Reusing Marrow Bones

My dogs get mine REALLY clean, but I don't boil them, I let them dry out and then scrub them with dish soap, rinse them good, and dry them out again before giving them back. 

Sunshinegirl

My question is......... should I boil the bones and scrub them to remove the remains? Will this weaken the bones and cause them to possible splinter later???

Don't boil!  Heat changes the texture of a bone. 

Try an experiment.  Cut the meat off of two chicken legs.  Boil one of the bones.  Then break both bones.  You should see an obvious difference.

Granted this experiment would be really hard to do with marrow bones (for me anyway), but the principle is the same.  The risk of splintering increases when heat is applied.

I just scrubbed the one Ari has with a harsh scrubby pad, soap and water.  She loves having things frozen inside to work at - never thought of using baby meat food though!   

I don't even bother to scrub them. Stuff and freeze wrapped in plastic.

I rinse the dirt off, stuff, bag, & refreeze.

Be aware that hard bones, like the marrow bones you speak of, are responsible for a lot of tooth fractures.  Bones should be big enough your dog can't fit them between his back teeth and exert downward pressure, only sideways chewing.  Or just expect to pay at least $400 for tooth repair - I speak from experience!

There was just an article in WDJ about tooth fractures and recreational bones. They also mentioned that even a raw bone that has been lying around for some time will dry out and become brittle.

 Yeah... IMO, if they're that old, just toss 'em. It's not like they're particularly expensive to replace, and the risks (tooth fractures, sharp splintery pieces getting broken off, nasty old animal remains buried throughout my house...) definitely outweigh the benefits of keeping them around for months on end. For me, a couple of weeks and they're gone.