I am going to try moistening her food and putting it in the Kong. I know this sounds dumb, but where do I get sardines.... I am assuming these are not the ones that come out of a can?
Right now, what works with Ted is Kongs stuffed with a mixture of Greek yoghurt, banana and salt-free peanut butter. I'm a bit wary of giving him some of the popular brand peanut butters I've seen being used online. Full of salt and sugar. Peanut butter is quite high in calories, so his daily kibble and treat allowance is reduced so he doesn't get fat! He's now 10kg at 13 weeks.
What size Kong do you give him? Enzo still got a medium one, I've only ever put his standard food in there, maybe I should try mixing it up. Do you freeze your mix ?
Be careful with peanut butter that it doesn't contain any xylitol, which is very toxic to dogs. Mine very rarely have PB, but the brand I use at home is Meridian, which has no added salt, sugar or oil. It's just ground peanuts, nothing else. Apologies, @peej, I know I'm rather late replying, but hopefully this will help someone else if not you! Yes, we're talking about tinned sardines. You can also feed your dog raw sardines, either from the fish counter or frozen raw. My two dogs adore them! But tinned are easier in kongs
Oh, and my two had the medium kongs when they were puppies. I upgraded to large when they were bigger (9 months, I think), but we still use the medium ones, too. My two took to frozen kongs very quickly, but some pups take a bit longer to figure out the frozen thing! You should try it and see. The worst that can happen is he waits for it to defrost! My two did this a bit for a while, but now they slurp away until it's empty
The medium Kong works well with Ted. I freeze the mix I mentioned above and fill the two Kongs as well as a Kong that looks like a three pronged star (don't know what it's called) The go in his crate with him at bed time and he's quiet all night (a relief after our early experience with him).
Some great ideas here for Kong fillers! When soaking kibble do you just do so til mushy? Also would tinned salmon be fine along with tuna and sardines?
I soak kibble for a couple of hours until all the liquid is soaked up and the kibble is puffy. I use tuna, sardines and salmon (only those packed in water - not oil or flavoured).
They're a very different beast. They're hard plastic, not chewable. The one I had was too big for my puppy to get in her mouth. She just batted it around the room. When I brought Shadow home, it was clear it wouldn't work with two puppies, so I gave it away. Which was a relief because - THE NOISE! If you're precious about skirting boards, then it's probably not for you. If you have furniture the kibble can fly under that the dog will then dig at, then it's not for you, unless you can put it in a room where that won't happen. But the dogs certainly do love them
At what age do you switch up to the next size Kong? Right now we have the smallest one for our 4 month old puppy. I have the extra large from our last dog and I know that's definitely too big for him. When does the medium come into play? Right now the Kong just frustrates the living daylights out of him and I'm wondering if it's too small. I haven't tried frozen food in it yet but I will now! I was just putting treats in it and if that treat doesn't fall out immediately, he would get mad and basically throw it at me. Then bark. He's barking a lot lately but that's a post for another thread.
My puppy was on medium from the start and large by about 16 weeks. I still use both sizes. Soak some dry food, or use raw mince to stuff it, and it should keep him busy for a while. Get him used to this before you start to freeze it.
Thank you. I'll head out and get a larger one today. He definitely seems frustrated with the smaller one and I thought it was just because he didn't want to work for the treat. Maybe he really can't reach into it any more.
Peanut butter is ok as long as you use a brand without Xylitol in the ingredients. Look for a natural brand or research the brands ingredients first. My pups love it. And Thanks so much Fwhitt246 for the recipe ideas!
It's also incredibly high in calories, so don't fill the whole thing! Just a smear on the inside will do.
I have bought kongs for the first time and got some kong snacks to go in them. The girls went for them straight away but couldn't get the snacks out. Most disappointing. What would be a good filler for dogs new to kongs? They have quite a varied diet so I am happy to try various things in them. Any help would be appreciated.
Has anybody tried out the Kong extreme by any chance? Sorry if this has already been mentioned earlier on. I saw them today when I was shopping for my puppy who I get in three weeks time I bought the blue puppy Kong but I saw a black version which was labelled “Extreme” meant to be extra durable, for tough experienced chewers!! So ideal for labs really. Anyone used them? Reviews? Thanks in advance Emma
I've not tried them and would suggest a "wait and see" strategy with your own pup. My lot are what I would call "average chewers", certainly not power chewers, but still have a couple of puppy kongs from three years ago - the softest rubber of the lot. Extreme would be unnecessary for us, and they're more expensive so see how you get on with the puppy ones, then the red ones when pup is a bit bigger.
