I recently bought a section of elk Antler for my dog to chew on. I’m not letting him have continuous access, but more as an occasional treat. It took several tries before he realized what it was for, but now he seems to enjoy it. I don’t plan to let him have it for more than an hour or so at a time.
Has anyone run into any issues with these types of chews? I know to not let it get small enough to swallow or get stuck in his mouth. The piece is about 7" long and 1.5" in diameter so it should be good for a while I’d imagine.
Love them! And I am paranoid enough to not give rawhides to my dogs.
I have never bought any of the commercial antlers. Three years ago I bought a big box of deer antlers for, I think, $5.00 at a garage sale. I didn’t let on that there is a big market for these things. I have three dogs ranging from about 120 lbs to 25 lbs. They’ve had free access to them ever since, and the biggest danger is me stepping on one of them in the middle of the night.
Antlers are not really an obstruction hazard because they are keratin, not bone. Once chewed on for a bit, the ends are rounded, not pointy.
My dog loves them. It takes a very long time for her to make any headway with them, so I don’t restrict here access. After 6 months or so, they are small enough (3-4") that I start to worry about choking. At that point, she gets a new one. I’ve found that she tends to prefer deer antlers to elk.
Great info thanks. I feel better about it now. I don’t hunt, but some friends hunt and trap so I’ll ask them to look for sheds while they’re out there.
My dog really likes antler chews too. I have been using them for several years without any trouble.
I think they are safer than rawhide personally. My dog used to sometimes have trouble with stomach upset that seemed related to rawhide but not with the antlers. I let my dog have an antler whenever she wants.