Pet Food & Raw Dog Bones in Nairobi

Pet Food & Raw Dog Bones in Nairobi: A Buyer's Guide

Because we break down whole carcasses at City Market every day, we always have something almost no pet shop can offer: real, fresh, raw bones. Not bleached. Not baked. Not moulded from starch and flavouring. Actual bones from the animals we butchered this morning, at KSh 150 a kilo - the cheapest thing on our entire counter.

Raw bones give a dog something genuinely useful to do. Gnawing scrapes plaque off teeth and works the gums, the marrow is nutrient-dense, and the activity occupies a bored dog for an hour in a way no rubber toy manages. Vets who support raw feeding consistently point owners towards large, raw, weight-bearing bones - which is exactly what a whole-carcass butchery produces as a matter of course.

There is one rule that matters more than all the others, and it is worth stating plainly: feed bones raw, never cooked. Cooking dries bone out and makes it brittle, so it splinters rather than flaking - and splinters are the actual hazard people have in mind when they worry about bones. A raw bone behaves completely differently. This is also why the baked bones sold in shops are a worse idea than the fresh ones sold here.

Below is what we list online, but the pet counter is bigger than the website - ask us about offal trim, chicken necks and feet, lungs, spleen and raw mince for dogs.

Choosing and Cooking Pet Food

Matching the bone to the dog

Size is the main safety decision you make. The bone should be too large for your dog to fit in its mouth or swallow whole, and ideally larger than the length of its muzzle. Big breeds want large beef leg and knuckle bones. Smaller dogs do better with smaller bones or necks, supervised closely. Avoid small, brittle, load-bearing bones from small animals. Tell us your dog's size and breed when you order and we will pick from what came in that day - this is exactly the kind of thing a butcher can do and a website cannot.

Feeding safely

Raw only, always supervised. Feed outside or on a washable surface, take the bone away once it has been worn down small enough to swallow, and never leave a dog alone with one - especially the first few times. Refrigerate between sessions and discard after three or four days of gnawing, or freeze in portions. Introduce bones gradually if your dog has never had one, and go easy with dogs that have dental problems, a history of pancreatitis, or a habit of swallowing things whole. If your dog is on a prescription diet or has a health condition, ask your vet first.

Why butcher bones beat pet-shop bones

Three reasons. They are raw, so they flake rather than splinter. They are fresh, cut this morning rather than processed, dried and shipped. And they are far cheaper - KSh 150 a kilo against whatever a packaged chew costs for a fraction of the mass. A pet-shop chew is a manufactured product designed around shelf life. A butcher's bone is simply a bone, which is what the dog is actually equipped to deal with.

Beyond bones: offal and trim

Ask us about the rest. Liver, lungs, spleen, heart and general trim are all things that come off a carcass and all things dogs and cats do very well on, at prices that make home-prepared pet food genuinely economical. Chicken necks and feet are excellent for smaller dogs and are naturally rich in collagen. We can also grind trim into raw mince for pets. None of this is on the website because availability depends on what came in - phone 0707 700511 and ask what we have today.

A note on raw feeding

We are butchers, not veterinarians, so we will not tell you how to feed your animal. What we will say is that raw feeding requires the same food-safety discipline as preparing your own meat: keep it cold, use separate boards and utensils, wash hands and surfaces afterwards, and do not leave raw meat sitting out. Balanced raw diets need more thought than bones alone, so if you are moving your dog onto raw properly, talk to your vet about getting the balance right - and then come to us for the ingredients.

Buying and keeping

Bones are sold by the kilo like everything else here, and they travel well. Refrigerate on arrival and use within three or four days, or freeze - frozen bones also make excellent hot-weather chews. If you want a regular supply, tell us: several customers collect or take delivery of bones on the same day each week alongside their own meat order. We deliver them across Nairobi with everything else.

Ordering and delivery

We deliver pet food across Nairobi every day - see our pages for Nairobi CBD, Westlands, Parklands, Kilimani, or all the areas we serve. Orders placed before 4:00pm go out the same day, chilled and insulated straight from our cold room. Delivery is a flat fee by area, from KSh 300 to KSh 1,000 depending on where you are, and it is added to your basket total automatically, so nothing is ever sprung on you at the door. Full details are on our delivery and payment page, and if you are ordering in volume for a business, see wholesale and bulk supply.

You are equally welcome to walk in. We are at Stall 55, ground floor, City Market, Muindi Mbingu Street, beside Jamia Mosque in the Nairobi CBD, open every day from 6:30am to 7:00pm Monday to Saturday, and 9:00am to 5:00pm on Sundays. Buying meat in person, where you can see it cut and ask questions, is still the best way to buy it - and it is the reason this stall has been here since 1959.