Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In Taiwan, a lot of people feed their dogs chicken bones. They'll even feed them chicken legs. Of course these aren't all dog owners. But it's a common practice here, which is making me wonder if chicken bones are really as dangerous as we in the West have believed.

Certain cooked chicken bones seem to have no effect on dogs here. Has anyone experienced feeding dogs chicken bones, despite conventional wisdom?

I'm not advocating doing this, except feeding them when raw. Yet my two adopted streeet dogs I've acquired here seem to gobble up discarded chicken bones left and right. Neither of them has ever choked either.

Moreover, are some dogs different about this than others? I had heard that the only dogs that eat fish are the Alaskan huskies. Yet fish bones are supposed to be harmful to dogs as well, making me wonder again.

There's a company in the US called Merrick that sells canned dog food with chicken bones in the can. The bones are stewed a long time and not dried out and able to splinter. It's the splintered bones that cause the most trouble for dogs. Those hard dry shards don't rehydrate in the amount of time the bones are in the stomach and they pass into the intestines and shred the intestines or get stuck as they pass along inside.

So, HOW the bones are cooked and the size of bone involved is what is most important. Given the majority of people who wouldn't understand the different styles of cooking (stewing vs. baking), it's easier to jsut use the blanket statement of "cooked bones are bad."
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