Safest recreation bone for teeth cleaning???

[tony_hk]

I know from this forum about marrow beef bone as a good recreation bone. I went to a supermarket last night but I just found PORK soup bone, tail bone etc. No beef.

So I came back home and did a google search "marrow bone dog". I came accross this article. They suggested "hard Rawhide Bone" because "that softens if ingested". Can I ask what is "hard Rawhide Bone"? Is Greenies "hard Rawhide Bone"? But most of us think that Greenies is not safe enough. I want to find a bone for recreation use and clean teeth. I am using nylabone but he is not quite interested on it. He is only interested in something he can eat.

BTW, what is the meaning of "Finely ground bone" which they recommend to replace raw bone?

Tks

 

[RD]

Pork will be just fine for a toy poodle, Tony.

The article won't open for me.

 

[tony_hk]

Hi RD:

Could you try copy and paste the link below?
http://www.thepetcenter.com/xra/bonecomp.html

I just found some bone. Does hard Rawhide Bone mean this?

and this?

The seller said the bottom one was made of beef skin and then soaked in milk.

 

[DanL]

Tony, of course a pet center web site is going to promote something they sell rather than something you can get elsewhere.

For the most part, rawhide isn't a real good choice. It's not hard enough to give the teeth cleaning action that a raw bone gives. Just because it softens, it doesn't mean it digests easily, and it can cause a blockage.

The pork bone is fine for your dog. But, just as you would do with ANY kind of bone/rawhide/whatever, supervision is important.

 

[tony_hk]

I just found some beef rib bone in supermarket today. Can I use it?

Can I understand more about the potential harzard (e.g. mad cow disease, warm)? Any addition requirement for dewarm?

 

[DanL]

Beef bones are fine. No need to worry about worms or mad cow.

 

[nica]

yar, i dont believe in raw hide. if its made of beef skin, imagine the amount of chemicals (aka preservatives) that goes into preserving them "forever" as they dun usually have expiry date on the pack. Fresh raw bone is still the best if u dun mind the mess. Alternatively, can go for dried marrow bones where u can get from pet shops.

 

[LhasaLover]

I just gave my 20 lb dogs their first real bones tonight - cooked beef rib bones - and, wow, what a reaction!! One of them kept stealing the other's and trying to hold onto both bones to chew. LOL I took them away from them for the night, tho.

Other than that, I've always given my dogs the Booda cornstarch bones and the vet says my 3 yr old has perfect teeth, and we don't have any digestive problems with those. I can't bring myself to feed my dogs 'nylon', as in Nylabones - that horrifies me. I won't give them the rawhide, and I've never liked the way the greenies look. I tried a wheat based bone once that they liked, but then one of them barfed it all up pretty quickly so we haven't done that one again. It all gets so confusing, doesn't it??

I'm about to start making my own chewbones for them, and I'm going to try to figure out how to make them as hard as the Booda bones, using cornstarch. Then I can add healthier & tastier ingredients to them myself. I've been all over the net trying to find a recipe for them, but it looks like I'm going to have to figure this one out myself.