Bully sticks are starting to become one of the most popular dog chew treats on the market today. But can puppies have bully sticks, or should you wait until a certain age? Would they have potentially negative consequences? Are they really one of the most famous treats for how nutritious they are?
So, can puppies have bully sticks? Yes! Puppies can have bully sticks. Bully sticks are high-protein chew treats that have a lot of components that your puppy can use for physical development, especially since there is already so much protein in the treat. Therefore, not only can puppies have bully sticks, they can really benefit from them.
However, despite the obvious benefits, are there safety concerns with puppies eating bully sticks? If so, what exactly are the pros and cons of feeding your puppy bully sticks? Are there better alternatives to these products?
Can Puppies Eat Bully Sticks?
Yes, they can.
Usually, bully sticks are very safe for all types of dogs – whether it be old or young. The average digestive system of a dog can easily break down the treat, making it no longer a threat of intestinal blockage.
However, it is still important to note that the product is made out of a bull’s pizzle (penis). This means that there is likely a large group of bacteria living on the surfaces of this dog treat.
As such, the main problem with bully sticks is that they tend to contain many different strains of bacteria.
Although bacteria are not always too bad, there are certain pathogens that your dog, especially your puppy, can severely suffer from. In fact, because of how weak the immune system of a puppy tends to be, a single strain of bacteria can affect the puppy much more than it would an adult dog.
Luckily, these safety concerns can easily be avoided.
How?
Simply keep the bully stick as clean as possible and make sure it is well-sanitized, your puppy or your adult dog should not have to suffer too much from any digestive issues arising from bacterial infection.
3 Benefits of Bully Sticks for Puppies
The benefits of bully sticks are quite obvious, and there are a lot of them. This definitely makes bully sticks a worthwhile treat for puppies.
1. High In Protein
Bully treats are made out of bull pizzles, so they would obviously be composed of lots of protein. Now, though protein is important for dogs of all ages and all breeds, it is especially important for puppies to have access to high levels of protein.
Usually, the dish of an average puppy should consist mostly of protein, whether it be served raw animals or manufactured. This is because, on average, proteins really help dogs in many different aspects.
Here are 3:
- Proteins can really aid your puppy’s structural development. If you are looking for your dog to be not necessarily just large in its stature but also very fit, protein is the right way to go for you. It helps with muscle building and giving your puppy some overall weight, ultimately contributing to the physical development of your dog.
- Proteins are important when it comes to learning how to expend energy when they are outdoors. Though proteins are not necessarily the source of energy, they are nevertheless an important component of the process of metabolism. Because proteins are used during the synthesis of enzymes which are small components throughout the body that help you perform a variety of functions, the process of your dog digesting the food without much a problem should be accelerated.
- If your puppy suffered from some sort of injury, protein really helps your dog repair damaged tissues or any damaged part of your dog’s system. It is important that you provide protein-heavy snacks like bully sticks whenever your dog is still repairing itself from previous injuries. These proteins are basically used as building blocks to repair tissues and organs which are essential for your dog’s welfare!
2. Completely Digestible
As you may or may not know, bully sticks are 100% digestible! This is great news for dog owners that like to use chew treats that are consumable. In previous years and products, there have been so many safety concerns regarding intestinal blockages. Fortunately, these dog owners won’t have to worry about feeding bully sticks to their dogs and puppies.
In fact, even if your dog swallows the bully stick completely without chewing on it, as long as they do not choke on it, the bully stick should melt immediately in your dog’s digestive system. This digestibility holds true for puppies as well.
In our opinion, it’s important that you feed your dog and puppy only the most digestible dog treats. There have been other instances where owners looked for cheaper alternatives to bully sticks in search of another “digestible” chew product. Unfortunately, they later found out that their expedition massively backfired.
One of the main alternatives was Rawhides which had one of the largest safety concerns in terms of bacterial infection, preservation chemical poisoning, and gumline agitation due to how hard and brittle the chew product was.
Most importantly, it was very difficult to digest for dogs, as instead of breaking down in the dog’s stomach, Rawhide treats used to expand in them, becoming a major threat of intestinal blockages.
The other dangerous yet popular alternative is pig ear treats, where owners feed their puppies or dogs dried pig ears for them to chew on.
Unfortunately, these treats are not necessarily produced under the best conditions. For this reason, recently, there has been a salmonella outbreak due to multiple bacterial strains being found in most pig ear treats that are found in pet stores.
Luckily, there hasn’t been anything notably poor about bully sticks in terms of health, which is great news for dog owners! They no longer have to spend money on chew toys; instead, they can simply provide bully sticks to keep their dogs occupied for hours at a time.
3. Dental Benefits
One of the best parts about providing your dog bully sticks is that it will see massive growth in dental health.
The first dental benefit that arises comes from the fact that bully sticks are not really made of carbohydrates, there isn’t much tartar to build up. Tartars are detrimental to your dog’s oral health, and since bull pizzle does not produce these, they provide a very important dental benefit that is difficult to find in other dog chew treats.
The other dental benefit that really differentiates bully sticks from other chew products is how well they are able to scrape off the plaques and residue in your dog’s mouth. This effect is very important as, without it, your dog might have to suffer from a cavity, and in the case of puppies, cavities are one of the worst nightmares for them.
As such, bully sticks can really help your dog improve its dental and oral health. These aspects are especially important for dogs because they need to eat in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
If they are suffering from oral problems, it is difficult for them to eat their snacks/meals, ultimately leading up to them not willing to move around due to the lack of energy. Immune systems grow weaker, and your dog becomes more susceptible to illnesses.
Alternatives To Bully Sticks
Unfortunately, yes, bully sticks tend to be quite expensive.
There is only a limited supply of bull pizzle which means for those that can not spend too much on dog chew treats, you have to find alternatives. Upon research, we concluded that the second-best chew treat to bully sticks is Greenies.
This chew treat is similar to bully sticks in that they are chewy, but they tend to be cheaper and have customized products for puppies depending on nutritional levels.
However, if you have the financial room to provide your dog with bully stick treats, we recommend that you always take that option before anything else.
Related Questions
Five to ten minutes is the recommended time during which your puppy should be chewing on a bully stick. Any longer than that might cause too much stress in your puppy’s teeth, so be wary!
Most owners like to give puppies a bully stick once every two or three days, but the maximum is once a day. Any more than that, you might end up throwing off the nutritional balance that you should be looking for as a dog owner.
First, take him to the vet. At the same time, you probably don’t have to be too concerned as long as your dog isn’t showing any signs of choking. Since bully sticks are easily digestible, your dog won’t suffer from additional pain due to intestinal blockages.
Yes, they do! Though they only became popularized recently, many vets recommend bully sticks because they eliminate all the risks that had to be taken in previous chew treats like Rawhide treats or pig ear treats.
