Antler Chews for dogs

For those that use antler chews, where do you order/get yours?

I found http://antlerchews.com/ this site and they look good and have fair pricing but I wanted to know where you get yours and if you had used the above link and if they are any good.

Thanks

Thanks for the link! I’ve never used “antler chews”, but found the site really interesting, especially since they also sell shed antlers for pet birds, & we own a Cockatoo who LOVES this kind of stuff.

As for buying, I noticed that our local PetCo in Warrenton, VA, had them for sale last week, so you might want to check out your local big-box pet store to see if they’re carrying them.

My local pet food store carries them as does this company who I buy other products from:
http://siriusinvermont.com/index_files/page0008.htm

Big Dee Web’s dog section (doghouse) has them.
http://www.bigddoghouse.com/DEER-ANTLER-NATURALLY-SHED-DOG-TREAT-MONSTER/productinfo/7627D/

We’ll be carrying them soon here in Georgia :slight_smile: My Aunt and Uncle live in Montana and do “trapper” things to supplement their income (trapping, fishing, etc.) They’re going to collect mule deer and elk sheds for us, and then we’re buying the sheds from them :slight_smile:

LOVE THEM, but our one dog can demolish one in 24-48 hours (which is supposed to be nearly impossible.)

They are worth every penny for my dog! Her #1 toy choice is stuffed ducks (she guts them, ignores the stuffing, and plays with the carcasses), but she refuses to play with anything more durable- no Kongs, no ropes, no balls, nothing. We’ve given her cow bones from the butcher in the past, but she destroys them in less than 10 minutes, not a drop left.

Luckily on a visit to her cousin’s house, our dog decided she really liked the elk antler they had, and she barely put a dent in it despite chewing for a good hour.

So we bought her one and it took her a month of casual use to remove the marrow part, and she is still barely making a dent in the bone part (and she still chews it!). Well worth the money.

We get ours at Country Max, but we’ve also found them at little “mom and pop” type feed stores in our travels.

I have been getting them locally or through the place I order my raw pet food but I have to agree with the Antler Chews site, the split ones are crap! My dog can go through those in a couple days. Not such a great deal for $15+. I didn’t look at the shipping but when her even more expensive whole antler is gone, I’ll probably order from there. That’s the best price I’ve seen and my dog loves them.

They’re price is great. I was all set to order, but it says their not taking on new customers:(

boo hiss

Ohhh…I saw these at PetsMart this month…may have to go back and purchase a few.

Cherrybrook.com has them. I’ve bought them in the store. They have all sizes and my dogs like the split ones. They still last longer than rawhides.

[QUOTE=CrazyGuineaPigLady;6146571]
the split ones are crap! My dog can go through those in a couple days.[/QUOTE]

I bought small mule deer splits at a breed show as a test. Dogs aren’t crazy about them like bully sticks, so they last longer: one month and counting.

Inner porous stuff is sorta scooped out but there is still enough to interest them every other day or so. Splits stay out 24/7 as they seem very safe for my two. Once the inner portion is totally gone, I’ll rehome them.

I gave away some tugs and stuffies this December that we’ve had for a year. My instructor thought they were brand new. :lol: If the toy or bone survives the first two days, it will survive a long, long time in my house.

Cost: These things are expensive! Surely this is a racket. I’m in VA. If a hunter or hiker comes upon shed antlers, I will happily pay for shipping. Wish I still lived on the farm in MD: antlers (and legs!!) were constantly popping up.

Looked into this place a while ago: http://www.elkusa.com/antler-chew.html#chews
They have a very good selection, and the pricing looked good to me.
That said, I usually buy ours from a vendor who comes to some of our local agility trials - she has a good selection, different sources (deer, elk, moose), fair prices (I usually get ~6" pieces for $7) , and I like being able to hand pick the ones that look the best for my dogs.

(Whiter antlers are usually harder, and should last longer than the brown ones - though the dogs like the brown ones better…) I’ve never bought the split ones - they wouldn’t last long enough for my crew (I’ve got some power-chewers, and they get a little fixated on the antlers…)

I actually have a full matched pair of shed antlers - 5 pointers each - that I found out in my field just yards from each other. Obviously they’re far too nice to give to my dogs - lol!! I also have a smaller 2-pointer that I found that decorates a small cactus garden.

One question - I’m assuming that these antlers don’t break & splinter like some of the natural beef shin bones do?

I’ve never had an antler break - mostly, the dogs just seem to whittle away at them until they’re too short to chew (at which point I worry that someone will attempt to swallow them whole). They’re not as brittle as the sterilized beef bones, and I haven’t noticed them being so hard that they could crack teeth.
I don’t ever buy the split antlers, though - those look like they’d be much too easy for my dogs!

(I don’t have huge dogs - three corgis and a mid-sized (60#) big black hairy dog - but two of the corgis are serious bonechewers, and the big guy used to be hell on Nylabones in his younger days.)

Sigh. I wish my goofy dog liked antlers. I bought her a chunk at my local feedstore, thinking to spoil her. When I gave it to her, she ran backward and now won’t go near it.

Silly girl.

I got one. It was expensive and my dog didn’t really think much of it. No more for him.

[QUOTE=Simkie;6149128]
Sigh. I wish my goofy dog liked antlers. I bought her a chunk at my local feedstore, thinking to spoil her. When I gave it to her, she ran backward and now won’t go near it.

Silly girl.[/QUOTE]

My last schnauzer was super suspicious of certain chews. He would look at it, hunker down, and creep towards it like he expected it to attack. If he ever rejected an expensive chew I would loan it to a friends dog for a day or two. For whatever reason he always accepted it once another dog had taken the time to chew on it. Might be worth a shot if you have a friend whose dog would appreciate chewing on an antler for a few days.

My slew of dogs and their playmates don’t show as much interest in my investment of 5 big antlers as I’d like. I found all five out in the yard, in the mud:no:

I think my goofy dog will warm up to the antler if the upcoming puppy thinks it’s neat–monkey see, monkey do–so we are holding on to it.

Koa is just SUPER silly. When she was a puppy, we put out four rawhide bones for the three dogs. Koa came up to them, got about four feet away and went into THIS IT BE WRONG mode and started barking her bloody head off. Riana, one of the older dogs, came up, looked at Koa, looked at the bones, took a bone and walked off. Koa stopped barking, watched and took a couple steps closer–then started barking her head off again, in DANGER!!!1! mode. The other grown up dog came and picked up a bone. Same thing–watch, step, bark. Riana came and picked up the third one. After that Koa very tentatively came in and grabbed the last one there.

It was hilarious and I wish I’d has a video camera at the time. But that pretty much sums up how she is :lol: