Particularly  the ones from  china and there is a high risk of choking when it goes soggy from chewing

I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and recommend all puppy owners and my clients not to give them to their dogs due to the dangers relating to them

Well, I have to give something and to be honest, there are hazards with everything.  The hooves, I just checked out and they are cooked in fat and must be preserved with something or you wouldn't be able to buy a big bag and use over months.  I'd also be worried about bacteria (ecoli/salmonella) on them - whether for dogs that's a problem, I don't know, but having them in the house, it is for humans.

Antlers and bones, like others have said, run the risk of breaking teeth.

Raw hide, I wouldn't buy the ones from China - only the natural ones - yes, there might be problems with those too, and I get the chemicals that are involved in it - but as far as I can see there are problems with every option!?

Even the doggie toothpaste I bought to use in a few weeks, I see has saccharin and sorbitol in it - which I won't give her, just as I don't eat artificial sweeteners myself - so I'll be throwing that out. 

I don't think there are any 100% safe options and the alternative is dirty teeth and smelly breath, so unless we want that, we have to take a measured risk on something!?

The things which are 100% safe also seem to be either not cleaning teeth...

OMG, ok I just read some articles about how raw hide is made and I won't be giving that again and will chuck it out.  :( 

What about pizzle sticks?!

A raw bone is the best you can give and if you read up on the dangers of rawhide I'm sure you won't be giving them again. Have a nosey on Google.
A nice marrow bone from the butcher and Waitrose also sell them too

I believe pizzle sticks should be fine.

Or have a look at natural instinct raw ribs or get some chicken carcass.softer but still clean teeth.pizzles are usually just dried with nothing added fallow dear antlers are also ok . All the above are low risk

She just isn't raw fed so I was worried about trying that whilst she's still feeding the pups, just not wanting to change anything at the moment - but I do want to try a big marrow bone. 

However, as I only want to feed that outside, I'm not sure it's going to be a year-round solution in terms of teeth cleaning...

I've just looked at sweet potato chews and they sound good, except very expensive to give regularly.

Pedigree claim that their new Denta thing reduces plaque and tartar - is this rubbish?  (I know the ingredients probably are!)

I would wait until she is off the litter.... The yellow stains won't harm her for a few weeks. Once they are gone I would freeze a marrow bone for a few days to kill the neospora if it's beef and then let her have a good chew...

Ok, thanks!

Avoid pedigree denta sticks etc. Pointless. Full of poop too. If you're worried about raw then wait until pups have gone however I weaned mine on kibble and their mum was fed kibble throughout pregnancy and then they tried bits of raw as they went through weaning and also had bones to try too.

I like the Sea Treats Jerky.....cleans teeth well, dogs love them and they're 100% natural....they're not cheap and are a bit smelly, but in my opinion, after years of trying to find a teeth cleaner they're well worth the extra.

Where do you get the idea they are cooked in fat?  They certainly have no fatty feel, unlike the pigs ears which I know are fried.

Everything I can find says they are naturally air dried.

As for the risks of Salmonella I'd not think it any more likely than off a piece of leather.  It's a toenail.

They don't last months, try  years, LOL, and the only bacteria I can think they have is the onese that the dogsare chewing from their mouths.  Mien sit in their toybox and have never caused an issue to the dogs re bellyache/sloppy bots.

Hmm, I just did a search & can't find it. But I did find lots of posts warning about splintering and being too hard. Arg!

> But I did find lots of posts warning about splintering and being

Again never had an issue, which I did get with large marrow bones on one avid chewer, who has worn her teeth down, but she could finish off a whole large pigs trotter in 15 minutes leaving nothing!!!

I have never had the large heavy ones splinter(the small ones could I suppose, but the thin edges just get soft with chewing) they just seem to file down.

With anything chewed there is some risk, nylon rubber chews can be chewed up.

Just an idea, but I saw some lovely sweet potato chews, (dehydrated) which I think would do the trick.

Chews I have given my dog have mainly been from Zooplus and have been dried scalp and dried cows ears, the Bavarian ears are larger and last longer. Far as I know they are as they say, just dried.

We have hooves in our house. I get the empty ones and then whenever there is a reduced mince item at the supermarket, fill them and freeze them. The mince doesn't last long but it mixes it up a bit. I also dehydrate my own pig ears. simply placed on a baking sheet in the oven on the lowest temperature with the door slightly ajar. When they're done, I soak up the excess fat on kitchen paper, allow to cool and put in the freezer in a Tupperware box.

Morrisons do very good marrow bones - no meat on the outside whatsoever and only the marrow internally - it is the only raw treat my lot are allowed to eat inside as it doesn't leave a mess on the carpets. These bones last years - even after the marrow has gone. If they get dirty I just give them a good scrub in the sink and they go back in their box - where they help themselves if they want a toy or something to destroy. Obviously I only do that once the marrow's all gone and if they seem to lose interest, I push the remainder out with the back of a spoon and they soon want another go! They also do meaty rib bones and I have used them as meal replacements if my lot have had a large meal previously. You just need to watch them as the bones shrink as if they get too short, they can get wedged in the roof of the mouth. But this is rare.

I don't give rawhide as my breed tend to end up with the runs anyway but I do have a puppy parent who swears by the stuff and refuses to stop using. I can only try to educate, the rest is up to them. I also don't give antlers unless they are the softer, flat ones - from fallow deer, I think.

There is a FB group called rawsome and holistic and people there swear by using coconut oil to get tartar off teeth but I don't know how. I have never brushed teeth and my oldest turns 8 tomorrow. His teeth have yellowed with age but there isn't any build up of any kind on them. Apart from feeding raw bones I have found feeding frozen clumps of mince or fish helps and they have to scrape bits off and also sinuous meats like beef cheek - where they really have to grind the back teeth to tear off chunks has worked wonders.

Maybe if you added water to kibble, let it go a little soft and then froze it,she could try and scrape off tartar when she tries to strip chunks off?

I love the empty hooves although everyone else says they stink, they last for ages even with terriers and are good teeth cleaners, don't use rawhide because of the sometimes dodgy preparation and seeing a lump of it after it's been in the water bowl overnight, gross.  Sea jerky is great but pricey and I use beef rib bones, my BC broke a molar on marrow bone but the ribs "fray" at the ends and clean teeth well, I would maybe not use them with a very greedy large breed as they could try swallowing long bit but there is always some risk.

It's a bit of a minefield!! 

I am now in possession of a frozen beef marrow bone from a lovely butcher who gave it to me for free - it's now in the fridge.  But I'm now not sure it's any better than antlers if dogs have broken teeth on these as well?!

My middle dog is now happily chewing away on an antler - she has slab fracture on a molar from, we think, chewing an antler about 6 years ago but having shown it to a vet, he said it wasn't causing any problems then, so to leave it until it does.  I stopped giving her them after that, but last week have given her one again.  She does love her chewing...

I looked in another pet shop today for hooves but the only ones they had were filled with crap.

It's a bit difficult, this whole subject really.

I had a Labrador who happily chewed raw beef marrow bones or ribs weekly and never damaged her teeth, she was nearly 14 when she died (of non-bone-related causes). 

On the other hand one of my cockers got a small rawhide chew jammed between two teeth, and (to cut a long story short) ended up with two teeth extracted - a very expensive chew .  He now has carrots or vegetable stems, and a weekly dried (not fried) venison ear, usually cut in half so each ear lasts 2 goes, I would think a bigger dog would manage a whole one at a sitting.

My other cocker enjoys a weekly bone and so far has not hurt himself or his teeth with it.  He has it in his crate, with just a small piece of vetbed to lie on, and when he has finished I clean the crate and wash the vetbed.

Have you tried dried tripe sticks? they can be (are!) smelly but the bigger ones take a bit of chewing and might help.  I don't find the Sea Jerky ones last very long before they've softened and are swallowed, the same for pizzles.  The only non-filled hooves I've seen are online, the pet shops seem to sell only the ones filled with nameless and fatty "mixtures".

There's the possibility for danger with anything, and I don't think it's possible to avoid every chance.

> I looked in another pet shop toda

To be honest I'd always order on-line or from shows in bulk.

Have you seen bull horns? Pets at home started doing them a while ago. We tried one and once the dog gets chewing them it seemed to soften up a bit (like hoves) unlike the antlers.

I use to give mine the filled bones (after I scraped the crappy filling out),roasted knuckle bones and antlers however my girl kept biting chunks off the petshop bones and ended up breaking a tooth. Gave up on rawhide as a pup master reading about it causing blockages in some dogs and as mine would bite of big chunks of it didn't want to risk it. I swear she had the jaws of a hyena when younger.

We tend to stick to things like cow ears, cow trachea, bull noses, venerson ears, rabbit ears, goat ears the odd hoof. A petshop in the next town gets in all sorts of natural chews and seems to be very good prices too. The only dirt on her teeth is what got there after she broke her tooth before we noticed she had stopped chewing on that side.

Jo, do you mean buffalo horns?  I saw some of those in the pet shop yesterday but I didn't know if they were as hard as antlers?? 

Why can't some company make raw hide without using chemicals?  It says they are used to separate the hide from the top skin - why can't a company do this naturally, it must be possible and it would be great to have a 100% chemical free raw hide.  That texture seems the best for cleaning teeth without breaking them...

Even if they did the risk of obstruction from these horrible soggy things is high. Also I have known dogs very nearly die form choking on the end soggy bit ..... Won't have them in the house.

> Even if they did the risk of obstruction from these horrible soggy things is high. Also I have known dogs very nearly die form choking on the end soggy bit ..... Won't have them in the house.

Ditto, I won't have them in the house either, call them dog 'chewing gum', horrid stuff.

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/rawhide-dangerous-for-dogs/     for interest

As mine are raw fed I am happy sticking to their carcasses and ribs or occasionally fallow deer antlers and dried tripe sticks as extras. Marrow/weight bearing bones I learned the hard way can break teeth, anything processed I wont touch ( the dried  tripe sticks aside) other antlers are too hard, anco roots I found splinter although are popular .

Ok... In the meantime, I've found these:  http://ruffshop.co.uk/product/deer-hoofer/ 

I do trust Ziwipeak as a brand so feel more comfortable about the way these have been prepared (air dried) and no chemicals used, so I think I'm going to order a couple and see how we go.  It's more than the hoof, it's the ankle bone as well.

Unfortunately non carcinogenic treatment of hide to produce rawhide is.no longer done, because using the current chemicals is cheaper & easier & TBH carcinogenic chemicals have been the norm since the industrial revolution ☹

It would be better just to give the dogs untreated air dried hide, but it not be something I would do. Mine get plenty of chewing on the raw food they are fed + recreational bigger bones

I know of a dog (a border terrier) who did choke and die from a rawhide chew. It was a neighbour, her dog had had these chews for years but this particular one got stuck, it was over very quickly. We don't buy them at all now.

> Jo, do you mean buffalo horns?  I saw some of those in the pet shop yesterday but I didn't know if they were as hard as antlers??

Possibly, not sure what pets at home are calling them. But they are in there next to the antlers and are black. They felt hard when dry but after my girl had been chewing it it softened a bit like the hoof and pizzles do. I dint get her a second one as they were hollow I was worried she would bite threw it like she did with the stuffed bones.

Is it a curly black horn? If so yes, I've seen those but I didn't know if they were any different to the antlers.

Today I held the marrow bone whilst she had a chew on it.  Her teeth are MUCH better. I was a bit worried to just give it to her because one end of it has a kind of cartilage bit and I thought she could chew that off and swallow a chunk, so I held it whilst she chewed.

I don't think the marrow bones are a long term/ongoing solution for us though - due to raw meat on the floor in the house, worry about broken teeth, and about chunks gettin swallowed. I'm a bit over protective of her, maybe!

> I believe that the bacteria in the mouth when they go into the body via the bleeding or damaged gums due to plaque can lead to problems with the heart.

Agreed - it is extremely important to get the dental done ASAP.  I was surprised earlier in this thread regarding a spay done at the same time.  My vet would be horrified.  The bacteria from the mouth passing into the system while carrying out major surgery (a spay) is a total no, no.

Agreed, zooplus, and I always order the larger size, even the Chihuahuas love them.  Although I would recommend any dog owner to google large cows hooves.  Zooplus may have come out tops one year, but it varies every time and my last batch worked out at 36pence each, so cheaper than Barbara is buying.  It pays to check each time you order.

Smelly breath in humans can be bacteria on their dirty tongues.  Not everybody uses a tongue scraper.  No point in having spotless teeth if it's the tongue that smells.

Jodi  this site looks about the cheapest at the moment.  It's surprising how often prices change, even on the same site.  But hey!  I even change my car insurer each year.  Always fully comp, and I refuse to pay much over £100.  Even more important now I'm not working. 

Cartilage is good for them. Nothing wrong with them eating that. Mine all had marrow bones yesterday and they rip that off and then go for the marrow. They all had a good hour on them yesterday before I removed them.

These are pretty good for a natural non-chemical laden chew:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NatuTripe-Pressed-Tripe-Natural-Gluten/dp/B00YSKREEI

The marrow bones at morrisons do not have the cartilage at the end and are usually evenly sized. I try not to give the bigger weight baring bones as there is a larger risk of broken teeth but the these ones are just the right size for my breed and your's rabid so if you can, do give them a try. They are neatly trimmed - have no gooey bits on the outside and can be left out on the floor - honest!

We don't have a Morrisons where I live Only Waitroses!!

Those NatuTripe pressed bones look really good, Tectona, thanks, I've ordered a couple!

No there not curly. Looked it up on the pet at home website there called bull bars here's a pic of one

https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M9aec620f05ad645c375531169dcb5531o0&pid=15.1

Waitrose sell bine marrow without cartilage

I have a marrow bone from the butcher for now, I don't mind holding the end of it - let's me supervise better as well.