# Looking for an alternate chew to Bully Stick



## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

I love bison ears for the dogs, and beef tendons if i can get them. They're beef, but they're white, inexpensive and long-lasting chews. Also you can get dried duck sticks and dried salmon strips. Or Himalayan cheese.


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## sophie anne (Feb 17, 2015)

Not such a fan of the Himalayan Chews nowadays... the last few I have had have "shattered" because Ari drops them onto my hard wood floor (which dings the floor too). They then become many small, razor-sharp hard slivers of cheese which you can microwave to puff up and make them safe again. I microwaved the pieces of a recently shattered stick and worryingly, one of them had a small flake of metal in it which I discovered when it caught on fire in the microwave. Maybe I've just had some bad luck with them, but I wouldn't feed them to a dog without supervision. The quality control is dubious at best since they are imported from Nepal.

Ari likes buffalo ears, salmon skins (thesesmell really good, almost like cardamom, but they WILL stain your carpet orange. one package lasted Ari 3ish months) and frozen kongs stuffed with peanut butter, kibble, broth and/or treats.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I also recommend buffalo ears and salmon skins!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Boulder Dog Food Company makes Bison Bully Sticks. Very expensive, but a nice small scale company with excellent customer service. Very expensive though, so be careful - Timi's first chews were from there and now she absolutely refuses any other brand. The baked tendons are her favorite, followed by the kneecaps.


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

Not sure how easy they are to source in the states, but Rory's favourites are venison ears, kangaroo tendons and kangaroo kneecaps. They are all very lean and Rory, who has a sensitive stomach, has no issues at all with them.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Muggles there are some areas in the states where there is a lot of prion (mad cow) disease in elk and deer. While prions are mostly transmitted by consumption of nervous system tissue I don't think I would feed anything that had venison unless I knew exactly where the deer had been harvested from. There are areas in New York where hunters are advised to not consume deer they take because of prions.


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

Fair enough then Lily - I'm guessing the imported NZ ones I get would be pretty pricey for you guys!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Muggles I wasn't sure that everyone reading would know about that prion risk. There are various kangaroo products available here, so that certainly might work for the OP.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> Muggles I wasn't sure that everyone reading would know about that prion risk. There are various kangaroo products available here, so that certainly might work for the OP.



Thanks Catherine, I did not know about it!


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

Deer and elk antlers also work well as chews (and last forever!) and shouldn't carry mad cow risk since they don't come into contact with any internal organs (the deer just shed them), unless I'm mistaken.

Two other chews you can try are Digest Eeze, which are fully digestible rawhide-style chews, and Twizzies, which are a hard baked chew that comes in a long stick like bully sticks (though Archie gets through them pretty quickly). I've also had good experiences with Himalayan Dog Chews, stuff like tracheae and raw bison bones, and of course stuffed Kongs. Everlasting Treat Balls are good too, and come in a couple different styles. Really any of kind of stuff-able chew toy is good.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Go to BestBullySticks and you will find chews from every kind of animal!
Bison, Chicken, Duck, Kangaroo (Molly's fav) Fish, Lamb, Pork, Rabbit, Turkey, and even Vegetarian!!!! You'll find ears tendons, feet, tracheas, jerky, etc!


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## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

Yikes that is so scary about the prions! I hadn't heard of that until now. So many things to beware of!


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Thanks everyone, thanks for the suggestions and Catherine what you mentioned about prions or basically chews in general concerns me. I have been leery to give them anything at all without a lot of research into what it is and where it comes from.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

In deer, elk and moose prion disease is called chronic wasting disease. Here are links to information about it from the New York State Health Department and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/cwd.htm

Chronic Wasting Disease - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

And here is a link to a paper from the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases addressing the finding of prions in antler velvet.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/5/08-1458_article


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