Safe Chewies?

[kropos1]

I got a 10 week old Cairn puppy on Dec 14. One week later she nearly died after chewing and swallowing bits off an artificial bone- a dental chew- by Hartz. It looks like a bone and says does not splinter on the package but she managed to splinter it. After 200 dollars worth of enemas, x-rays, tube feedings of charcoal and mineral oil and three days of not eating, drinking or moving she finally passed the darn splinter that was plugging her and recovered. I was so scared. I've had her a week and we love Holly to death. She's a chewer and she doesn't seem to take to the rope chew or all the rubber Kong type toys. I'm scared to give her rawhide I heard that can be bad too. Any ideas? TIA Kate

[Toto times 2]

Hi. I would stay away from rawhide, pig's ears or anything like that. One of my boys gets very sick from them. Have you tried putting a treat in the rubber kong (make sure it's a small one for a puppy). The smellier the treat is the better. I've just started using them for out boys (7 and 8 years) and they wouldn't touch them because of the rubber but with a stinky treat in them they love them. The rubber stands up to those strong cairn jaws. Good luck and congratulations on your puppy.

[wags]

I'm concerned about Hartz brand items. When Wes was little, someone bought us a biting or wee-wee deterrent spray that was harmful.

[Padfoot]

My dog's an aggressive chewer too. He's had constant digestive problems from chewing on sticks, rocks, pencils, hair bands, goodness-knows-what-else. He doesn't like any rawhide type treats, booda bones, etc. The only thing that has worked for us are the Kongs. Buy your pup a small or medium Kong, stuff it with wet puppy food, stick it in a ziplock, and then into the freezer, and when it's frozen solid, give it to your dog. I'll bet it'll keep her occupied and happy. Since you can re-use it again and again, it's much cheaper than buying rawhides or whatnot that your dog can destroy. I bought 2 Kongs, and have one in the freezer at all times. A can of inexpensive wet dog food is maybe 50-75 cents, so it's been really economical, after the initial expense of the Kongs (I think they're around $6-8 apiece?) It would probably even be fairly economical if you wanted to stuff the Kong with a premium canned food, and make your pup "earn" her dinner.

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! My dog, Riley cannot tolerate a lot of different foods or treats - - the pig ears almost did him in - - he was sick for 3 days! I have found that marrow bones that are used for soups work well for him. They last for days and days and never break or splinter. Our local grocers stock them in the meat department- - - I bake them for about 20-30 minutes, let them cool, give Riley one to chew on and freeze the rest. When he is ready for a new one - - I just take them out of the freezer.

[hallswel]

Like many of you rawhides have caused us problems

[Posey]

Nicky is 18 months old now and very aggessive chewer. I buy these sterlized whilte bones in small size from pet store and I have a really hard whilte large bone I bought from WalMart-I will have to check the name of it. But that and his old whilte hand towe,l that he plays with is the limit of chew toys. We have paid vets bills over pig ears, rawhide, etc, too. He wants to chew up things every chance he gets. Hope that he outgrows this some.

Posey

[magadog]

Mostly, since we feed a raw natural diet, the chew of choice is a good gristly buffalo leg bone. Thinking twice about the beef ones, mad cow-wise. . .And since their staple diet consists of lots of chicken wings, I think this takes care of their need to chew, although they have never been total chew-a-holics. A friend's dog used to find abandonned rawhide at least six months old at our house.

Greenies, though popular and pleasant, last about three minutes. . .The only exception I know of is a Westie in NYC. It took her about a month and a half; she had lots of self control. Her owners were waiting for it to ferment. They were hoping for Greenie Apple Martinis!

Can't wrap my mind around "bully sticks." I think it's sort of an aversion to what they are. Heck-- they don't even call them by their best descriptive name (which I will decline to post here out of sheer politeness). Dogs seem to love them, and my friends who deign to offer them seem to have few or no problems.

One friend calls them "swizzle sticks." Might work for a Greenie Apple Martini, don't you think?

Jill

I still think that raw meaty bones are best!

Oh, and the Pedigree Dentabones not only last a New York minute-- they appear to give Maggie the runs.

[kropos1]

Thanks for all your replies. Holly is finally getting into the Kongs and the rope. Haven't tried a bone, still nervous about that idea. Her other big problem is she eats whatever she can find..one of her favorites is rocks. I take her potty and have to walk on a gravel driveway to get to the lawn and to Holly the driveway is one big smorgasboard. I'm always taking away rocks, and sticks, and dried grass, and paper, and today a pine branch. If she can beat me to to it she eats them. I'm afraid the vet and I are gonna get to know eachother well over this one. I'm at the pont I'm thinking of muzzling her to take her outside. Kate

[Mama Kim]

My Piper was like that too, Kate. She was always with a rock in her mouth. One of the first and best commands I taught her was 'off'. She learned it surprisingly quickly and has shown great self-restraint. Now when we're outside and she picks up a rock, stick, etc., or she gets a hold of a shoe, sock or something off-limits in the house, I give her a stern 'off' and she drops whatever is in her mouth. She's 8 months old now and has been reliable with this command since about 4-5 months old. It also works for 'mouthiness' in general.

What kind of bones are we talking here? I see some of these boiled, sterilized bones at the pet store but they don't look very appetizing, at least to me, lol!! Are they filled with anything? Kong toys don't hold Piper's interest for more than 20 minutes or so no matter what I fill them with. I buy pressed rawhides. They are more expensive but last much longer and she doesn't ingest so much of the rawhide at a time.

[wags]

About stones and sticks-- a couple of months ago, Wes was putting everything into his mouth and he started to choke. That was very frightening. I've learned my lesson. Whenever I suspect he has something in his mouth, I tilt his head down, so the foreign body won't lodge in his throat.

He outgrew the rock smorgasboard when he got to be about 10 months old.