The Nylabone chew toy
A variety of chewed Nylabones
A good substitute
These chew toys offer an alternative to the hard natural chews like bones and antlers. Nylabone became well known for their non-edible hard plastic chew bones. Today, Nylabone offers an extensive line of edible and non-edible bones.
When considering any of the synthetic chew toys, check whether they are known to be free of the BPA and phthalate chemicals. The Nylabone brands are all from a nylon and thermoplastic polyurethane composition and do not contain BPA or phthalates.
The important consideration with Nylabone is matching your dog's size and chewing strength with the appropriate Nylabone. The Nylabone website has a very helpful table designed to direct you to bones that are best suited to your dog.
The biggest concern with the Nylabone chew toys is what happens when your dog manages to bite off small pieces and swallows them or swallows the remaining bone once it has been chewed down to a small piece. These can lead to stomach and intestinal issues. This happens to be a very common occurrence and usually ends in surgery. The fine shavings that are consumed in the normal coarse of chewing pass through. The danger is when a power chewer gets a hold of one of the softer variety and breaks it to pieces. Furthermore, if you have more than one dog around be very careful that any bones available are matched for the most aggressive chewer. There are reports of the Nylabones specific for teething puppies being chewed up by an adult dog and causing injury.
The best course of action is supervision, watch how your dog chews on these types of synthetic bones. If they're happy to gnaw away at an end, gradually shaving it down (see photo above), then they're probably fine until it gets too small. If on the other hand, they take it in their back molars and try to break off an end piece or break it in half, this may not be the chew toy for your dog.
A popular multipack of Nylabone toys
With that said, these synthetic bones are very popular with most dogs. They come in a wide range of shapes and sizes for dogs of all sizes. Because they are manufactured, their surfaces will have bumps and ridges or other features that make them very attractive to chewers. They also come in a variety of flavors which is also very popular with the dogs.
For many dogs this makes a good substitute for a natural bone
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