Can Rawhide -allergic?? Can that happen?

Off topic, but Cathy I just adore your new Avatar.

Your furbabies are stunning.

Here is the "recipe" for the Yams and a couple of other things that were suggested to me. I haven't made them yet because I don't have a food dehydrator.

Slice the potatoes on a mandolin slicer and place 6 racks in the dehydrator. Depending on the time of year, it takes 4 to 8 hours to dry them out. You can do the same thing in the oven at 200 degrees or less but it takes longer. (The mandolin slicer will help you have more uniform slices.)

OR you can cut them into bite size chunks and boil them until they are still a little crunchy. (This is obviously quicker.) You can also par boil carrots in bite size pieces, as well as green beans. Don't serve them raw, but cook them much less than if you were going to eat them yourself.

The person I got this info from said that she had been worried that her floors, furniture, etc. would turn yellow from the potatoes, but that the color doesn't stain anything. I haven't pursued this with my dogs yet because I'm not sure of the calorie content and I'm trying to get Wallis' weight down.

Let me know how it works!!

Speaking of Merrick's, they make Bella's absolute favorite chews - Flossies (spiral shaped beef tendons). Added benefit, they are not quite as smelly as bully sticks. icon_whistling

I've done the yams in my food dehydrator and have found the timing and the size of the "slice" are key. If you dry them too long they get hard and dry. About 4 hrs seems right. I try to slice them into french frie size. The longer the yam slices the more Molly seems to like them.

Molly's other favorite treat are the mini Dingo bones. I consider those her "keep her busy for awhile treats".

I've found by reading labels that alot of raw hides contain so much dye they warn you on the package about it coming off on furniture and carpet :yuk:

I just watched a emergency vet show yesterday where they were treating a lab who ate 14 pig ears :yikes The vet on the show said that they really frown on alot of raw hide and especially pigs ears, because of the triangular shape of them can cause all kinds of problems.

Bev, the pig's ears are awfully greasy, too. Most of the vets I know frown on the rawhide, pig's ear section of treats. I personally don't care for the cow hooves because of the smell. :grnyuk:

I supposed the timing of the yams would depend on the climate (and weather) where you live. It is so humid in FL; I tried to make caramel candies once and we ended up eating them out of a spoon. They never did harden enough to cut them into pieces and wrap them.

I saw the E-vet show was coming on, but we got involved in something else. I think I'd like to watch it. We had a young Golden come in once who had eaten a bowl of potato salad - bowl, aluminum foil over it and all. Talk about fun surgery!

i relate to the confusion about whether it's the food or the treats, or what?, causing soft mushy or loose stool. this was a slow learning process for me when i first got zack a year ago. Eventually i could see the pattern that whenever i gave various chew treats, he got small weird looking stool.

It was apparently the grain containing kibble too because EVO put an end to the mushy stool, but there was a pattern of worse stools after certain treats.

I haven't bought rawhide, i got spooked about it from reading some choking horror stories, same with greenies, but zack has rawhides when visiting belle's house, and i got some once when i took him on a motel trip, thinking it would be a change from the usual and might keep him occupied more. i think that some rawhides have caused zack to have weird stools, while others didn't, probably because of additives.

the only chew treats i give regularly are Sams Yams and Pegetables. Sams Yams last as long as rawhides for Zack and Belle. They are very firm and tough and hard, i can't tear the larger ones, though i can tear the smaller thinner ones.

Pegetables don't last as long but they are a nice size and shape and the dogs love them, and they last a little while. the first time i saw them, zack had just had blood drawn at the vet and he was in my lap, and the office manager asked if she could give him a treat, and it was a carrot pegetable, and he stayed in my lap chewing on it while i talked to the vet and office manager for 15 or 20 minutes. http://www.pegetables.com/products.htm.

They have them on amazon, and sams yams too.

i've never tried merricks flossies, i would like to, i wonder if they're at the pet store. I read that they are very high protein content, low fat, and some users said they last long.

Bully sticks are very long lasting and i was lucky to only have one out of several that smelled bad. At the store, they said it was a matter of luck?

You can get compressed hoof that is safer, it's granulated hoof that breaks off in small pieces and doesn't have the same risk as the regular hooves of breaking off and having sharp edges.