[pierre]

Hi all ... we give our dogs the occasional hide dog chew .... for a treat ... and it keeps them happy for 5/10 minutes ..... These are the twisted variety .... and I used to be able to get 100 chews, 9/10 mm thick fo about £4.00 for 900 grms, so £4.44 a kilo.
 
Has any-one else notice the sharp rise in price of these .... I went into Pets at Home yesterday, £9.99 for 700 grms, that's £14.27 a kilo ..... sorry, but I can buy good Rump Steak for that price, and a quick search on the inter-web .... and some ar over £23.00 a kilo ...!!!!! more than good quality Fillet Steak ......
 
Now, this is a by-product of the Bovine industry ... not top-end ....!!
 
Does any-one know of a vaule source ... or even a bulk deal .....
 
Cheers
 
Pete

[happygolucky]

The biggest rip off is Antlers, they are very expensive indeed....sometimes our dogs find real ones and end up eating them..   I am not a fan of some of the chews as I noticed some make my dogs a bit loose and others make their poo like rock. I notice a lot of people make their own chews or treats, maybe that's the way forward, in fact, that may be a good topic on here, 

[ZaktheLad]

After hearing such good things about the Antler chews I got a couple for my dogs and tried not to look for too long at the total cost, thinking it would be ok as a very rare treat  .  My dogs did not appreciate how much I had paid and turned their noses up at them - not AT ALL interested.  I won't be going down that route again.  They much prefer to eat the trimmings off the horses hooves after the farrier has been and that comes free!   

[colliewobbles]

I have heard some bad stuff about those antler chews but I can't remember exactly what at the moment!!

Also - I will not go near those hide chews.  They do make my dogs have runny tummies but more importantly a lot of them come from the far east now and the quality isn't great.  I know of some that have been bought on the high street and found to have lead shot in them.

Raw meat and treats from a local produced for ours!

Donna

[Alistair]

We got antler chews, they shattered leaving razor sharp points after a while (an hour) not again, we just get pigs ears for our lot from the butcher 4 for about £3.50 and it's only occasional

[doganjo]

Antlers can damage dogs teeth, molars get ground down.  Hide chews become soft and pliable and can choke a dog  - I've had to save the life of one of mine and that of a friend's dog because of these things.

My dogs get bits of their normal food when training.

[happygolucky]

I keep looking out for an alternative as currently am not keen on any dog chews for different reasons and not bones either for the horror stories I have heard, so, maybe some good ideas of what they can chew on, treats for training are not an issue, in fact, often we just take the normal dog food kibble out or a tube of cream cheese for an occasional treat as I do know how fatty that can be. I did once over doo some sausage until it was rubbery and that lasted a little while!! Ours also get the occasional carrot or apple but now concerned about that after another thread on here

[ZaktheLad]

Mine now have to make do with Dentastix and bonio biscuits.  They seem happy enough with that.  I do worry a lot about some of the raw hide strips and pizzle sticks etc as my lurcher in particular will chew so much and then try to swallow the rest in one huge piece.  He also likes apples and carrots and often sneaks in and pinches the horses off the floor of the stable.

[happygolucky]

Mine love a big carrot

[colliewobbles]

We got antler chews, they shattered leaving razor sharp points after a while (an hour) not again, we just get pigs ears for our lot from the butcher 4 for about £3.50 and it's only occasional

That's it  - I watched something about it recently - senior moment 

[Shropshirelass]

I bought an "Antler chew" - thinking great something that's a good natural treat & the dogs played with it for about 5 mins  & I agree their not cheap - Being a vet nurse I'm very conscious of what I buy for my pets as treats & diets & also keeping the weight down on my pets.

None of our dogs have really liked the rawhide treats so we find them a waste of time & as I rarely give treats I try & buy larger dog biscuits, Pointer sticks, Dried liver (not too much as it can cause probs), Dried fish treats, Pedigree jumbones & dentastix for the dog as most treats are gone within 5 mins so these often take him a bit longer. The cats get Dried liver (not too often as can cause health problems), dreamies & whiska temptations & a packet of those lasts ages.

It's amazing nowadays how much junk goes into pet food nowadays - half are filled with E numbers to get pets to eat it & others have too many or to little nutritional values. x 

[happygolucky]

Ours stole my Deer skulls I had collected and hopefully had no ill effect, one also found a Deer bit of leg and ate that, it was fresh so we let her eat it, again, no ill effects, most times any treat is gone in a flash, that's why I like to give them a carrot as they take them off to eat.....I sometimes put some peanut butter in an empty milk container, they then destroy it to get  at the stuff and that keeps them amused for ages
 

[colliewobbles]

Ours stole my Deer skulls I had collected and hopefully had no ill effect, one also found a Deer bit of leg and ate that, it was fresh so we let her eat it, again, no ill effects, most times any treat is gone in a flash, that's why I like to give them a carrot as they take them off to eat.....I sometimes put some peanut butter in an empty milk container, they then destroy it to get  at the stuff and that keeps them amused for ages

Raw bones won't hurt them - ours have a totally raw diet.  Its bones that are force dried or cooked that are a problem - they will either splinter or be so hard that the dogs break their teeth on them.

[happygolucky]

I sometimes wonder how clever my dogs are? My Chocolate Labrador Retriever often finds dead things and  brings me them, she went off a few months ago and came back with half a Deer skull with skin on etc, she carried it all the way to the end of the walk, at that point, my Yellow Lab stole it off her and started eating it!!

[Moobli]

Antlers can damage dogs teeth, molars get ground down.  Hide chews become soft and pliable and can choke a dog  - I've had to save the life of one of mine and that of a friend's dog because of these things.

My dogs get bits of their normal food when training.

I never feed raw hide chews.  I have heard far too many horror stories of dogs almost choking when they become soft after the dog has chewed on them for a while. 


Far better to give the dog a raw bone as a treat to chew on.  My lot like tups horns too.