Safe Chew?

[Bonne Bouche]

Our little Bonne Bouche LOVES chewing on things. His Bullies are his number one favorite thing. He gets it for ~20 a day, usually while we groom/trim nails or when we need some quiet time and don't want to put him in his cage.

 

We wished (and I know he does, too) that we can give him more to chew on. I have a bunch of toys for him, rope toys, plush toys, nylabones, kongs (puppy and normal and extreme). He's not really a "destroyer" (I have several Dollar Store squeekies from when we got him that are still in decent condition). But when he's being mouthy, nothing we give him interests him. And he NEVER chews on the nylabones (totally ignores them -- we even rubbed cheese on them once to try to get him interested, after he licked off the cheese he never went back to it). The Kongs are boring unless there is something in it.

HE LOVES STICKS! Every single time we go outside he finds a stick. He likes carrying them around with him, and then chewing off all the bark. Is it bad to let him do this? He doesn't seem to eat them, just chewing them to pieces? I wish we could let him play with the (free) sticks all the time, but I don't think its safe really, and it makes a huge mess.

 

I had a Dingo Rawhide I bought for him after hearing good reviews on other websites for them, but after we found out rawhide was that bad, and after I saw he was successfull at pulling off a small chunk (he was supervised while chewing, so I got that right away), the Dingo went in the trash. While at home with my parents this weekend, he found a stashed rawhide of my parent's dog in a closet and just went to town! My parent's dog lost interest in it awhile ago, but BB LOVES IT. Its just a normal rolled 10-12 inch white rawhide. Since my parents got it, I'm pretty sure its a USA made one. He chewed on it for about an hour (while I was away and they were "babysitting") without knowing that rawhide was "off limits". But after seeing that he didn't make any "progress" aside from a small gummy section. I wonder if it is safe for him to chew, if he remains supervised.

 

Basically my question is two parts...

 

1) Is rawhide THAT BAD, (i.e., does anyone here give their dog rawhide?)

2) Is there any chew (other than bullies) that can be given for a more prolonged period of time, (i.e., hooves...) that may be an alternative for our teething 4.5 month old? (I've seen wooden toys that he might like, but I worry it might make him want to chew on our furniture, or that it is just an "expensive stick")

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Sophie has a pork hide and I give it to her from time to time and she loves it but I always take it away when I'm not around. Better to be safe than sorry. Sophie also loves bully sticks. I buy the ones made by "Rollover" or something like that. Now that i'm learning what they are and not to buy the ones from Brazil i'm curious. What's wrong with the ones from Brazil and why are the North American ones so much better?

 

I'm also curious about antlers. Can I get these at a regular pet store? order them online? I'd love to try it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Actually, I believe the deer antlers are harder than the elk antlers.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Karen...I found the Trachea's at our local pet store (Pet Food Express) and they are made in Kansas. They are made by Smokehouse Pet Products. The 8-9" toobles are $2.99. I haven't given them to the dogs yet. Have you heard of this brand?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, and they're a good company. As long as any tracheas are a U.S. product, they should be fine. There really shouldn't be anything there except for the trachea itself, i.e. nothing added, no other ingredients, just the one part. So as long as it's processed in the U.S., which it is, you're fine.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

thanks. I will check it out.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I have ordered from www.bestbullysticks.com and www.antlerz.com as well as Amazon. You have to do some price checking tho as you can spend $15.00 at one site and $8.00 on another for the same thing. As for the Bully Sticks from Brazil, the reasons are mostly that there is very little regulations there regarding the animals they get the bull parts from and so many other chemicals are used in other countries to make and treat their products that are unsafe for dogs. The US has many more safety and health regulations, making out products more desirable.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

www.antlerpantry.com I get mine from Linda at Antler Pantry. She has reasonable prices and refunds you the shipping difference (in cash) if it's less than predicted:) I recently discovered Elk buttons and she said she carries them also.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Thanks. I wonder if the regs are the same in Canada. I would imagine so. Anyway, whatever I order will likely be from the U.S. anyways. I bet there are weird customs issues with shipping elk antlers to Canada. I'll have to look into that.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Canadian products are fine. Lots of us feed Orijen, Acana, and other Canadian foods. If there's no problem with shipping the kibbles, I don't think there would be with the antlers either.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Orijen is made in Canada! that's great. I live in Canada and now that I think of it, I bet elk antlers are abundant here too.

[Dori & Rua]

I say no to rawhide and think bully sticks stink so I haven't given them to Rua.  She doesn't seem to be an agressive chewer.  I have a deer antler (but she hasn't chewed on it for quite a while) and mulch from the back yard (mostly large pieces of wood)!  She has a string knotted rope she loves to chew on, but that is about it.

[Dot, Maggie and KoKo]

No more soft toys for my doodles, I'm tired of cleaning up stuffing.  No more rubber chew toys, KoKo keeps swallowing the pieces.  The one thing they really enjoy are antlers.  But, even though I buy one for each doodle they somehow want the same one.  I ran out of kibble and my store was closed for the Memorial Day holiday so I had to drive to another town to find TOTW.  While there I found they sold antlers by the pound (I have been ordering they online) so I now have a new local source.  Great find.  Also, the 30 pound bag of TOTW was $5 cheaper.

 

Bottom line here - Antlers are our choice for chewing....