Rawhide Bones - Should we really be feeding them to our dogs?

So its been long since we posted last, as we've been super busy with our new venture under the Red Paws banner which you all will hopefully see very soon! (The hard works of our labour!)
So we get allot of customers buying Rawhide bones and chews for their dogs, but do we really know if we should we feeding these things to our dogs? Whats its made of? What effects does it have our dogs digestive systems ? 

We never really have ever given our dogs Rawhide bones as it just does not suit them  and whenever we did try our first dog Red (labrador) , she always used throw up with it. Phoebex(labrador) is too much of a diva to try and eat them as she does not like to chew anything that takes more than 2 minutes, Zoey (desi/indian dog) takes her her time but ends up with either puking it out or getting bad allergies and Nikki (rescued animal tested beagle) loves to eat them, swallow them up and finally ends up with either vomiting or getting a very bloated stomach. 

Our outside dogs who have been living outside they quite enjoy it as they love the taste and can't say much to whether they get sick after as they are always looking super happy to get another one after but they are sturdy dogs who have been living outside and are exposed to allot more elements not like our divas that live with us! 

So what does this white rawhide contains or what is it made out of? According to Wikipedia rawhide comes from animal skin, rawhide is what has not been exposed to tanning, its either skin of a buffalo, deer, elk or cattle and is prepared by removing all the fur, meat and fat. So its safe to say its the inner layer of an animal that is treated, shaped when dry and packed into different dog chews. They come in a variety of sizes, shapes (shoes, chips) and in flavours as well. 

                          
                         

So why do they love it so much!

• Its good for their teeth as they chew it up and exercise they jaw, the moist rawhide wraps around the teeth and helps remove the nasty plaque.

• Its good for puppies that love to chew and helps relieve teething pains for young puppies and soothes their gums. It keeps them busy from chewing your other valuables and also makes their jaws stronger.

• They have this overwhelming smell that the dogs are just attracted towards in an instance. Obviously yes its dried animal skin they are eating, they will simply just love it!

So why not feed them this?

• Rawhide could be poisonous as it is treated with god knows what chemicals and additives are added to make it edible for dogs and to have almost a 8 - 12 month shelf life. According to www.thebark.com and their research on how these are made they say that the process involves the rawhide to be exposed to sodium sulpha & a solution of hydrogen peroxide,  may also include arsenic and formaldehyde. 

• It can cause choking by blocking the airways, when chewing on a rawhide bone if the bone gets too small they dog may simply swallow it which may lead the airway to get blocked and the dog to get chocked and this can lead to serious problems and in few cases can result in death. So please please you have to monitor your dog if you are giving them rawhide bones or take them away if they get too small to chew. 

• It can also cause gastrointestinal problems, once swallowed they can cause stomach bloating, vomiting , diarrhoea  salmonella poisoning and other issues. Rawhide bones can also expand once in the digestive system or get tangled with the dogs intestines and this causes even more serious health concerns. 

• Lastly what you don't want to hear and may make you stay off these rawhides, a study by the Humane Society  International states that “In a particularly grisly twist, the skins of brutally slaughtered dogs in Thailand are mixed with other bits of skin to produce rawhide chew toys for pet dogs. Manufacturers told investigators that these chew toys are regularly exported to and sold in U.S. stores.”

I think the last point may put you off these chew bones but the decision is ultimately yours to take. But we feel like it is our job to educate you and let you know our point of view on this, the above information was gained simply by going over a few websites and through what people around the world have commented and written about. It is obviously true that if people are talking about it, there is something to be considered, lots of them have lost their dogs with rawhide bones been lodged in their throats or digestive systems and lots have said that these have not effected their dogs at all. 

But we think the main point to think about is that in a country like India do we really know where these rawhide good are coming from? In an industry at such a nascent stage of development do we really have any governing bodies monitoring or testing the ingredients that go into what we feed our dogs and other pets?

 There exists no standardisation process and the labels do not even give the ingredients correctly so how do we know what we are feeding them? How can we trust what we are buying ?

I hope we have not offended anyone with our post but we thought of writing this as none of our dogs ever took to rawhide bones but they remain ever so popular so we thought we would go through a few websites and see what people are saying around the globe. 

• http://thebark.com/content/dangers-rawhide-dog-chew-toys
• http://www.dogingtonpost.com/rawhide-good-bad-ugly/
• http://www.livingthelifeofriley.org/2012/09/just-say-no-to-rawhide.html
• http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/12_5/features/Best-Rawhide-Chews-For-Your-Dog_16120-1.html
• http://www.pedigree.com/all-things-dog/article-library/are-rawhides-good-for-your-dog.aspx