Rawhide Alternatives for my SUPER Chewer?!
 

Hey all! Wondering if any of you have found any DURABLE but digestible chew sticks/bones that are not rawhide? Our sweet little yorkie boy is obsessed with chewing, but he's growing so the rawhide sticks we gave him when he was tiny that he could barely chew in a week, he can now chew in matter of hours! He LOVES them but I don't like giving him rawhide. I've tried some harder things like nylabone, but he won't chew them. I guess they don't taste as good :-/. Any suggestions of brands and/or material would be great! What do you guys give your yorkie babes?? Thanks!

Rawhide is extremely dangerous it is treated with toxic chemicals and it expands when it is in the stomach. So throw the rawhide out. Really anything that lasts a long time is generally very hard and can break teeth. Mine love nylabones the no edible and the edible ones. There are also ones called pork chomps that are similar to rawhide but not.

Thank you! I haven't had a puppy for ages and I didn't realize there were edible Nylabones! I tried giving him the non-edible ones but he won't chew them. Those pork chomps look great too so I'm going to order a pack. We stopped giving him the rawhide sticks - when we realized they were rawhide (the breeder gave them to us in a baggie not labeled). I assumed she wouldn't be giving him rawhide, but when I asked her about ordering them I found out they were. Anyways, thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to get some today :)

I don't give Muffin rawhide. She does chew on a nylabone for teething but she just had her last baby teeth pulled at the vets during her spay operation. I have also been giving her these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...X8VUKG42&psc=1 My husband will saw them length-wise & sand away splinters. She is obsessed with them and takes them to bed with her. And I also give her these for brushing & freshening her breath: https://www.amazon.com/Virbac-C-E-T-...chews+for+dogs

We use Himalayan Yak Milk Bones. They kind of melt, no splintering. You have to look for packages with smaller yorkie sized bones. Sometimes they dry out so we soak them in water for a little while.


Our little girl is not a super chewer, but these seem to fill the bill when she wants to chew.:D

I would never give antlers they canvery much break teeth.

Those seem awful hard like antlers. I would be concerned with teeth breakage.

Bully sticks. Yes, there's a risk of tooth breakage but I have found these to be the best longest lasting chew and we've never had stomach upset from them from any of our pups etc or a problem in nearly 8 years. We usually use Barkworthies or get from BestBullySticks.com. Once they start chewing, it gets softer, whereas Antlers and Himalayan Chews are really too hard, IMO. You can also get thinner ones if you wish.


A rawhide alternative is SmartBones.... but I find they don't last dogs very long.

I would get raw meaty bones from the butcher - specifically rib bones. You can either leave them the size they come -or- use a jig saw to cut them down to a smaller size.

Thanks all for your suggestions! So here the results of the items we tried! Smart Bones, edible Nylabone, and NBone Natural Teething Ring all proved to be WAY too soft for Leo's Chew-abilities! He won't touch the non-edible Nylabone. The three items he LOVES are

1) Organic Hemp rope toy - this was recommended as opposed to cotton because he hemp is digestable if he happens to rip off a small string

2) Earth Animal No Hide - made from all natural ingredients and they take a WHILE for him to chew. https://www.earthanimal.com/p/no-hid...-7-inch-chews/

3) Bully braids (essentially a bully stick but small) - they're small enough for his mouth, and I watched him closely, they do soften as he chews. This may not be an "all the time" chew for him, but they seem to stand up to his chewing but not be too terribly hard for his teeth. https://www.chewy.com/bully-sticks-b...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

When Gracie was a puppy she was a chewing machine. She would sneak around getting into trash baskets, on tables, into closets and other places trying to find something to chew. I knew rawhide was very dangerous for dogs so we were at our wits end. Someone on YT had recommended bully sticks. When the fist order arrived she was crazy about them! She chewed the first stick for over an hour and hardly made a dent in it! We have never had a problem with her chewing other things since we started giving her them. She is older now and does not have as much desire to chew but she still needs her bully stick now and then, especially when she is all excited about something. When we have guests she will go find her stick and start chewing. One stick usually lasts a few weeks.
There are a lot of different companies that sell bully sticks but I have found that there are different qualities. Some companies do not bake the sticks as long as they should and they are too soft so the dog does not get as much chewing time on them and ends up ingesting too much of the product. We usually only buy from bestbully.com. They sell several different thicknesses and lengths. We buy the 12" regular thickness. When the stick reaches about 3" we take it away from her to avoid her possibly choking on it.
Everyone has their opinions about allowing a dog to chew. We knew that Gracie was going to possibly choke on something really deadly if we didn't solve the problem with her desire to chew. It is a natural thing for a dog to do. Having these very digestible sticks around solved our problem and hers. I cannot attest to other brands but this brand we have been using for years has been great for her and us.

My dogs have been chewing bully sticks for years, but they only have one each about once/month. Last vet checkup, the vet noticed that one of Max's molars was cracked. He had to have the tooth removed and the only thing we could think of was the bully stick. My dogs don't get anything else hard to chew. That said, the vet recommended these and my dogs seem to like them.
https://www.amazon.com/Virbac-C-E-T-...chews+for+dogs

That's what happened to Callie. She was chewing one and then jumped and I happened to brush her teeth that night and it was bleeding and she went under and got it pulled the next Monday. I don't give them anymore.

I had no idea Max had a cracked tooth! He could have had it for days or weeks. I brought him with me on the ride for Cooper's annual checkup and the vet just wanted to take a quick look at him too. He showed up signs at all. He was at the vet prior for another issue 6 weeks earlier so he didn't have it that long but i was really shocked. Always something with that one!