Question Opinions needed on feeding crushed chicken bones...

A senior - who does not have a computer, asked me to post this question for her. She wants to know opinions of the members on this site, if it is safe to take cooked chicken bones and crush them up very very well (so that there are absolutely no traces of splinters or anything dangerous at all!!), and add to the dog and cat's food, as a sort of additional treat. Do the crushed bones have any nutritional value > calcium? and if she is very very careful, (because responsible pet owners know of the fact that cooked chicken bones should NOT be fed to pets because of the definite danger of splintering!) .... can she continue to do this? Thanks.

I'm not convinced crushed bones are a treat from the dog's point of view...also not convinced they have much nutritional value at all.

Not sure why she is doing this...but if I had to guess...it's to save money on food.... But crushed bones are not a substitute for food. In the wild dogs eat the meat/organs around the bone.....never the actual bone as far as I know.

Also...little bits of bone are hard and can damage teeth..... I see zero benefit here

My vote is no. But I'd be very curious to hear what others think.

Hi:

I think that there could be a few issues with grinding up the bones, or crushing them up small. From what I can find out in regards to grinding bones for dogs that are cooked, pieces should be no longer than 1/2 cm, and preferably smaller. I could find nothing about size for cats. Cooking changes the structure of the bone which makes it a lot harder to digest. Something else that should be taken into consideration is the amount being fed. There is a calcium / phosphorus ratio that is followed in the making of cat and dog food, and if a calcium ratio gets high from too much bone it can lead to constipation. This problem can occur if you're feeding too much bone at a time, or feeding small amounts too often.

I think if you could coax the cat into eating raw chicken necks or wingtips would be a better thing. And for the dog I would be looking at oxtail. These sinewy bones are great for dental cleaning, and great exercise for the jaws as well.

I think I'm with Marko on this one as well, I would be very hesitant in trying this.