Any suggestions for BC that bites chew products

[CSW]

I am so frustrated (and worried). Star, my 35 pound 2 year old BC, will bite and swallow chew products. I use to buy oversized rawhide bones and carefully monitor their use, but so many people told me they were potentially dangerous due to their chemical processing I stopped. I switched to the healthier rawhide that was suppose to be digestable and got a bad batch with green stuff in them so I am done with those. She ignores nylabone products. Star bites pieces off bully sticks and swallows them too so I took those away. I have gone to antlers and she is only some what interested. Today I picked up a pizzle flavored antler and she bit off and swallowed a long sliver (hope she will be okay). Any suggestions?

[denice]

I occasionally will stop at the butcher and ask for beef leg bones 6 to 8 inches long. Never have had a dog bite off chunks of real bone. Do not use any of the other products.

I would not be comfortable if she were mine giving her anything unsupervised. Did have an aggressive chewer break a 4th upper PM on a real bone once. A 400 dollar vet bill that was her last bone / hard thing EVER

[diane allen]

At 2 years old, dogs shouldn't really "need" chew things. Puppies? For sure! Stuffed Kongs are about all mine get these days.

 

I recently found a pack of salmon "bully sticks" (basically just compressed salmon). Gave one to the younger dog, who promptly went to work on it - lasted about 10 minutes. Gave one to the older dog - gulp. One swallow. Kept waiting for him to cough it back up. Nope. That was it. He doesn't tend to chew ANYTHING - I've tried turkey necks, holding onto one end while he gnaws at the other. He bites off one vertebrae at a time - and swallows it whole. So - nope, he gets nuthin' to chew on (except the very occasional Kong....).

 

diane

[chene]

http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=38957&hl=

This thread is still active, and there are some good suggestions in there.

Aed is the same way as Star. Right now the only things he gets to chew on are raw marrow bones, which as far as I can tell are virtually indestructible. I get them from the pet store or from the butcher.

[GentleLake]

Marrow bones, raw or cooked, are a huge risk for dental fracture . . . and the big vet bills that come with it.

 

Weight bearing bones of large ungulates are just too hard for dogs.

[chene]

Fair enough. Aed only scrapes at them, so I'm not worried, I won't suggest them anymore though.

[GentleLake]

I've just known too many dogs, including one of my own, who broke molars on them. I don't want to put my dogs under anesthesia (or my pocketbook, though that's secondary) for something that could have easily been prevented.

[CSW]

Thanks. I do supervise all her chewing. She is actually not quite 2 years old yet. I do use frozen kongs stuff with Candidae canned food.

[Alfreda]

The only thing I've found that my 2-yr old gets a decent chew from (without risking broken teeth or swallowing big hunks) are the thicker bully sticks... I introduced them, holding onto it while he chewed. So perhaps (?) he wasn't able to get in the habit of rushing, and gulping chunks. Now I just watch, and take it away when he's a few inches from the very end --he is likely to swallow that whole.

 

I tried a frozen lamb leg once -a small one, with a knuckle. He loved that- chewed it up and ate the whole thing. But oh man, that was too much for his gut! Got quite a bout of the runs.