I am feeding a neighbor’s dogs while they are on vacation.
I see they have pork soup bones at the butcher shop.
I want to get one for the dog and the puppy (soon to be dog).
I know you can’t give them pork 'cause of trichinosis.
So how should I cook it to kill it. I figured I’d just boil it for awhile. How long should be good?
Personally, I wouldn’t give the neighbor’s dogs bones unless you know it is OK with the neighbors.
When I was a kid we used to give our dogs butcher bones until one of them swallowed a sharp shard and ended up having emergency surgery because the bone punctured her intestines.
Well, trichinosis is pretty much non-existent in commercial sources of US pork, from all that I have read. Trichinosis are killed at 137F, but most places will tell you to cook pork to an internal temp of 150 (to account for differences in thermometers) just to be certain. I’m not exactly sure how this translates in terms of bone matter.
Still, I wouldn’t give those bones to the dog if the owners didn’t specifically say it’s okay.
Real bones are a no-no for my doggies. I’m sure they would love them, but the fear of splintering makes me say no. Unless you know the neighbors would OK it, get them some Greenies for a treat.
Thanks for the concern but I’ve seen them chew on bones. My dog used to get them all the time. They drink puddle water and eat leaves. A few months ago the old guy ate my peanut butter cup with the wrapper on it. LOL
It was a pretty good bone, with lots of meat on it. I cooked it to 150ºF and then let it cool. Now I wish I knew how to make soup. Split pea soup would be good.
So they are eating the meat part now.
It’s a bigger risk to give dogs cooked bones than it is to give them raw pork, as cooking bones makes them brittle and more likely to splinter off bits small enough to be swallowed and sharp enough to pierce the intestine wall; the rawness is even less of a concern if you’re getting the bone out of a place that’s dealing with meat meant for human consumption. A good-sized dog can splinter even fairly large cooked bones. Large raw bones are sturdy enough to take quite a bit of gnawing and tend to flake off small slivers and chips as opposed to splinters, while smaller raw bones just tend to get ground up in chewing.
You might want to keep a watch out to make sure the dogs aren’t showing any signs of discomfort later.
Dogs eat bones, it’s something they have always loved. I wouldn’t give them pork or chicken bones though, and I personally wouldn’t cook them. They will enjoy them as is. Beef bones are the way to go, IMO.
Whenever we cook T-Bone steaks, the dogs love to get the leftovers, but that’s the only instance when the bones are cooked. If I bought beef bones at the store, I’d just give them to them.
Aside from that, just buy them some big old rawhides…they love those too.
I would have just given it to them raw (my dogs get raw pork frequently), but I wouldn’t be freaking out about a large cooked bone, either. I know that raw pork is regularly consumed by humans in Germany, btw.