More on Chews

[morriesmom]

I have been reading on this site about the dangers of certain types of chews. My Morrie is a VERY aggressive chewer. I bought him a large-size edible bone from the USA (I am an American living in Luxembourg) and I had to take it away from him after 5 minutes because it was half gone! But I have found an edible chew here in Luxembourg that has two addresses on the label, one in Brussels and one in Eerbeek (The Netherlands). It is called Vitabony. It takes several weeks for Morrie to chew one down to an unsafe level.
Has anyone tried this product?
Can anyone in the USA tell me if it, or something equivalent, is available in the USA? I will be returning soon and I am so dependent on this product that I might have to ship a large supply home. Morrie has little interest in Kongs, nylabones, or rubber chew toys. If he doesn't have his Vitabony he will chew wooden furniture, doors and door frames, and he does major damage! evilicon
To the moderators and all who contribute: This site has been a lifesaver in the six weeks since we brought Morrie home. Every time a new question arises I search the past discussions and guidance is almost always there.
Thanks to all. appicon

[franp]

Christina,
My suggestion; call the company and ask them if they have an American distributor.If they do, when you get home, you can find out where to buy them.
Have you offered Morrie marrow bones with the marrow left in?Dari never liked nylabones, kongs etc. But when I gave her a bone with the marrow, she was in heaven,

Never have I seen a dog break a raw marrow bone; Great dane , Rottie or Frenchie.Once she gets one with the marrow she will go back to it , thinking there is more in there (silly dog).

Where in the US will you be living?
fran

[Lisa]

Franp – I’m quite interested in the raw marrow bones you’ve mentioned.

I have to admit, I know very little about them as we only allowed our English to have the regular “Nylabone”.
He did try a “patella” once but I got paranoid and threw it out.

Can you tell us a bit more about raw marrow bones … where you get them? … butcher? Pet supply store? …
What part of the animal they are from?
How long they last?
Are they good for an aggressive chewer? Etc.

Thanks a lot!

[franp]

Franp – I’m quite interested in the raw marrow bones you’ve mentioned.

I have to admit, I know very little about them as we only allowed our English to have the regular “Nylabone”.
He did try a “patella” once but I got paranoid and threw it out.

Can you tell us a bit more about raw marrow bones … where you get them? … butcher? Pet supply store? …
What part of the animal they are from?
How long they last?
Are they good for an aggressive chewer? Etc.

Thanks a lot!

Marrow bones (soup bones)are the weight bearing bones of the cow. I get them from the butcher.And they are not cooked. Cooking makes them brittle.

There is not a breed of dog that I have come in contact with that can destroy a RAW marrow bone.Amstaff, Great Dane, FBD etc.Weight bearing bones are the strongest bones in the body.And they seem to last indefinetely.

One caution;marrow is very rich.So the first time, be careful. Do not leave all the marrow in. It can upset the dog's stomach especially if your dog is not a raw fed dog.

Marrow bones and bully sticks are the only two things that my dog gets to chew and the only two things she likes to chew.And I think, the only/best thing for an aggressive chewer.

[franp]

Judy,
You MUST get Ollie a Bullystick!! appicon No matter what Carolyn says :eek: . He will be in Heaven with it..

One of my favorite images; Dari chewing on a marrow bone. It is between her paws; her Butt is up in the air.All her concentration is on that bone. :lol:
fran

[Cara]

For those who are interested and don't have access to a good butcher, we recently discovered lots of grocery stores carry raw marrow bones - they're frozen and packaged as soup bones. We thaw the bones, scoop out the marrow and re-insert it a dollop at a time. Bullysticks are really gross but Winston LOVES them (regular, braided, pretzeled - he alternates). He also gets remarkable mileage out of beef tendons (either "wishbones" or "flossies") and boneless ox tails, which last about as long and don't smell. My father-in-law swears by pig ears, but I don't trust them as chews.

[Chris&Eti]

Eti loves hooves-I don't, they smell worse than bullysticks-but he loves them he has them in rotation with his bullysticks and marrowbones. I've looked for information regarding them (hooves) -if they're safe or not but haven't found any answers.Has anyone here had any negative experiences with them?

[franp]

Hooves;on one of the other lists a Frenchie cracked a hoof in half and it got stuck in the roof of the dog's mouth.
Another thing I do not give my dog.

Nor do I give pigs' ears. They are very high in fat and can lead to pancreatitis.

Once again,the ONLY chews Dari has gotten are marrow bones and bullysticks.

[sakirby]

lisa...check out some of my posts in the feeding forum, about marrow bones. i had SO many questions about them. what are they? how do i feed them to oscar? are they safe....all that stuff and similar questions that you have. now, oscar has had two marrow bones so far. he LOVES them. more than anything i have ever given him. he consistently chews on them as long as they are out. it is the only think i haven't seen him get bored with. if you don't feed your dog raw food, it may take them a bit to get used to the bone, and especially the marrow. you may want to feed it to them only for a bit, then take it away and freeze it or fridge it again, and just give it gradually for longer and longer periods of time. that is what i did with oscar. the marrow doesn't seem to bother his digestive system anymore! i definitely recommend marrow bones! i found them at wholefoods (basically the trader joe's of the east coast) and at high quality pet stores/boutiques! good luck.

[franp]

Sharon,
We have Trader Joe's here!!! Conn has had it for a while ; and soon (very soon) appicon there will be one in Manhatten ! appicon :D At Union Sq.

You would think one of the greatest cities in the world would have had a Trader Joes before this... We just got Whole foods last year.
fran

[Carolyn]

I was just at Trader Joe's and they do have all kinds of knuckle bones there. I bought some freeze dried turkey livers and lamb hearts. Ripley loves the lamb hearts and bullies prefer the turkey livers.

I also get marrow bones from the butcher.

I can recommend a GREAT chardonnay from TJ's! :D

Carolyn

[franp]

Unfortunately TJ's can not sell wine here in NY.. :mad:

[Lisa]

lisa...check out some of my posts in the feeding forum, about marrow bones. i had SO many questions about them. what are they? how do i feed them to oscar? are they safe....all that stuff and similar questions that you have. now, oscar has had two marrow bones so far. he LOVES them. more than anything i have ever given him. he consistently chews on them as long as they are out. it is the only think i haven't seen him get bored with. if you don't feed your dog raw food, it may take them a bit to get used to the bone, and especially the marrow. you may want to feed it to them only for a bit, then take it away and freeze it or fridge it again, and just give it gradually for longer and longer periods of time. that is what i did with oscar. the marrow doesn't seem to bother his digestive system anymore! i definitely recommend marrow bones! i found them at wholefoods (basically the trader joe's of the east coast) and at high quality pet stores/boutiques! good luck.

Thanks for all your help sakirby!
I'm going to look into these 'Bully sticks" too :confused: ...never heard of them before either! :lol: ... Also, will talk to my breeder about RAW. I'm amazed at the number of people here on the board who feed it and rave about it.

[morriesmom]

Thanks to all for your input. The reason that I don't give raw bones to Morrie is that I have read some really scary things. There is an article on thepetcenter.com that shows the stomachs of dogs who had (raw) bone fragments lodged in them from eating bones. It scared me to death! I just want to make it clear that the opinions on that website are NOT MY OPINIONS. But I would like to know if anyone else has had bad experiences with bones or has first-hand knowledge of a dog being harmed by eating bones.
Fran: Thanks for your comments. Your opinion has got me started re-thinking the bone question. As to where I am returning: I will probably go to the DC area for 6 months to a year and then on home to the San Diego area. appicon My husband is winding down his foreign service career.

[franp]

Christina,
First; I have never heard of a dog that has been harmed by eating raw bones.That does not mean it can not happen; But I have heard of dogs being harmed by Nylabones etc. Everything can be good/bad.
Second; the site you referred to ( thepetcenter.com) is sponsored by a company that sells commercial pet food!!
So it does not surprise me that they would be against raw bones or raw food..
FYI; the raw food I use has raw bone in it.
When I went to the site; it is the "largest online petfood store".And there is NO raw food available.

I am in NYC and Carolyn is in Vista Ca..

fran