Rawhide?

[Scooter]

Zoe needs to keep busy all the time, and I like to give her things to chew on, but have never given her rawhide. It bothers me to think she'll swallow it. She won't chew "toys"- they bore her. When I give her meat/food-like chews, she likes them, but goes through them in minutes.

At the pet store there are aisles of rawhide chews, so people must buy them. But....are they harmful?

[Saeleofu]

I give rawhide, and I've never had a problem. In the 3 years I've worked at a vet clinic, I've also never seen any problems. That's not to say a problem couldn't happen, but it's not as common as I thought it was before I started working there.

Just make sure you watch that she's not swallowing large pieces. I'd rather get a chew that's too big for my dog than one that's too small. Gavroche gets retriever rolls and CET Hextra chews (they have enzymes to help clean the teeth better). I'll also give him some of those big sticks that are chopped up and put back together rawhide. He eats them in no time, but it's still something to chew on and a nice treat once in a while. I also give him Booda velvet bones and Pedigree Dentastix. He has a Nylabone, too, but he doesn't much care for it.

I would stay away from those hard processed bones they sell. I have seen problems with those, and they're much harder than raw bones so they can cause broken teeth.

[Dreeza]

I know other ppl on here have a differing opinion, but I buy & give rawhide all the time. Oakley, however, is very trustworthy with his cuz he kinda sucks it down soft & almost dissolves it before gnawing off a tiny piece. I leave him alone with his bone because I have just watched him do it enough that I trust he isn't gonna break off a big piece & choke on it.

My friend's dog, on the other hand, WILL & DOES choke on rawhides...he needs to be closely watched cause he is dumb and swallows giant pieces...I've seen my friend pull out 3 inch long pieces from his throat on numerous occasions...sooo he pretty much is banned from rawhides now.


So, just buy one & see how Zoe eats it & go from there...

[Silverotis]

Raw hide is the only things my dogs will play with or chew on other than socks. So if there is no raw hide in the house all our socks go missing in the back yard. They will even try to pull the socks off our feet.

[dogsarebetter]

mine get raw hide sometime. never had a problem

[Brandyb]

My hubby gives his big guy raw-hide and we've yet to have any issues. I don't give it to the little guys though, but that's just me being anal with my dogs.
Actually my parents used to give it to our mini-dachshund as well with no issues, and I think hubby's parents used to give it to their golden as well, no problem.

[Pops2]

Sonic gets real rawhide, i salt & dry the hide off of a deer w/ the hair still on and it will last him about a year, smaller critters don't last as long but he generally gets those too.

[Tazwell]

I've always recommended to people not to give rawhide to real heavy chewers, because of the choking hazard and some past experiences I've had. My dogs all can eat rawhide without a problem, although I don't very often. But I've also given them to almost all of my foster dogs (comparatively inexpensive...). The dogs that ate them quickly, almost always had diarrhea or otherwise upset-tummy afterwards. I assume it expands in their digestive system (or so I've been told); or maybe it's just too much. I don't know.

On a side note, I've heard people say that some rawhides are better than others for dogs. Compressed rawhides normally getting the better 'review'. Anybody know about that?

[Snark]

The only thing I've heard about rawhide is to try to find the ones made in the US because they don't use arsenic as one of the ingredients to process the hides. (Don't know if that's an urban legend or not but I'd just as soon support American companies anyway). Given the current track record of Chinese products, I definitely steer clear of those rawhides...

[copperdogsmom]

I give Teddy Rawhide with no problems and he is a 7 pound Pomeranian.I have always givin my dogs rawhide I just watch them at first to see if they can handle it..