Raw bones for dogs: which are safe and how much

Raw bone is where a raw fed dog gets its calcium, and chewing it is the part of raw feeding that does most for teeth. It is also where the real injuries happen when the wrong bone is fed. This page lists the edible bones, the recreational ones, the never list, and the grams of bone a dog needs by weight.

Updated 31 October 2026
7 min read
Bone percentages match the calculator

10% of the daily food should be bone

The short answer

Feed raw, meaty bones that are bigger than your dog's mouth, as about 10 percent of the diet by bone weight. Chicken wings, necks and carcasses do the job for most dogs. Never feed cooked bones, and treat the big hard bones from cattle as an occasional supervised chew rather than food. Watch the stools: they tell you whether the bone share is right within a couple of days.

Three kinds of bone

Edible bone is soft enough to be chewed up and digested whole: poultry, rabbit, lamb ribs and necks. This is the bone that counts towards the 10 percent.
Recreational bone is too dense to eat. Beef marrow bones, knuckles and femurs. The dog strips the meat and gnaws the surface. Some owners feed them for entertainment and dental benefit, with real risks set out below. They do not count towards the 10 percent.
Never bones: anything cooked, anything cut lengthways or into small chunks with a saw, and anything small enough to swallow whole by that particular dog.

Edible bones and who they suit

Bone share is the proportion of the piece that is bone rather than meat, skin and cartilage.

Bone	Bone share	Suits
Chicken wings	45%	Most dogs from 5 kg. The standard first bone.
Chicken necks	36%	Small dogs, puppies, seniors with worn teeth.
Chicken carcass	45%	Medium and large dogs. Too big to swallow, cheap.
Chicken feet	60%	A chew for any size. Mostly bone, so count it.
Chicken thighs (bone in)	21%	Medium and large dogs. Bone is harder than a wing.
Turkey necks	42%	Large dogs. A full meal of bone and meat in one piece.
Duck necks	50%	Medium dogs. Softer than turkey, more bone than chicken.
Lamb ribs	27%	Medium and large dogs. Fatty, so not for diet dogs.
Duck feet and wings	About 40 to 60%	A chew for small and medium dogs. Fatty skin.
Lamb necks	About 30%	Large dogs. A long, meaty chew that takes time.
Whole rabbit, rabbit portions	About 25 to 30%	Any size as a mince, portions for medium dogs. Lean.
Pork ribs	About 30%	Medium and large dogs, freeze 3 weeks first. Fatty.
Whole sardines and sprats	Low, soft	Any size. The bones are soft enough to count as negligible.

How much bone by dog weight

The target is 10 percent of the daily amount as bone. Because a chicken wing is 45 percent bone, you need more than 10 percent of the food as wings to hit it. Figures below are for an adult on 2.5 percent of body weight. Adjust the daily amount using the feeding guide if your dog is more or less active.

Dog	Daily food	Bone target	As chicken wings	As chicken necks	As carcass
5 kg	125 g	13 g	28 g	35 g	28 g
10 kg	250 g	25 g	56 g	69 g	56 g
15 kg	375 g	38 g	83 g	104 g	83 g
20 kg	500 g	50 g	111 g	139 g	111 g
30 kg	750 g	75 g	167 g	208 g	167 g
40 kg	1000 g	100 g	222 g	278 g	222 g

You do not have to feed bone every day. Many owners feed a larger bone meal 3 or 4 times a week and boneless meals in between, so the weekly average is 10 percent. Puppies are the exception: their calcium intake should be steady, so bone or a complete puppy food daily. The puppy guide explains why.

Sizing: the rule that prevents most problems

A bone should be larger than the dog's muzzle, so the dog has to hold it and chew rather than crunch once and swallow. A chicken wing is right for a spaniel and wrong for a Labrador, who can swallow it whole. For big dogs, go up to carcasses, turkey necks and lamb necks. For gulpers of any size, three tricks work: feed the bone partly frozen so it has to be worked at, hold one end for the first few bones until the dog learns to chew, or switch to a mince with ground bone and skip whole bones entirely.

The never list, and why

Cooked bones. Cooking removes the moisture and collagen that make raw bone flexible. The result splinters into shards that perforate guts. This includes roast chicken carcasses, chop bones and the bones in cooked ribs.
Weight bearing bones from large animals as food. Beef and lamb leg bones are denser than a dog's teeth. The common injury is a slab fracture of the big upper premolar, which needs extraction. If you give marrow bones at all, give them to a dog that gnaws rather than crunches, supervise, and take the bone away after 15 to 20 minutes.
Sawn bones. Butchers cut marrow bones lengthways or into rings. Rings get stuck over the lower jaw and the cut edges are sharp. Ask for whole knuckles if you must.
Marrow in quantity. Bone marrow is almost pure fat. A dog that cleans out a large marrow bone can tip into pancreatitis. Scoop most of it out first.
Bones for dogs with dental disease, a history of gut surgery or a habit of guarding food. Ground bone in a complete food gives the calcium without the risks.

Reading the stools

Stool	Means	Do
Small, firm, pale brown, easy to pass	Bone share about right	Nothing
White, chalky, crumbly, or straining	Too much bone	Boneless meals for 2 days, then lower the bone-in share
Soft, dark, loose after the first week	Too little bone, or too much organ or fat	Add a bone meal, check liver is at 5 percent, trim fat
Bone fragments visible	Bone too hard for the dog to digest, or gulped	Softer bones (necks, wings), or ground
Blood, black tar, repeated straining with nothing	Possible injury or blockage	Vet the same day

Bones and teeth

Chewing raw meaty bones is the one part of raw feeding with a measured dental effect: a 2016 study of beagles given raw beef bones daily found calculus fell by more than two thirds within 2 to 3 weeks. The effect comes from the chewing, so ground bone in a complete mince does nothing for teeth, and a dog fed complete raw with no chews will build tartar like any other. A wing or neck a few times a week, or a raw meaty bone to work on, is the dental part of the diet. It does not replace a vet dental check, because tartar is not the same thing as gum disease.

Sources

Marx et al., 2016. Raw beef bones as chewing items to reduce dental calculus in Beagle dogs. Australian Veterinary Journal. doi:10.1111/avj.12394
British Veterinary Association, policy position on diet choices for cats and dogs, which covers bone injuries
Bone content figures: approximate shares used by UK raw feeders and the calculator on this site, from the data file feeding.json

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What bones can dogs eat safely?

Raw, meaty, and sized so the dog chews rather than swallows. Chicken wings, necks, carcasses and feet, turkey and duck necks, lamb ribs and necks, and rabbit are the common edible bones in UK raw feeding. Large weight bearing bones from cattle (marrow bones, knuckles, femurs) are too hard to eat and crack teeth, so they are recreational at best. Cooked bones of any kind are never safe.

How much bone should a dog eat a day?

About 10 percent of the daily food as actual bone, which means more than 10 percent as bone-in meat because every bone comes with meat attached. For a 20 kg dog on 500 g a day that is 50 g of bone, which is roughly one chicken wing (45 percent bone) or 140 g of chicken necks (36 percent). The table above gives the figures for other weights and the calculator does it for your dog.

Can dogs eat raw chicken bones?

Yes. Raw chicken bones are soft and flexible and are the usual bone source for raw fed dogs. The widely repeated warning about chicken bones is about cooked chicken bones, which splinter. The raw chicken page goes through each part of the bird.

What if my dog swallows a bone whole?

Most of the time a swallowed raw chicken wing or neck is digested without trouble, because stomach acid softens raw bone. Watch for repeated vomiting, retching without result, drooling, a hunched stance, straining or refusing food over the next 24 to 48 hours, and call the vet if any appear. To stop it happening again, feed a bone too big to swallow, hold one end while the dog chews, or feed it partly frozen so it has to be worked at.

Are bones good for a dog's teeth?

Chewing raw meaty bones scrapes plaque and a small Brazilian study of beagles measured a large drop in tartar within 2 to 3 weeks of daily raw beef bones. Ground bone in a mince does nothing for teeth because there is no chewing. The British Veterinary Association points out that less tartar is not the same as healthy gums, so bones are a help, not a substitute for a vet dental check.

What do bone stools look like?

Firm, small and pale, sometimes slightly chalky, is right. White, crumbly and hard, or straining to pass anything, means too much bone: drop the bone-in share for a few days and add boneless meat. Dark, soft or loose stools after a week on raw usually mean too little bone, too much organ, or too much fat.

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