So I learnt today that my lab doesn't like peanuts or peanut butter..... So I'm looking for an alternative treatments for sealing his kong treat ball preferably something cheap and freezable
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? Yay! I'm not alone! Charlie hates peanut butter. ;D ;D ;D When you think about it though, peanut butter is not a really sensible thing to feed a dog anyway - at least not in the quantities to stuff a kong. Far too much fat. I use Charlie's normal food to stuff kongs. I soak kibble and stuff it in, or block up the hole fill with kibble and water and freeze. I add sardines, treat biscuits etc to liven them up a bit sometimes but mainly just use his kibble.
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? I use a bit of cheese to block up the hole at the bottom of the Kong
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? I put in soaked kibble in the Kong and pop it in a plastic cup in the freezer - it doesn't need sealing
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? I sometimes use a bit of cream cheese (I once made Maisie a kibble, strawberry bits, and cream cheese kong… felt quite fancy!), etc. But I don't tend to use PB in a kong. As Julie says, filling a kong with peanut butter - I shudder to think of the poop that might elicit from my pup. I have a kong "goodie bone" and another rubber toy with hole down the middle, that I smear with a bit of peanut butter at times and freeze. I've done this with soft cheese, cream cheese, pumpkin, etc.
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? Oh, now I see the original question was about blocking up the hole. ;D Well, a lot of stuff I use doesn't need the hole blocking up, but if I do need to block up the hole because I'm using liquids to freeze I use a bulldog clip. I don't feed my dog cheese either (although he absolutely adores it, it is guaranteed to give him runny poo so the tiny amount he does get is saved for difficult training exercises). He recently had some blood tests and his sodium levels were above normal (even though I'm super strict about what he gets to eat) so all processed foods are banned now.
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? I use butter to block up the hole for frozen Kongs. Butter, not margarine.
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? [quote author=Rosie link=topic=10798.msg160846#msg160846 date=1430606725] Banana! [/quote] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCkerYMffMo 8)
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10798.msg161184#msg161184 date=1430807052] [quote author=Rosie link=topic=10798.msg160846#msg160846 date=1430606725] Banana! [/quote] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCkerYMffMo 8) [/quote] ;D
Re: alternatives to peanutbutter? My two love a little tuna and cream cheese paste to fill the hole, then I pop them in the freezer Casper loves banana, but Benson thinks bananas are just too odd to eat..
Have you all noticed your pups getting too attached to those Kongs because they're filled with treats? I was going to buy a few Kong toys but then I read from someone they were worried (or it had happened, can't remember exactly) that their dogs wouldn't like non-Kong or non-stuffed with goodies toys because they were conditioned with the goodies. I didn't buy any Kongs and instead took some old shirts, wore them a few days in a row, and then tied knots in them and my puppy loves them. But I'm thinking how much fun it will be to stuff goodies into a toy...I can live vicariously through my pup since my wife would kill me if I loaded up my own bowl with a Kong sized portion of cheeses or peanut butter :O
Nope, my two have kongs on occasion, not every day, but have other toys that they enjoy playing with just as much. I see kongs as treats, not as toys, and I believe the pups do the same.
That makes more sense to me to view them as treats rather than toys. Thank you. Also, do you recommend the puppy Kongs over the red or black? Could those harder ones do damage to a 12 week pup's teeth? And would you recommend a medium or large Kong for her? She's almost 18 pounds.
At 12 weeks, the medium kongs should be a fine size. There's no real difference between the blue puppy ones and the red adult ones other than the thickness of the rubber, so the puppy ones are a little softer and easier to get the food out of. Mine (9 months) have both blue and red in medium and I find these a good size. I've just bought some large ones for if I need to distract them for longer, but I'd say the medium will be find for a 12-week old pup. Mine don't need the black ones because they're not power chewers, but I wouldn't be worried about her teeth - the "harder" kongs are still made of rubber, so you're not going to have any worries about chipping teeth etc.
I would recommend getting at least two, though. That way, you can have one in the freezer while the other one is out. They don't take a huge amount of food, either, so if you're mashing something up specially, you could have a lot of waste with just one kong to fill.
