Are rawhides bad for dogs?

[Gemini]

And how about tennis balls?

[polka123]

well, this is an ongoing argument on a few of the dog boards I'm on.

Some swear the rawhides can gum up the intestinal system & others swear by the hi-quality hides...
I do not give dogs them often as they seem to get some runs with them.

We do Kongs for chewing.

Tennis balls have some course covering. I've been told there are asbestos type hairs that make up t-balls that help grind down teeth.
Now my dogs that are t-ball crazy do have ground down teeth.
My Vets said no more.
Also, they can beak into smaller pieces that are choking hazards.
I suppose if yiu do no have very active chewers, they could be fine but I have very mouthy dogs that a wild chewers.

some dogs i've had do OK with t-balls..
I'm sure you'll some of each opinion.

[AngelBee]

Are real bones a good alternative to rawhides?

[shannon0218]

The main thing with rawhide is you want to go with good quality sun dried rawhide that has not been bleached (as in not the white stuff that doesn't smell) Bleached rawhide is not so great for the obvious reasons, cheaper brown rawhide is often cured with arsenic (which of course is supposedly safe at specific levels) I don't give rawhide too often and when I do it's hard pressed sun dried brown rawhide.
And never give a dog rawhide 'flips' as then can swallow them all goobered up and are a major choking hazzard. Another thing to avoid is rawhide with knots in the end, some dogs chew off the knot and swallow it whole.

Tennis balls, my ball crazy dogs teeth are fine (and the one who's aren't fine is a rock chewer so I tend to blame the rocks:LOL-she's only got 1/2 a K-9 left, we call her gumby) I will warn you though, I had an old shepherd who swallowed a tennis ball whole once--it was a very costly 30 cent ball!! He was playing flyball and he had a habit of carrying more than one ball (his record was 7) and he was coming back over the jumps, saw a ball in the other lane, swallowed the ball he'd caught at the box and grabbed the second ball off the floor. Few dogs are that insane though :LOL

[shannon0218]

Yep, as long as you don't cook em, I give my guys frozen beef marrow bones. If your dog isn't used to eating bones stick with a shank bone (as in femur)

[boricuaqueen327]

I dont know about rawhide. I used to give those little sticks that are granulated but stopped after reading that they could cause obstruction or choking.

Tennis balls are a big hit here but they are easily ripped apart by our retrievers. We buy the large kind available at petsmart and even those are ripped apart if we leave them out too long without supervising the dogs with them.

kongs are great! our retrivers chew them all the time and they show no signs of war whatsoever. we have one that we bought at walmart (i know i know) its not kong brand but it's held up great anyway.

our vet says no bones at all becuase of choking hazard or broken teeth but other vets say beef femur bones are ok. i haven't tried raw bones yet (or cooked obviously).

[Losgann]

Blaze's trainer (Petsmart) told us that rawhide was evil stuff and if our dogs never had any it would be a good thing. She recommended things like knuckle bones and hooves.

Our dogs tend to squabble over the hooves and aren't interested too much in the knuckle bones. I've heard conflicting info about pig's ears though. Shannon? Are they good or bad?

[Maggie'sMomma]

I was just having the bone discussion w/ my friend the other day. She gives tons of chew toys to her dog and we don't give any to our dogs- she thinks they might be deprived because of this. but I had always heard that the rawhide was bad and other bones bad too because they might splinter (she said only true if they were chicken bones) So, our dogs won't mess w/ a kong. They really don't like to chew on anything at all. Is this bad for their teeth to not have anything to chew on?

[shannon0218]

My view on things like pig ears and rawhide collectively, they are a treat, a snickers bar is not a "good thing" for us, but it's also not going to kill us if we treat it as a treat, so once a week or so.
My guys get pigs ears a few times a month.

[shannon0218]

MM, your friend is wrong. ALL bones will splinter if cooked (I can't even remember how many dogs used to come in with spare rib bones stuck in their throat) and chicken bones are perfectly fine as long as they're raw. My guys regularily get turkey necks and chicken backs.

[boricuaqueen327]

Are cow hooves too small for labs/golden retrievers? are chew hooves the same ones they sell at petsmart that are empty and supposedly stink alot?

[shannon0218]

They're not bad, but I've had a few splinter with power chewers, and yes they stink horribly. The are safer if you get the ones that have been cut down to a flat chew. I've given them to my shepherds and they do fine with them and our guys love when the blacksmith visits cause he shaves the horses feet and they eat the shavings.

[Itlbokay]

I don't do the rawhide because of the choking factor. I once had a dog (thank goodness he was really small) that was choking on one, and we doggy heimliched it out of him. Seriously, we had a dog emeregency book and followed the directions and it flew out.

I stopped doing the real bones because they were messing my dog's back teeth up.

My dog loves the Galileo by Nylabone when he wants to do some serious chewing.

[boongirl]

I second the Kong chewers (the black ones are extra tough) and the Gallileo by Nylabone. My dog will eat anything he can, including all rope toys, tennis type balls, etc. And he will ingest anything even remotely related to a raw hide in mere seconds. That can't be healthy. I've had dogs in the past who had digestive problems from rawhide and had one dog who got bone fragments from a real bone stuck in his throat. I agree that rawhides are not bad as a treat but if your dog is like mine and ingests them rapidly or eats a lot of them, I have heard from our vet that is not healthy.

We found that the Jollyball/Teaser Ball Dog Toy is awesome because it also cannot get lost in the bushes in your yard. It is a large ball with a little ball inside of it and lots of holes for you to use to toss it and the dog to use to carry it with his mouth. It is indestructible. Trust me when I say that my dog can destroy anything and this toy will not destruct. He loves it. We got the bright red one and I mostly can find it easily in amongst our large bushes. The Kongs I lose for days on end.

[Itlbokay]

Originally Posted by boongirl

The Kongs I lose for days on end.

I never did find one of our black Kongs at our old house before we moved. I know it's still in that yard, lost in a bush or under the porch.

[shannon0218]

YEah, and kongs don't float, about twice a year we go diving in the pond for kongs, Bedlam is like a kid at Christmas when we do that :LOL

(yes, I know there is one that floats, but it doesn't float once your dog removes the foam from inside thinking it must just be really yucky cream cheese)

[nonnymoose]

We have the "retriever rolls" - our dog does fine with them, but he's also not a greedy chewer. There are some dogs I wouldn't give them to. The arson dog for our fire department can go through one of them in about twenty minutes, but she's a shameless piggy

[Eman'smom]

Is there anything "flavored" that is ok? Our pup prefers the rawhides, really won't touch the kong, I think because of "flavor".

[shannon0218]

Have you tried stuffing your kong with peanut butter or cream cheese and some veggies?? If we have a roast I use the leftovers to stuff the kongs and freeze them, I put some beef, potatoes, gravy and some kibble in and then freeze them and give to the dogs outside.

[suzywanII]

Oh crap. My puppy is a HUGE chewer. Loves. It. And he loves his rawhides. Nothing else will do, not kong, not nylabone, nothing. I take them away when they get small. What else can I give him?