What are recreational bones and what's the difference w/other types of bones?
I'm still researching raw feeding.. sorry
"Recreational bones" in the general sense is any kind of bone that will keep a dog busy for hours on end. Basically something to occupy their time so they don't chew on things they shouldn't. Typically these bones are not "edible" since they are too dense/heavy to actually be ingested.
Raw meaty bones (RMBs) are exactly that, bones surrounded in raw meat. They are mostly meat with some bone that is completely edible. These types of bones actually make up a large part of a raw diet.
The only "rec bone" that we feed and recommend to others are beef ribs. The bones are dense enough to last, but not so dense that they are capable of breaking teeth. They keep our dogs busy for a while and we replace them once a week or two with fresh ones.
I don't recommend feeding traditional rec bones because they are typically weight bearing bones from larger animals (knuckle or marrow bones). These bones are designed to carry around 1000+ pounds and are very dense. They can and often do break teeth. Broken teeth are not good because they can abscess and be very painful for them.