We went on to the black extreme kongs about a year ago as Ripple was damaging the red ones too often. Definitely think you should wait and see whether you will need them, very much depends on the dog.
Hi My puppy will be with us next month and I am worried about leaving the pup initially as I too work part time. How long do you crate your puppy for? I was thinking crate in a puppy pen but I am not sure which is best. Thanks for any info
Yes. I have had 2 split. Ozzy was only 10 weeks when he ripped open the puppy bone, and 12 with the standard red one. Just bought a stock of extreme black ones today. At 15 weeks he still has all his razor wire gnashers. As I have to bin all packaging from anything due to him in first place I didn't have receipts for first 2. I have kept ones for this batch thanks to your post just in case.
I'm new here and have my first lab. I'm sorry to say that I'm a little surprised by some of the things people put in their kongs. I've never heard of a dog harvesting peanuts or milking a cow to make cheese. They eat meat and a bit of veggies. I make chicken liver or beef liver pate because we get them cheap from our local farmer. free range chickens or grass fed cows. I mix in sweet potato or pumpkin as well. She absolutely loves it! I also dice the cooked liver to make training treats.
I just bought a black extreme Kong for 13 week old Maxx. Our first attempt wasn't a success as he worked at it for about 25 minutes and could only get about 1cm of the frozen food out. He gave up. I realised the stuffing was too dry (chicken and rice) and now have a wet filling freezing (blended the leftover chicken and rice with water and some banana). Will be trying it later today so I will let you know how that goes. I'm thinking the extreme might be too tough for him, despite him being what I think is an 'extreme' chewer. We also freeze food into an empty ice tray - mushed up banana and grated carrot are a good one. We also did chicken and rice (we cooked a lot so tried to use it up!) and that worked too. He paws it around and licks it and we get a few minutes of distraction when we need it.
Hi everyone, so good to see so much info on stuffed kongs. I was feeling a bit bad for giving our boy a stuffed kong every night to help him go off to sleep, but reading the posts on here, it seems that this is an ok thing to do. I do find it a challenge though to get the right consistency/amount of stuff in the kong, as when I first did it with cheese I must have rammed it in so hard that our poor boy could not get any of it out. I have since tried sausages mixed with peanut butter, and tried not to ram it in to hard, but then I was worried he was getting through this too quickly and getting fed up & still not going off to sleep. I do freeze my kongs by the way. I am sure I will get it right soon and I am loving some of the the suggestions for kong fillings too. I was worried about what I could actually put in them as I wanted these to be healthy snacks/treats. So, can I ask, is it ok for my boy to have a stuffed kong every night to aid sleep? Don't want to make my puppy fat or unhealthy?
I think it's totally fine to give a kong at night, as long as you take his overall food intake into consideration. I use some of the kibble allowance from meals mixed into most of my kong recipes, and if not, I reduce how much I feed. Today I know my dog is getting two kongs filled with a mix chicken breast, liver and wet food, so I reduced her breakfast by about 1/4 cup. It also depends on your puppy's weight - my dog was always slim and active and didn't put on weight easily, so I didn't reduce her kibble based on kongs until now, as I can see she has put on a bit of weight. I also try to use healthy stuffing as much as possible - apple, banana, carrot/other veggies, leftover meat, sardines in water, high end wet food, her regular kibble soaked in brother. If I use cheese or peanut butter, I just use a bit to seal the ends (too much peanut butter upsets her tummy).
I like to make my kongs nutritious rather than being junk food, so they are generally soaked kibble with sardine/tuna mixed through, or raw minced meat, or I cook up some veggies and mince and use that. It is simply part of their food allowance for the day so there is no issue with them becoming unhealthy or overweight.
I've been introducing my puppy to kongs a lot recently and have noticed that even when he's got everything out of it, he continues to keep chewing at it/throwing it about. Does this pose a risk of him getting frustrated at not getting anything from it and overall causing the kong to lose its appeal?
Funny, my girl (almost 8 years old) was doing this today too! Doesn't usually bother with it so long. I think there was some residue that she thought was needing eaten. I certainly wouldn't worry about it losing appeal!
just one question regarding filling the kongs with treats frozen and such...does it leave a soggy mess in the crate?
Ripple wouldn't dream of leaving any soggy mess, he cleans it all up and just leaves soggy licked vet bed .
Has anyone ever had success with using stock cubes as part of their kongs? I'm looking for ways to make kongs more interesting for my pup when frozen. He loves his kibble in them when not frozen but it just doesn't last long at all, however when frozen he's not interested until it has thawed out. I currently put in watered kibble with bits of roast chicken through it and thought maybe adding a stock cube might entice him a bit more...
I have used the water from a can of tuna (drain onto kibble and let soak, add some tuna) and it was a hit.
You need to make sure that the peanut butter does not contain artificial sweetener (I can't remember which one - but it's poisonous to dogs). The type with sugar is ok - but not too much, just a bit smeared inside the Kong.
