Safe chews for Puppies - ideas

Raw Made Easy

Neal: Hey everybody, it's Neal from Growlies. I wanted to talk today about a great idea for a topic that was given to me by Sarah of K9-Goodlife, a local trainer here located in Metchosin. Her topic? She requested I give some opinion on chews for puppies, safe chews for puppies.

There's two stages of puppies in regards to chews. We're talking about pre-four months. Their teeth are still growing in, they still got their puppy teeth. Then, four to seven months, where they're teething and getting in their adult teeth. Then, after seven months, where they have their adult teeth.

The pre guys, you really don't want to do much bone with the guys who are really small. You could do a frozen stuffed Kong, where you're taking a little bit of meat or a little bit of high-value treat and stuffing it in a small Kong and giving that to them to play with and chew and enjoy, that kind of thing.

There's also something-- If you follow Alisha-- What's Alisha's handle? Oh, dagnabbit. Terry is not big in social media, apparently.

Terry: West Coast Healer Pack.

Neal: What's that?

Terry: Is it the West Coast Heeler Pack.

Neal: West Coast Heeler Pack on Instagram. If you follow her, she has this little thing that she stuffs frozen foods into. You'll have to ask her on Instagram what it's called. It's called a hoolie or a boolie or a foolie or something. They come up with these crazy names, and they're for marketing, but I can't remember the darn thing. It's by West Paw Design. I do know that we have-- No, we don't have them. Check her out. West Coast Heeler Pack on Instagram. She uses that all the time. Also, things that are frozen and stuffed are pretty good. You don't want to overdo the frozen thing, because you don't want to cool them off too much, but it's a good option.

The other option, of course, is hollow dried meat chews. I'm not a huge fan-- Until they're actually teething into their adult teeth, I'm not a huge fan of the big thick bullies, the bully sticks. I cut off my head there. The bully sticks, you know? If you look-- Where's the camera there? That's a pretty thick piece of dried meat. I wouldn't really do, unless it's a large breed animal or a fairly good-sized dog. The little guys, I wouldn't necessarily do something that thick and heavy with, but these hollow dried meat treats are not terrible at all. They are going to gum them and enjoy them. You could cut these in pieces and give them these hollow ones. They're perfectly fine.

Now, once they've gotten to that stage where they're chewing good-- They are really chewing, or they are in that four to seven month stage of working on growing out their adult teeth, that's when we can start giving them non-weight bearing bone. You could do your dried meat chews for any of them as appropriate. Again, we're not doing the big thick ones until they're a little older. We're not talking like a 10-week-old. Once they're in that four to seven month range, we want to do non-weight bearing bone. We're talking wild boar ribs.

Do you need me, Terry?

Terry: No.

Neal: Okay. Wild boar ribs, lamb necks, sardines-- a bag of sardines, big country sardines, stuff like this. We can do chicken necks. We can do turkey necks. We can do things like that, that are really good healthy chews that helps them through the teething phase of their life, that four to seven months.

By the way, they're going to eat most of their teeth. You're not going to see them. They're going to end up in their bellies. Occasionally, you'll find one in their beds.

Chicken necks, turkey necks, non-weight bearing, so not the leg bones. I wouldn't recommend chicken feet even until they're a little older, unless they're a very large breed animal. The little guys, I wouldn't do stuff like that until they've got their adult teeth in seven months.

Then, I'm never a big fan of the leg bones of cows. Lots of people use them perfectly safely, and if you do, I prefer the knuckle over the soup bone. The soup bone, I find, can be really hard on teeth. It's where those slab fractures on the teeth come from. Lots of dogs suffer from slab fractures. They are bone eaters by nature. It is a normal thing to happen, but you don't want it to happen. It's a terrible thing. Have you ever broken a tooth? Oh, don't do that, don't do that. Stay away from leg bones, like soup bones. Use non-weight bearing bones. Use frozen stuffed things like Kongs or hollow dried meats, like the twisties, things of that nature-- the Everest Cheese Chews. You know those Yak milk Cheese Chews? Those are decent. Any of those hollow dried meats when they are young are just fine.

Jo-Anne: Did you do the horns, the lamb horns?

Neal: Yes, no. That's another one. Jo-Anne reminded me about these ones. Again, they're fairly soft. It's size appropriate. Always, always, always size appropriate, so big dogs, little dogs, so on and so forth. These are horns. These are essentially made up of the same stuff as finger nail. That can give them a fairly safe chew that's safer than a leg bone or soup bone. Then, I really like these little ones, the little horns. They have - Still, some of the matrix of that was a marrow in there-- fantastic product. Any of that kind of thing, anything that's soothing to the gums. That's why those frozen Kongs kind of approach works really well. Talk to your trainer, see what they think. I guess that's me going on about how to give a safe bone to a puppy-- non-weight bearing. The necks, the ribs, the poultry often very safe bones-- raw, of course.

I'm not a big fan of smoked bones. We don't sell them for a reason. They do hurt a lot of dogs. Yes, I think I'll leave it at that.

Then, we have these up for sale now. They're the Growlies Brand Howlies, Howlies by Growlies. Made in Nanaimo for us, almost a pound of food or treats with chickpea, flax, lamb liver, apple sauce, blueberries and baking powder. Simple, simple. Grain-free, of course. There is no grain in any of those things. Somebody told us the other day that baking powder had grain in it. I had to look that up. That is not true. There's no grain in baking powder.

I wish you all the best. Thank you very much. I appreciate you guys checking this out, and if you got a puppy, bring them by. I love to get shots of the puppies. Love to get pictures of puppies, because there's nothing better than a puppy smile. Cheers, bye.

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