Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / September 2003

Its perfectly alright as long as they are cooked.We can't forget the sight
of  our boys struggling with a huge turkey bone at Christmas that was nearly
as big as them.It was hilarious!!!!!!!!!

While splintering chicken bones are a hazard for dogs, they're pretty
safe for rats.  Rats deal with splinters easily.  This is why they can
chew massive holes in wood and not have a problem with splinters.

--Theresa
http://tiger_spot.mapache.org

Chicken bones become splintery only when cooked, & do not harm dogs if
given to them raw.  Many kennels provide their dogs with "treats" of very
inexpensive chicken-necks without risk. But a fried chicken leg that a
human has eaten clean & handed to a dog can kill the dog. Most people
think of the bones as getting lodged in the throat (which can happen) but
the greater problem is how large dogs crunch but don't actually chew their
food, & what reaches the stomach are long thin glass-sharp splinters of
raw chicken bones. These can cause a condition called gastric torsion,
which causes gas to accumulate & gastric fluids can't reach what the dog
has eaten, hence much hat it eats rots insteads of digests, & increases
the amount of gas. The first cause, though, is bone-splinters imbedded in
the wall of the stomach. This can be relieved only by major surgery to
open up the dog & remove the splinters from the stomach wall one by one. A
vast number of the suffering pets die even with the best surgical care.

Actually ALL bones even from cows & pigs etc become brittle when cooked &
are a risk. Since birdbones are hollow & thiner they're the greater risk,
but really dogs should not be given ANY kind of cooked bone. Uncooked they
are still soft & contain essential minerals.

But rats aren't going to be wolfing down a half-crunched-up splintered
bone & not all likely to be harmed by them, even cooked. With raw bones,
however, there is a risk of salmonella or other disease, & cooked chicken
bones are probably better for rats just to be sure there is no bacteria.

A vegetarian myself I never feed mine chicken, bones, or any other meats,
as I just don't have meat in the house. One has to be careful feeding rats
meat because they have a low protein tolerance & get itchy skin diseases
from excesses of protein. But they do love chicken bones & they're healthy
for exercising the teeth.

-paghat the ratgirl

Mine LOVE chicken bones!!  Usually a good game of tug of war goes along with
it.
Sue