Decided today that i am going to give my staffy a knuckle bone,so i will be getting 1 tomorrow if the replies are positive.

His teeth are getting a little grimey and his breath is much the same,so figured some oral hygiene is needed!

My concern is that he is a strong jawed dog,and maybe break the bone and swallow a large piece,does this type of bone splinter,and will it be ok if it does?

Also is the bone soft enough,not too scrape enamel from his teeth?

Any views on knuckle bones,good or bad would be helpful,thanks.

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My dogs regularly get knuckle bones; one is 11 and the other is 6, neither have any enamel missing, nor have they had any issues with them, they do eventually consume them, but I ration access to them daily.

However, nothing in life is without risk, so you should only do what YOU feel comfortable with.

Mine have them all the time but I dont let them with it for more than 3/4 hours. And they get chucked when they get small or one dissapears to save arguements.

Best thing for oral hygene is things like chicken wings, turkey wings, chicken legs, beef ribs, spine, raw trotter.

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Doglets: Teal, Dylan and Buster

Ponies: Toffee, Samba and Jake

Guinea wiggles: Hector, Herbert and Humphrey

Fishes: Bess, Gerald, Barney and Claus

Our 45Kg Rotty cross is fairly 'strong jawed' and munches through pork knuckles without issue. If you are starting off on raw bones consider beginning with a set of ribs rather than jumping straight to the pig's long bones.

If the dog has tartar build up around the gums you may expect there to be bleeding from the gum line as he crunches on the larger bones. As long as the tartar build up is not too established this is not a problem. Getting the tartar cleaned by a veterinary dentist will be expensive, giving a good bone once or twice a week is better in the long run.

Hope this reassures you to progress with raw bones.

I personally don't feed large weight bearing bones like beef knuckles, they are so dense they can crack the teeth.

Beside, it's mainly pulling meat from bone that cleans teeth, rather than just knawing on a large bone, so if you want the best teeth cleaning effects you might want to go for some meaty lamb ribs - stripping the meat flosses the teeth, and crunching through the bone scrapes them clean.

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''Dogs are like chocolates, you can never have just one!''

I don't feed beef marrow bones, or any weight bearing bone for that matter. I've known a few folk have bad experiences, ie shards splintering off and lodging in various places, so for me, it's just not worth the risk.

I got a couple for my dogs... Make note do not buy in butchers two miles from home and lug back a cows leg on foot with no bag. Very heavy and funny looks!...

Anyway my staff boy is either far greedier or his powerful jaws allow him to yam alot very quickly and they make him really constipated

Jess is raw fed, it has improved her teeth no end, but I did get her a knuckle the other day as her teeth were not really getting any better and she is only 17 months no excuse to have horrid teeth. She is not a dedicated chewer and not strong jawed ( ESS) She was great getting the meat off etc and had a good few hours (4-5?) hours of knawing at it ( in sessions over a few days). Even she now could get chunks that are too big IMO off it. I don't think they are a bad think if you supervise carfully and of course only if you can get it back off your dog should you want to.

I don't feed knuckle type bones from cows either. My dogs are retrievers and it seems very inbuilt to them to not put a bone down once they have it and I worry they will get too into it and damage their teeth. Labrador is missing a canine as it is..!

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I feed knuckle bones to my lot, the first couple of days I leave them out for around 3-4 hours, back in the freezer inbetween. Obv the Rotties demolish knuckles bones fairly easily over the period of a week or so and no damage has ever occured to the teeth, but I do realise they are a 'bigger' breed.

We even put these bones in with a litter of pups so they can all have a chomp, lick, slurp, whatever, they might not actually get much to 'eat' but its good exercise

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