One of my parents dogs is allergic to beef so cannot have the ordinary rawhide chews. Pigs ears are too brittle and she just eats them too quickly. I've spoken to a trader in one of the dog magazines who sells sweet potato chews but they are made in China, so won't touch those, I know a lot of chews, dog treats etc are made in China but we won't have products from there. Can anyone recommend or know of any alternative to a beef rawhide chew, somethings that is a good chew!? Thank you.

Would never recommend rawhide chews of any flavour.
Only treats I use now are fish-skins,  and for chewing - stuffed kongs :) apart from that how about a nice raw  bone?
I know someone who 'soaks' a kong in chicken stock (which is given to the dogs not her family lol) then the dog spends ages licking and chewing the kong :)

i use cows ears, they are bigger than pigs ears and not as brittle, they last much longer, you can buy these off  www.zooplus.co.uk

> i use cows ears, they are bigger than pigs ears and not as brittle, they last much longer, you can buy these off  www.zooplus.co.uk

I guess if the dog is allergic to beef, cows ears are probably not suitable. Hmmmm.

We usually stick to stuffed Kongs and the very occasional marrowbone. We also use dental sticks, but as they last about 14 seconds they aren't really any use as chews!

> sweet potato chews but they are made in China, so won't touch those, I know a lot of chews, dog treats etc are made in China but we won't have products from there

Just curious but why not? I believe in buying British if I can, but if not British I don't mind where it comes from...I suspect most people will have masses of chinese made items in their homes.

Rawhide chews from China are a much poorer quality and for an enthusiastic chewer this can be dangerous. The chews from Argentina are a much thicker and better quality chew. This quality difference is not only down to a better quality of hide but the drying process. In Argentina it is a natural drying process whereas China artificially dry the hide out in ovens which deteriorates the hide. Hence chews from Argentina are double the price, but double the quality too.

Thank you, had thought about stuffed kongs, may give that a go.

I guess if the dog is allergic to beef, cows ears are probably not suitable. Hmmmm.

OMG i didnt read the posting properly, sorry

I use plain sterilised bones for all my dogs, they all LOVE them. Cheap, lasts ages, nothing to be allergic to. :)

Cooked bones - e.g., "plain sterilised bones" are not good for dogs; especially those with strong jaws.  Any cooked bone can splinter and cause a tremendous amount of internal damage.  There was a article in one of the popular dog magazines a couple of  years ago about just that happening to one of the contributing writer's dogs.  She'd given her dog sterilized bones for years - and then just once the worst happened when her dog ingested a lot of the bone.

As noted by another poster - I NEVER buy any food product for my dogs (or myself) that is made in China.   China is responsible for poisoning thousands of dogs in the U.S. a year or so ago.    And this is also the country where in the last few months they sickened and even caused the death of their own children by adding a poisonous substance (I believe the same one as with the dog foods) to milk in order to falsely increase its protein content.  And in the past year they also manufactured a common human medicine to stop blood clots which ended up killing people.  And  then several  years ago manufactured a toothpaste for people which they distributed in south and central America, which also ended up in deaths.  Buy anything edible for China?  No way.  

>> sweet potato chews but they are made in China, so won't touch those, I know a lot of chews, dog treats etc are made in China but we won't have products from there
> Just curious but why not?

i have heard that they also have poorer hygiene requirements and the chews you get form china and india can have nasties in them.

> i have heard that they also have poorer hygiene requirements

My dogs eat horse poo, drink out dirty puddles, eat slimy weeks old bunnies if they can...they eat raw chicken...I don't suppose they care if their chews are packaged in factories with poor hygiene standards :-D

> My dogs eat horse poo, drink out dirty puddles, eat slimy weeks old bunnies if they can...they eat raw chicken...I don't suppose they care if their chews are packaged in factories with poor hygiene standards

:-D :-D

sorry, lol didn't mean like washing hands. the actual chews, not the premesis. i heard they often have parasites and can carry nasties

I use these http://www.petstuffgalore.co.uk/dog-products/dog-chews/nylon-chews/dog-mate-tuffchew-chicken.html
and have done for the past few years.  They are totally safe for powerful chewers i.e. Staffys and last for months!

Couldn't agree with you more Cairnmania, more good reasons to avoid those sort of products from China.

Thank you belgian bonkers, it's a really good site.

So when you buy rawhide chews, how do you know where they are from?  Do you just ask the seller, or should it be on the packaging?

Wouldn't matter where they come from, they are still baked, bleached, shaped, dried, shrunk (to about half the size)   become larger when wet through dogs saliva, are capable of choking your dog, capable of gastric problems - dogs gastric juices cannot break these things down - horrible gooey sticky things.
:(
JMO

> So when you buy rawhide chews, how do you know where they are from?  Do you just ask the seller, or should it be on the packaging?

i don't buy them for all the reasons missy gave :) buy an actual bone, they love them! or i get my boy stuffed hooves which he loves and takes ages to eat.

Well, I don't use rawhide, my friend does though, all the time, for his dogs.  I always give marrow bones, but my local butcher isn't doing too well, business-wise and I reckon will be closing down - nowhere else round here to get bones from, so just wondering what's an alternative!  The marrow bones really help with keeping teeth clean.

plastic bottle? tio loves them. i suppose it does the same thing without actually eating them. or something like the kong dental toy

Sunbeams - Before my parents discovered the beef allergy hence asking for beef product alternative chews, they only bought 'Bravo' chews, the web site is lennoxrawhide.com. My parents contacted them and they told them their nearest stockist. Bravo chews have no harmful chemicals, very thorough slow drying process, are fully digestible and each one is hand made and careful quality control before packaging and originate from Argentina. I have a telephone number too if anyone 's interested. Neither me or my parents would buy an ordinary one from a petshop because most of them are cheap, nasty and dangerous.

What a good idea to soak a kong in chicken stock - I have always used filled kongs to relieve boredom when leaving my dog on her own.  However when bits drop out on the carpet she will lick and work away at the carpet itself.  Not wanting holes now I only leave her with a filled kong when she goes into kennels. I do buy those filled bones for her and there is usually an empty one in the garden that she will play with.  Didn't think about splinters from cooked bones though......  Are these not safe either?

I use Antos chews(google im sure it will come up) they are basically a vegetarian dog chew, no meat content, although they smell of bacon. All 3 of my dogs just love them they come in lots of different shapes and sizes, toothbrushes, crocodiles and even a hedgehog shape one.
Hope this helps.

I do buy those filled bones for her and there is usually an empty one in the garden that she will play with.  Didn't think about splinters from cooked bones though......  Are these not safe either?

I am not sure, but I don't think the bones in the 'filled bones' are actual bones? I get them for mine, purely because when they are empty I can re-fill them with other things and freeze them, so if we go out (as it is an hour to the nearest shops from where we live, so a Tesco shop can take 4 hours!) I can leave them aswell as the Kongs. The dogs chew the 'bones' forever, even when they are empty and as long as you pick the right one sup, they do not break or splinter. (I always pick the smaller, chunky ones)

No problem.

I've used rawhide chews for years. My dogs absolutely love them. it keeps them busy for hours and it's neither messy nor smelly. Being a vegetarian myself, I'm not comfortable with strong meaty smells or easily identifiable animal body parts! I always thought they were safe as they don't splinter like bones.They love the "bone" shaped ones as they can get a good grip on them with their front paws.
I used to give my first dog sterilised bones at first until he dropped one from my 4th floor flat window!! I nearly had a heart attack as it could've killed whoever was passing by at that moment! See, Sam loves watching traffic by the window, and just thought he'd chew his bones at the same time!!
Anyway, never realized rawhide could be bad... Oh! I really don't know what to get them anymore now!

Hi, thanks for that info Wonkydog!  Had a look at the website, those chews do look a better quality type than what I normally see round here at the market or pet shop.  Will have to have a search and see if there's anywhere that do orders online.

Yep just google bravo chews and a few sites come up that do on line. Looks like some chrissy pressies to order.

im looking for somthing to stop my bernesse (7months) from chewing the dog run up when we go out ,shes in the home when were in , she can chew and eat stuff very quickly ,she also as a sensertive tum , i was thinking about a big bone for all my dogs (1 each lol) worried they might fight over them when im not here !!

white lilly i tried many different things for my Bernese when he was going through that stage. We had holes gouged out of the walls, skirting boards chewed.
He had all the toys, treats, chews, bones and balls. Nothing worked for him. Filling a kong with food didn't work even when frozen. If he couldn't get it out he wouldn't bother, even when loosely put into the kong.
He did have a treat pyramid which was great until he chewed that up.

Then suddenly he stopped. I know not all Bernese are like this, but he was a puppy to be reckoned with. He loved to dig holes in the garden so i got him a sand pit, he loved it, to lay in only and carried on digging the garden..

Oh well you win some you loose some, i wouldn't be without him now and would happily go through it all again(sometime next year).

Good luck that i couldn't be of more help, but your not the only one with a Bernese who does this, to basically say your not alone.
If your going to give bones unsupervised i would suggest they are separated to prevent spats occurring as they do with bones.