Of all the chew treats that you can offer to your darling pooch, there is nothing more tempting for the animal than rawhide bones. If you can manage to lay your hands on the good quality rawhide bones for dogs, not only will your canine friend love that, but it will also serve as a constant chewing item for the growing teeth of your pup.
Rawhide bones are basically made with the inner soft hide of livestock animals. While pig, horses, sheep and at times water buffaloes’ hides are being used to make rawhide bones for dogs, but most of the times it is made with hide from cow. It is due to this reason that the dog finds the taste of the rawhide bone similar to that of beef and remains engrossed in chewing it for hours.
Benefits of rawhide bones
Some of the benefits that are found by letting dogs chew on rawhide bones include the following:
- Constant chewing of the rawhide bone keeps the teeth of the dog clear and little oral care is required.
- It also helps in maintaining healthy gums as it does not let tartar buildup inside the mouth.
- It serves the dog’s need to chew in a better way without damaging any of the household items. It stops the dog from being destructive.
- For puppies, chewing of rawhide bones reduces the teething pain and in adults it is known to be a good stimulating act for the growth of teeth.
Things to check out before buying
While buying rawhide bones for your beloved pet dog, you need to be ensuring that the bony treat clears certain checkpoints. You would certainly not like the idea of putting your dear pet into trouble by chewing the rawhide bones. Here are some of the points that you should check before you buy the rawhide bones.
- As the dogs continuously chew the rawhide bone, it gradually gets moist and gooey and tends to tear up, forming small fragments of the bone. If the dog swallows any of them, it could choke the poor animal. Hence, you need to check that the size of the chewy treat is not very big and it would fit in properly inside the mouth of your pet dog without exposing him to the threat of choking.
- You need to check out on the reputation of the manufacturer, as bones prepared from poorly processed hides could lead to serious trouble to your most trusted friend.
- If the quality of the rawhide bone is not very good, i.e., if it is too hard or too dry, then your dog could break its teeth while trying to chew the bone. Broken teeth would mean extravagant vet bills and unbearable pain for the poor animal.
- Many brands produce flavored rawhide bones. Try to avoid these as the favor coatings that are used over the rawhide bones could cause serious stomach trouble to your dog if it is one of those sensitive breeds.
