Safe Chews

[Joel Sonnenberg]

I gave my girl one of those basted ham bones from a pet store, big mistake.
It seemed safe, but within minutes she had chewed it down to splinters.
I took it away from her, and she vomited up what she had swallowed.
I was shards of bone, this was 2 days ago ,I check her poop for blood she seem's to be ok.
I did a search for safe chews, and now I am wondering what is safe?

[Margaret Sierakowski]

Raw bones in their natural state fron the butchers.

The safest chews I know of , and which I give even to small puppies, are deer antlers. I use the little roe deer antlers for small puppies and bigger red deer antlers for older puppies. They are are incredibly hard, last for years and never splinter.
Not sold in pet shops though!
I occasionally pick them up on the hills while out walking the dogs, and in the spring when the deer are rutting they come down close to the house and shed , but sometimes you can find them on E Bay

[Sue and Cash]

Here in the US we now can buy them in the petstore but wow....super expensive.  I guess now that I know they last forever it justifies it, but $25.00 for one of them was surprising.

[Eunice Marott]

bones from the butchers. I still do supervise usually give lamb necks or shanks but lamb is very expensive in Australia at the moment

[Nicole Wilson]

There are stories of dogs who died after eating those ham bones. I once made the mistake of feeding one and although it was immensely appreciated I realised half way through how unsafe they were and took them away. The result was that my boy got unbelievably thirsty and drank litres and litres of water plus he was constipated for about two days afterwards. Not worth the hassle at all. Raw bones are generally safe. I also feed rawhide bones and dried fish skins. I will look out for antlers next time.... had never thought about that :-)

[Joel Sonnenberg]

Thank you, will look for the raw bones.

[Kerstin Thaens]

Rawhide bones (chewing bones sold in shops here), raw cattle/calve bones and any bones that do not splinter are perfect. Do never feed any pig bones because of the aujetzky virus, no rabbit, game and bones from old chickens. When you start feeding raw dog food give only small portions because of possible indigestibility. Our dogs are crazy about bones and I always provide fresh bones/ meat from the butcher. I have only found an antler once when I was on horseback riding and did not give it to my setters but my husband who is a hunter:-)) Besides, we barf.

[ursula wilby]

I normally give raw marrow-beef-bones but have also tried the antlers...yes they are great, but if I were to ask my dogs they would prefer the marrow-beef-bones any day.

We can actually buy antlers in out petshops here in the south of Sweden :-)

[Ilona & Gina]

Hi Joel,

Have the same problem, even with raw bones. Our boy just swallows the bits and throws them up. People tell me it's not dangerous, but I don't feel good about it.

Have you ever looked for cow hoofs? Here is Australia, we get them in our pet shops for about 7 or 8 Aussie Dollars. It seems a lot, but it's worth every cent!

Cow hoofs last forever, and my dogs love it. They can't really chew it to pieces, and it's safe.

[Margaret Sierakowski]

There were warnings several years ago about giving rawhide chews to dogs, partly because there had been cases of long unravelled strips of rawhide causing blockages in the intestines, and also it was said that some of them came from countries like China and India where formaldehyde is still used as a preservative. Formaldehyde is carcinogenic

I dont have any problems with raw bones, especially the big knuckle bones which dont splinter at all.
Although some big dogs with very strong teeth and jaws can chew bits off the marrow bones from the shin
These are OK for puppies though

Rib bones can be chewed up AND digested

My dogs will also happily chew up carrots. Better to give them organic carrots though as whole raw carrots unpeeled can have vestiges of pesticides. Our local farm shop sells 20 lb bags of odd sized and shaped carrots for feeding to horses for £2 a bag which are fine for the dogs

[Nicole Wilson]

I hadn't been aware of the danger with rawhide bones. Thanks for the warning. Did those incidences occur because the dogs had swallowed big chunks at once or because rawhide is just generally very difficult to digest?
And what do you think of dried tripe or any dried meat/dried chicken or turkey necks?
Carrots are great, I agree, and also - in moderation - broccoli stems.

[Margaret Sierakowski]

If I were using any kind of dried meat/tripe, I would want to know what preservative has been used in it.
A big agricultural and pet store in this area sells loose dry dog meat by the pound, which my dogs like, but as it is sold loose there is no information about preservative, or where the meat has some from, or what kind of meat it is.
Dried meat can vary quite a lot, sometimes it comes in big chunks which the dogs like , sometimes it is like coarse powder

My dogs also like chunks of oven dried bread. Supermarkets often sell off loaves of bread very cheaply in the evening. Baguettes and unsliced loaves,preferably wholemeal or rye, are good for slicing in inch thick chunks, then I spead them on a baking tray, drizzle with oil and a sprinkling of mixed herbs or chopped garlic, and dry out in a low oven until they are hard and crisp

[Margaret Sierakowski]

I guess the ultimate chew for my dogs is the occasional road kill deer! We get a few of those as we live in a hill area crossed by only a single track road with a lot of deer on the surrounding hills.
I leave the whole deer carcase in the dog run, and there is complete peace and silence for at least 36 hours as the dogs eat and digest the whole thing - stomach, meat, bones, hide, the lot
Interestingly no arguments between the dogs, the pecking order of the pack takes over

But I guess your local petstore wont be selling whole deer carcases (VBG)