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")

[Susan and Sasha]

Hi Karen...

I hope it's fine to ask this here?

My understanding is that you can boil the beef marrow bone for 10 minutes and then it's safe for our Doodles to use as a chew and they won't splinter?  It that correct?

I'm always concerned about things like this...and want to be sure...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I can only tell you that I have cooked the very large beef marrow bones for hours while making soup and then given them to my dogs, and they have never splintered in the 34 years I have been doing this. They are the weight-bearing leg bones of cows, the femurs, and they are like petrified wood. There is more chance of your dog breaking a tooth on one than there is of the bone splintering, no matter how long you cook it.

You can also give them raw, either frozen or fresh, but that can be messy, and then you end up having to throw them away, because the dog can't get to all the marrow, and it goes rancid. If you cook them until the marrow softens, you can feed that separately, then chill the bone and give it to the dog with the shreds of gristle still attached, which will help clean their teeth as they scrape it off. Some people actually run them through the dishwasher and reuse them for years, often stuffing them with something.

But I'm talking abour fresh bones from the butcher here, not the kind you buy in the pet supply store filled with strange colored stuff and wrapped in cellophane. You can find fresh frozen beef, bison, elk or ostrich marrow bones in the freezer section sof some higher end pet supply stores.

 

[Susan and Sasha]

Thank you  Karen...

I appreciate your input on this.

I was talking about the fresh frozen beef bison marrow bones from a small Pet Boutique Shop that I go to for Sasha.

It's so important to me... to know that they are safe when cooked...and your added advice was helpful too!.

Thanks again...

 

 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I just ordered six...thanks. I did try the very expensive Himalayan Chews and my two went through them pretty quickly.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I had the same thought.  I  also wanted to ask if you mix the yogurt with the peanut butter, etc or are these separate treats and also how much of the stuff do you put into the kong?

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Haha...good question. First..I use the small Kongs for this. I think there's a puppy size, then small is the next step up. This one has a larger hole and it's small enough that they can get their tongue all the way to the bottom. I have this down to a science, so I'll share it with you...lol. BTW...these have kept them occupied for over a 1/2 hour!!! I put a small fold and lock sandwich bag in a small juice glass and place the kong in it. Put a treat or kibble in the bottom so the stuff doesn't drip out. I mix plain yogurt with lowfat peanut butter and a little kibble or small treats. Fill the kong to the top and I place a treat sticking out. Kind of like a "cherry on top":) Freeze it and it's good to go.

There are lots of things you can fill a kong with. PB and yogurt seems to work best for my doods. Check the food group. There are lots of suggestions there.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

yea, I have the same question. If it's crazy dumb  then we are both crazy dumb. She can't reach all the way to the bottom and there was always peanut butter caked up in the narrow end and it's hard to clean out. I'm worried she will choke on the small ones. She's not eating peanut butter these days until her poops are better, but yea, i've been wondering if I'm supposed to fill them to the brim because it just seems like a lot of PB for a puppy dog.

[Lindsey]

Yep both of my dogs LOVE stuffed kongs!!
We have the small (not puppy but just small) size and the medium size for our doodle and I have NO clue how she gets all of the stuffing out. She will work with it and work with it and after a while, I'll look down and I'll be dang if she hasn't licked the entire kong-inside and out-spotless!
We also sometimes put a few pieces of their dog food into the kong and then fill it the rest of the way w/ peanut butter...and they love that too.
We always have a ziplock baggy full of stuffed kongs in our freezer.
I've never thought to put apples in them though, that was a good idea.

I will say, it takes her longer to get the stuffing out if it's frozen.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I make great beef soup stock with marrow bones and always gave the boiled cooled bones to my dogs in the past with no problems,  I will do the same with my new Puppy but not for a couple of weeks when he has settled in. Thanks for the great Kong filling recipes it is all starting to make a lot of sense now.  I

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

This is quite the dilema Carla, and I have gone back and forth with rawhides myself. I do give them occasionally and then have worried about the digestibility of them after they have devoured them. Our Murphy has gotten sick (vomited) some of it on rare occasions, but enjoys them so much that it's not that big a deal. Bella really needs to be actively chewing a large part of her day on appropriate things or she will chew on whatever she can find. So I am considering rawhides for her now as I have run out of ideas. She has had everything mentioned in this post by everyone and either goes through them quickly or isn;t interested for very long (antlers for one).

I have also increased the marrow bones to several times a week and will probably even start giving them everyday now that we are working longer hours and she needs to stay occupied. I don;t have a big problem with rawhide as long as they are made in the USA. I know a lot of people with dogs who give rawhide and have never heard of a problem, but I know there are those who have had issues. Not sure what they are tho and as for my Bella, she could eat a sofa and have it pass without any problems so a rawhide doesn't bother me at all. Guess it's up to knowing your dog well and what they can tolerate. I am more worried about sticks, splintering, getting caught, not digesting, even though it may not look like he is swallowing it, there is no way to not get pieces in his mouth.  At least with rawhide it gets really mushy eventually. Not sure about bark.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I gave rawhide to three different dogs and none of them ever had any problem whatsoever. My last dog, a miniature poodle, had perfect clean white tartar-free teeth until the day she died at 16, and never had her teeth cleaned or even brushed, and I firmly believe it was due to her having chewed rawhide all her life. (Well, that and good genetics.) I gave it to Jack, too, when I first got him. Sometimes it didn't agree with him. Then I started seeing all these warnings about it, so I looked for alternatives.

I think each of us has to make our own informed decisions, based on whatever reliable information we can get and also on our own dogs. Some people have all kinds of digestive problems and foods they can't eat. I myself have a cast iron stomach and can eat anything, including the shells from peanuts. (Yes, you read that right.) I wouldn't tell someone else to do this, but I have done it almost all my life with no problems whatsoever, even though my father the MD used to say it was going to tear my...never mind. :)

So if someone asks me, I say rawhide is not a good idea, because I would hate to be the cause of someone's dog becoming ill or worse. But what you choose to do with your own dog is up to you and affects only your own dog, so I think it's a personal decision that every individual has to make for themselves, and I agree that it's really about knowing your dog well and what they can tolerate.

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

It really does seem as though there is no definitive research to prove rawhide harmful, and if so I would hope they would be taken off the shelf. Oh wait, there is still IAMS and BENIFUL and SD on the shelves and there is probably more research on the harm of those types of foods. Oh well, one can dream can;t one?