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Puppy people - safe chew toys & dry skin?


jenL
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Can you recommend a SAFE chew toy for an 8 week old puppy? She's an Australian Shepherd mix who weighs about 7 lbs? (vet visit tomorrow to confirm).

 

I've read Nylabones are dangerous, and other people have issues with Greenies getting caught in the dogs' intestines as well.

 

Are Kongs safe? Any other options?

 

Her skin is also very dry - I've read tea tree oil rubbed directly onto the skin is safe, as is putting fish oil on her food. Anyone BTDT?

 

TIA!

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Kongs are great!

You can get the kind you stuff and several other shapes.

 

Our puppies have always liked the Kongs that looked like stuffed animals with lots of legs...

 

Avoid anything that is stuffed... there are animal toys with squeekers that are not stuffed-- or have minimal stuffing...

 

Kong balls are awesome (bounce great too).

 

I'm also a fan of raw meaty bones (beef neck bones)... I get them in the meat department of my grocery. A great treat and it helps keep their teeth clean.

 

I also get some smoked beef knee bones.

 

I have BIG dogs-- one is a 120 pound puppy (10 months)... I have to keep a good supply of toys and chew things around...if they have good things to chew they tend to avoid the no-nos.

 

For dry skin you can try adding omegas to their food...just the regular people kind-- cut them open and mix with food at feeding time. Also try to avoid dog foods with grain added... they are more expensive---but there are great health benefits-- good skin and coat are just a few!

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Kongs are fantastic. If you have a superchewer, you'll want the black Kongs. Those are the super heavy-duty ones. We have three different shapes - two sizes of the hexagonal-looking one, one of the snowman-shape, and one of the dumbbell shape. All of them are the kind that you put food inside. You need to wash these every day if you put food inside of them. I hand-wash them every morning and also run them through the dishwasher every time I run it (about every 3rd day).

 

Our German shepherd doesn't actually destroy her toys. We are using an old Build-a-Bear dog bed as her toy basket. She loves to dump out all of her toys and fling the bed around. She still has all of her original toys and they are all in good shape. And she does chew on them a lot. She just doesn't try to shred them.

 

The vet told us that if our dog tries to chew the fuzzy stuff off of tennis balls that we need to take away the tennis balls, because the way they scrape their teeth against it messes with the enamel of their teeth.

 

Aside from the Kongs (which is the only way she gets food), she has lots of other toys she enjoys.

 

Her favorite toy is a tire on a rope. She loves to swing it around by the rope and it's a pretty sturdy toy. She actually found it out in the bushes in our backyard. I had forgotten about it completely because we bought it for our Golden retriever 9 years ago and she wouldn't have anything to do with it because she only liked balls.

 

Her 2nd favorite toy is probably the crinkly pumpkin that has two stuffed squeaky spiders inside. We got it out of the Halloween clearance bin. It was normally around $10, but was only $3 because it was after Halloween. She loves sticking her whole face inside the hole to try to get the toys out. I think it's actually a Martha Stewart toy.

 

She loves things that have squeakers and she has not dismantled any of her toys to get the squeakers out, so we've gotten her quite a few of them, mostly out of the clearance bin.

 

Her other favorite toy is one that requires me. It's a flirt pole. It's like a giant cat toy. I took a broomhandle that was in the garage, attached a rope to it that was about as long as the broomhandle, and then tied a toy to the end of the rope. We go out in the backyard with it and I swing it around in circles on the ground and she goes nuts chasing after it. It's a great way to get her worn out without getting worn out myself. It's also a really good time to work on sit, down, leave it, and drop it.

 

ETA:

We also have a hoof for her to chew on and she loves it.

For the Kongs, I stuff them full of kibble and then seal the opening with peanut butter or I mix the kibble with some plain canned pumpkin and then stuff into the Kong. Sometimes I freeze and sometimes I don't.

Edited by AngieW in Texas
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Kongs are great, especially when they're stuffed with something yummy and frozen. Nylabones are safe as long as you get the hard, durable ones. I don't buy the edible versions. I personally don't give my dogs rawhide due to the choking risk.

 

As far as the dry skin -- Yes, the food being fed can make a huge difference. I'm also a big fan of supplementing every dog with fish oil. It has so many great benefits. There are no hard-and-fast rules about dosage, but in general it's thought that a 1,000 mg. capsule per each 10 pounds of body weight is good. Also, dogs are just like us and can get dry skin due to the dry winter air. Running a humidifier/vaporizer can help.

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First:

DO NOT EVER GIVE A DOG RAWHIDE.

 

Seriously. If you drop rawhide into a bucket of water, it will swell several sizes. The same thing happens if the dog swallows a chunk of it...it will swell in their stomach/intestine, and will kill a dog.

 

Kongs are awesome. I esp like to fill it w/kibble, top it off w/either peanut butter or cream cheese, and toss it in the freezer. i put that in w/Bazinga when we're going out and she's crated.

 

Also, pig ears. They're consumable, but she loves them. Bully sticks and antlers are good too, but again, consumable.

 

For a perm chew toy, Kongs (imo) are the way to go.

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I guess I should have stated that I soak my rawhides for a day before I give them to the dogs. They love them. I thought everyone soaked them. All the breeders I know soaked them and I assumed. Anyway, if you give a rawhide you need to soak it. It still is wonderfully chewy and great for younger pups. Bully sticks I don't allow until the pup is 6 months old

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I guess I should have stated that I soak my rawhides for a day before I give them to the dogs. They love them. I thought everyone soaked them. All the breeders I know soaked them and I assumed. Anyway, if you give a rawhide you need to soak it. It still is wonderfully chewy and great for younger pups. Bully sticks I don't allow until the pup is 6 months old

I've seen ppl just hand the dog the rawhide from the pkg. IME, ppl don't realize the swelling factor.

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I knew I'd get good advice on here! I just sent dh out to buy a tough Kong and some fish oil capsules. I'm going to check out Amazon for some of the other Kongs and toys mentioned.

 

I did not know about the swelling factor with rawhide chews, so thank you so much for mentioning that Imp!

 

I've tried attaching a picture of her, but I don't know how on this new forum... anyone know how to do that?

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Aidan loves bully sticks. I buy them here: https://www.bestbullysticks.com/ . Since he is a chewer, I buy the longest, thickest ones they have. He loves them. The ones recommended for a 50 lb. dog disappear in about 15 minutes.

 

He also likes Himalayan chews. Some people say that they can chip a dog's tooth, and they avoid them.

 

Bones are a controversial subject when we discuss them on the dog forums. I give Aidan raw beef rib bones and raw marrow bones. Once the marrow is out and the meat is off, I take them away when he's not looking. Cooked bones can splinter, and this includes ones that are smoked. Some bones, such as shin bones, can crack or break a dog's teeth because they are so hard.

 

I don't feed Aidan rawhides, greenies, or any treats made in China. Actually, I feed him treats made in the US only, except for Ziwipeak.

 

Dry skin is often associated with diet. I go here to educate myself about dog food ingredients, and to figure out which high quality food to feed Aidan: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ .

 

I'm pretty sure you should give a dog vitamin E if you are supplementing with fish oil. Often fish oils contain vitamin E for this reason.

 

Tea tree oil can be toxic to pets: http://www.aspca.org...a-tree-oil.aspx

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Kongs are great, especially when they're stuffed with something yummy and frozen. Nylabones are safe as long as you get the hard, durable ones. I don't buy the edible versions. I personally don't give my dogs rawhide due to the choking risk.

 

 

I don't know of any toy safer than a Kong. They are awesome. They make special puppy Kongs now (marbled pink or blue). I think the black ones would be too hard for a puppy. My dog is a powerful chewer (but small at 15 lbs.), and the regular red Kongs have been fine for him as an adult.

 

I do have to respectfully disagree about the safety of the hard Nylabones. My dog cracked his molar badly on one and actually had to have the tooth removed. He can't have the flexible soft ones, either, as he bites off chunks and has swallowed them.

 

If your dog's skin is very flaky, you may want to make sure she doesn't have a bacterial or fungal skin infection. Have the vet take a look if you're going tomorrow anyway. If her skin is just dry, I agree with others that a high-quality food low in grains should help. I like Wellness brand.

 

Congrats on your puppy!

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