shock. She took it very gently from me like she always does all her treats and placed it on the floor and proceeded to try and bury it with her bed. She was her usual sweet self with her ears placed back, licking her lips and wagging her tail in her usual ladylike sweetness personified self when giving her a treat. But she wouldn't even lick it. I left her alone with it thinking she just wanted it to ripen a bit before digging in.

Later that night she brought it out of her bedroom and tried to hand it to both my husband and myself. I kept telling her to go lie down and chew her bone. When we put her to bed she still hadn't touched it. We put it in her bowl with her food when we put her to bed that night. The next morning there it lay. She hadn't even eaten the meat!

I had to toss that one out as it was getting icky smelling at that point. Later that afternoon I was putting some pieces of beef that had been marinated in a caribbean jerk marinade for about 7 hours. I had a couple of left over pieces and boy Seqouia gobbled them up. But just yesterday when I was trimming a top round she wouldn't eat the raw scraps. My Ocicat mix Trouble didn't have a problem with the raw scraps but my husky dog turned up her delicate little nose...she wanted them cooked or at least marinated before eating.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Denyce

[PJ's Mom]

Peej doesn't like raw bones or raw meat either. I don't know what it is about them, but he'll turn his nose up at them every time.

Cooked meat, on the other hand, he loves.

[Giselle]

Well, think about it. After a lifetime of dehydrated, overheated kibble (cooked meat, basically) and cooked meat for add-ins, a normal dog *should* approach raw meat with much apprehension. The fact is, many dogs aren't used to the taste and texture of raw meat. They've been fed heavily cooked meat throughout their lives and raw meat is a totally new concept to them.

Giselle, I would suppose due to her track life, was introduced to raw meat and thus eats raw meat/bones with much enthusiasm. Her absolute FAVORITE treat has got to be a good cow marrow bone. She ends up only eating half the marrow, but that's good because too much marrow gives her the runs and diarrhea (who wouldn't?). You're right, raw feeding is very controversial, but I like to be the devil's advocate

[Kfamr]

I've never given my dogs raw meat/bones but Simba doesn't like rawhide bones unless they're flavored with something. He'll turn up his nose!

[Glacier]

Send the bones here! My dogs love 'em. I have a friend who is a wild game butcher. He gives us tons of scraps and bones. The dogs love Randy. Nothing keeps these guys quiet like a moose leg!

[Denyce]

*LOL* I would love to be able to send you bones. That is one of the reasons I bought them for her is I thought it would be a special treat since she was going to have to spend more time in the house. It was so horribly hot here last week, in the 90's with high humidity and dew points in the upper 60's. I felt so bad for her outside even though her kennel is always shaded and her doghouse is insulated so it stays cooler. We put ice blocks in her water for her in the morning before we left for work and as soon as we got home we would bring her inside with the AC. But she gets fussy being in the house too much so I thought a bone would help her fussiness...nooooooo...she would rather be outside in the heat panting her head off than inside the cool house with a meaty bone........*shaking my head*

Denyce

[lv4dogs]

It took Raustyk a few months & a bunch of times watching Nanook eat raw bones before she would touch them. Now she gobbles em' right up!

I didn't give up because I know how good they are for them.