Tess loves the rolled up rawhind chews the large ones she is a staffi, she loves them the only concern i have with them is when she has nearly finished with it and it gets quite small i tend to take it of her as i dont want to take any chances with her choking, are these chew generally bad for her , she has a sensitive tummy so her variation of treats are limited already, she can have the charcoal biscuits, thank you

I give them my dogs with no problems - Zak gets them as he is still getting his teeth and a chewer (they are helping to save my furniture!), Missy gets them to help clean her teeth as she will not eat raw bones. I think you are wise to take care with them and give them supervised as I'm sure a dog could choke on them so its best to be cautious. Then again a dog potentially could choke on anything  -chews, bones, food, toys etc seen as it all goes in their mouth.

My pup (8 month old Mastiff) has the rawhide bone with the knots in the end he loves them.
It is a very good idea taking any small bits away (& the whole thing when it is smaller) A couple of days ago he chewed a small strip off & started to choke on it (he was on my lap not unsupervised)- I managed to pull it out quickly, but it scared the hell out of me. I did take the bone off him, but I have given in and he has it again now. The thing I do now is take it off him before the ends get soggy enough for him to chew strips off.

I think part of the problem is the chew gets so slimy, if they get a piece stuck in thier throat, they can't get any 'traction' on it to cough it up (a bit like getting chewed up bacon rind stuck in your throat).

So, yes, I think they are fine as long as they are supervised :)

I never give rawhide to ours they tend to get so soggy they have a tendancy to swallow them and i have spent a few times literally throat diving to grab it out of their mouths... I find it one of the worst items for dogs ever and buy knuckle bones from the butchers much more time consuming and better for their health (and at less cost too!!)

What put me off rawhide about 3 years ago were the stories circulating of many of them being made of hide that was cured in India and other such countries where they use arsenic derivatives for the curing process.  Apparently, even if the label says 'made in UK/Netherlands' or wherever that is not to say that the raw material did not come from elsewhere and it was merely assembled in EU. 
I therefore decided to be better safe than sorry and now use raw bones instead.

what kind of bones should i give tess then from the butchers?

Ask for knuckle bones or marrow bones...tell the butcher they are for a dog and he should know the sort of thing you are looking for.

Apart from the choking hazard, rawhide is banned from this house as it gives one of my dogs terrible dire rear.

I was told by the breeder of one of my girls that she knew of a Golden that did choke to death on the small soggy bit. I think they are good but definitely must be supervised and removed before they get to that stage.

i give them to my two about once a week,they also have bones from the butcher.i always get the really big ones. my two help each other out kia eats most of it then tiger gets the little yuky slimy bit that she leaves and that is perfect size for him.
its quite funny seeing a little chihuahua draging round a bone thats twice the size of him!

I don't give rawhide chews to my two Staffords, they are such piggies that they always regurgitate and choke, and my concern is when/if they don't regurge 'em!
I've also stopped giving marrow bones from the butcher quite as often as I used to - again simply because they are such strong chewers, Tess has splintered a bone before now and it tends to bung my two up too!

Tessis Tracey -  what do you give your staffs for treats as you know i have a staff also called tess!!!!

i have staffords too, they both have had this since they were able to chew, they love it, mine are munching on them as we speak, not a problem, sometimes they choke but not for long and they always bring it back up, we have tried various treats and bones, we give ours there kibble, cheese

, tinned hot dogs chopped, it really depends on what your limitations are, ours are still fit even though they eat lots of things they shouldnt, carrots are one of there favourite things at the moment

i have to be careful with tess as she has a sensitive tummy but has got better since being a pup, i give tess the chicken filled hard bones and occaionally charcoal bisciuts and tripe sticks all from PAH  and she loves her sunday dinners! im quite stict and dont her her any bits of our food, she loves oranges too

yeah, i find my dog can handle more with sensitivity than my girl, i think it must just be us women,,,, softies

Hello again! :-D
I give them the white nylabones, they don't last very long I admit, but I'm just concerned about the bone splinters with them being such strong chewers...
I do occasionally get the marrow bones (dried/treated) from the petshop and scrape the majority of the yukky processed insides out as it's not real marrow.
I also use rope tug toys that floss their teeth too!

Some info here about the dangers of rawhide...

http://www.doglogic.com/rawhide.htm

http://www.bdnhumanesociety.com/rawhides.htm

phew just read the posts related to the rawhind and made my mind up last tess is NOT ever going to have it again im just not prepared to take the risk.

I've given my dogs rawhide chews twice and both times they choked and i had to extract them from their throat.This was more than enough to put me off of them for good.
Fresh real bones are so much healthier,safer and more enjoyable for them.

>>related to the rawhind

Tessisbest,it's RawHIDE,not raw Hind  ;) :-D

I wouldn't give rawhide chews as they become quite sticky and I don't think they are very safe.

Fresh bones as Ktee says are much better and safer, DO NOT feed the dried roasted bones from pet shops or any cooked bones, these are the ones that can splinter and cause injury I haven't a clue why these are still sold ?

The animal hide is treated with chemicals to produce the chews. I used to live within 100 yards of a tannery, who had lime pits to remove the outer hair from the skin  & I know someone who fell in & who was in hospital for ages afterwards. The rawhide is then bleached to remove the other chemicals, totally disgusting that this stuff is still on the market

Ktee oops sorry!!!

I have an English Bull terrier and when he was a pup I brought him a rawhide chew, trouble is that hes a greedy gannet and feels the need to consume it in 20 seconds. I thought he was going to die one afternoon as a big chewed up piece got stuck in his throat, so i had to grab it out literally put my hand down his throat before he choked to death very scary indeed !! Real bones from the butcher should be OK ?

I was told by the breeder of one of my girls that she knew of a Golden that did choke to death on the small soggy bit. I think they are good but definitely must be supervised and removed before they get to that stage.

That is exactly my thinking. Although my girl has now decided she doesn't want to bother with them. :-)

I also use the roasted bones from PAH. I don't let my girl eat them unsupervised, and chose the thicker ones, which then don't splinter, or at least never have while she has had them.

It certainly doesn't surprise me that they have caused death. My dogs got for Christmas a large hard white bone filled with goo they loved them and still floating about now even though my bully cracked the hard white stuff and ate whats inside. Haven't the foggiest idea what there called but they do sell them at "pets at home" stores.    

Those are the meat-filled bones (or chicken filled, cheese filled etc).  I sometimes buy them for my lot - but very, very rarely, simply because once the original filling is gone I can re-use them by making my own fillings - peanut butter if I'm feeling lazy, or cooked oatmeal mixed with a little peanut butter or gravy.  That lasts longer than just the peanut butter.

I dont feed rawhide to my lot as all it does is make them sick. It makes no odds wether its the ground-down reformed chews or the actual rawhide, they are sick everytime.

I just stick to raw bones and the odd 'meaty' chew treat. A friends boxer x mastiff nearly choked on a piece of rawhide once. Although he was a gannet and rarely seemed to chew anything!