Nando has had a cows hoove from DAF stuffed with chicken mince. The mince has long gone (He has it this morning in his crate whilst I popped out for an hour) but now he is chewing the hoof.

Does anyone else think they smell a bit like dog wee?! I am sitting here contemplating putting a peg over my nose!

Josh

To me they smell like a combination of cow slurry (can you tell I was brung up a country gal!) and burning hair! I don't buy the stuffed ones though just the hollow empty ones.

Be very careful when buying hooves as I once bought one that smelled extremely noxious when the dog chewed it - gaggingly so -  not the normal dairy farm/burnt hair combo. When I looked at it, it was clear the poor animal must have had an infected hoof, so basically my dog was chewing a dehydrated abscess. VOM!!!!!

I've found though that over the last year my dogs have gone off hooves and now much prefer bones or antlers. Which is very good as for some reason one dog would always start chewing his hoof in the living room when my mother's church friend was round, and she not being a dog person and far too polite for her own good, would be sitting there with a hanky over her nose until I twigged what was happening

Be very careful when buying hooves as I once bought one that smelled extremely noxious when the dog chewed it - gut wrenchingly so, and not the normal dairy farm/burnt hair combo. When I looked at it, it was clear the poor animal must have had an infected hoof, so basically my dog was chewing a dehydrated abscess. VOM!!!!!

I can barely stand the smell as it is, don't frighten me like that!! He won't let me take it outside either, he keeps bringing it back in the house!!

Josh

Thanks MT I think my curry maybe making a visit to the toilet in a bit

>He won't let me take it outside either, he keeps bringing it back in the house!!

ROFL!   I just LOVE dogs.  :-)

To me they smell like burning hair combined with a beefy smell. 

Best for being a long lasting chew though, as mine don't gulp or swallow bits they will chew them right down to nubs.

Only problem I have is getting the big ones, they all seem to be calf hooves at the moment, at 25p a throw not the cheapest treat when I usually put out about 8 at a time.

yep i think they stink of pee. My girl loves her hoofs and they last her ages and for some reason other chews she will take it away and eat it but not the stinky hoof, she wants to have it on your lap to chew. Constantly trying to flick that thing away without touching it lol

yep i think they stink of pee. My girl loves her hoofs and they last her ages and for some reason other chews she will take it away and eat it but not the stinky hoof, she wants to have it on your lap to chew. Constantly trying to flick that thing away without touching it lol
Sounds like I get off lucky, Nando keeps them by my feet!

> at 25p a throw not the cheapest treat when I usually put out about 8 at a time.

Can I ask where you're getting them from?  I get mine from Poundstretcher - roughly 50p each!  They are a fair size usually mind you but with 8 dogs here again cheaper would be better as they do chew them small pretty quick.

Plus, the Poundstretcher ones aren't always great - sometimes they'll have a batch where the stuffing is mouldy and I can't always tell til I get them home.  In the past I've had to tell a member of staff that I've left a pile of almost every packet somewhere because they were all blue!

Oh I don't get stuffed oens, wouldn't trust what goes into them, I only use empty ones.  I buy mine at shows or on line, most recently from Zooplus.

If you order them from Durham Animal Feeds they do them stuffed with chicken or stuffed with tripe. The smell of the hooves alone are bad enough.. Let alone tripe!!

I figured they'd be empty ones, there's just nowhere round here that does them!  I'll have a look at Zooplus, thanks :-)

Yes I agree they smell horrid but the dogs love them> have got mine of various suppliers> if I get them off the dogs quick enough I re stuff them them myself. Mine dont really like antlers much and yes they keep appearing indoors !

Mine love them and will nick others too if they are given half a chance ;-)
I thought they were horse hooves which were sold, clearly not reading the Albion website very well!

They may well be horse hooves.. to be honest I'd just assumed they were cows!

they are cloven so can't be horse and are to big for lamb/sheep.

I am sure the albion site said cow .  

always smell like tripe to me!

always smell like tripe to me!
I agree.. but I think tripe smells like wee too! Nando is eating the same cows hoof. It is coming out undigested in his poo.. will this be doing him any harm?

I wouldnt think so,Josh,but someone else might know more.Its funny you bringing this subject up.The times ive sat here,becoming aware of a "smell"to find one of the little dears has dug a hoof out from the toy box! Another warning-they like to leave them strewn about and theyre proper ankle breakers!

I'm sure I used to get pony hooves & they didn't smell as bad but have not been able to find them again. Do you remove & store or just let them lie around the house. Once they have had enough put them in a box in the fridge & the smell when I get them out again in too much?

I have never had them smell if not being chewed. 

Surely you'd have to kill the pony to get it's hooves (and we don't kill that many in UK do we) unless your talking the slivers of trimming when the farrier trims them, which most dogs enjoy.

Think your right that they weren't pony hooves, & yes they do enjoy shavings from the farrier, but don't remember them smelling as they do now? Probably should just leave them around the house when not being chewed to dry out & not store in a container where they sem to fester, it's just that that I'm not keen with two dogs leaving high value treats unsupervised.

> Probably should just leave them around the house when not being chewed to dry out & not store in a container where they sem to fester, it's just that that I'm not keen with two dogs leaving high value treats unsupervised.

I've never seen pony hooves on sale and I really don't think I'd want to! At least the bits & bobs we can get - cow hooves, chicken feet, bull's pizzles etc. are by-products from the usual meat trade.

As they are dried to start with Lacy, then yes they probably would fester if you put them in the fridge after they've been chewed a bit and moistened by dog saliva. Whenever I've had to remove them from the dogs I've just put them out of reach on a shelf or whatever. Although they are popular I've not had scraps develop over them as there's usually one each at least; and after a year or so of them being constantly available, there's a couple at the bottom on the toybox that haven't been touched in months. In fact I can't remember when I last saw either of my dogs chew hooves - they've fallen out of fashion here!

My dogs love the trimmings from the farrier and on the days he's at the yard I always go and grab some.  I never realised how much they smelt until I left them in my car for 2 days during a heat wave.....