SmartBones sent me product and a gift card. All opinions are my own.
In the 3+ years that I’ve had my two dogs, I’ve bought one pack of rawhide. I bought it in the first month after I got the dogs. I noticed on the very first chew that my dog Frank would soften the rawhide roll until it became this flat gooey mess, roughly the size of my palm. Then he would try to swallow that piece whole! It was too large so he would gag on it and then try swallowing again. It was gross and it just didn’t seem quite right to me.
I came across a blog post discussing how dogs don’t digest rawhide very well. As a result, if dogs swallow a large piece of rawhide it can cause a blockage in their digestive tract. She talked about how there are alternatives to rawhide that are much easier for dogs to digest. I never bought rawhide again.
I recently discovered a new brand that makes a dog chews and treats that contain no rawhide. I’ve been really impressed with the products that my pugs have tried so far.
SmartBones Stuffed Twistz in Vegetable & Chicken variety are made of pork (but no porkhide!), sweet potatoes, peas and carrots. These twistz are around 5 inches long. These last my male dog about 15 minutes, and my female dog about 25 minutes. They eat them a small piece at a time, so there was no large leftover soggy piece like my male dog would get with rawhide. I feel much better about how these were consumed by my dogs.
I was also really impressed with SmartBones Smart Chews. We have tried a couple types of green-colored chews that are designed to help remove build up from dogs teeth. Our past experiences involved both dogs eating the entire chew in less than 20 seconds. They didn’t make a choking or gagging noise, but it bothered me that these were supposed to be long-lasting chews that help clean the teeth when they barely seemed to chew on them at all! SmartBones Smart Chews remind me of those dental chews because they have a unique shape with bumps designed to rub up against your dogs teeth as they chew. However, these lasted my dogs much longer than other brands of dental chews, I would say 5 minutes for my male dog and 10 minutes for my female dog. These look red, brown/tan and green but they do not use artificial coloring!
SmartBones makes several other forms of dog chews, as well as treats such as Beef SmartNaturals Treats. My dogs are not picky when it comes to treats but they loved these. I love how they have a really short ingredient list and the items on it are things like beef, lamb, sweet potatoes, etc.
I will definitely be purchasing from the SmartBones brand in the future. I am happy with how long they last considering the healthy and safe ingredients. I also feel like the price is really reasonable compared to many other rawhide-free long lasting chews.
Win it: A variety of SmartBones chews for your dog plus a $25 Visa gift card!
To enter: Fill out the Giveaway Tools form below by 11:59pm EST on 12/3/2016. This giveaway is open to the US.
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Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
This post currently has 7 responses.
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Dan Dykstra
BUTCHER’S CUT INNOVATIVE CHEWS. Chewing Helps Maintain Healthy Teeth & Gums and my “grand dog needs some help with her bad breath!
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My favorite is the Sweet Potato. I could really sink my teeth into those. I mean, my dog. Because he’s a good boy! That’s right. They do sound yummy though.
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kim hardy
Smart bones with peanut butter!! My dogs would LOVE!!!
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Deb E
My dog used to throw up rawhide so these would be a great alternative.
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Karinne W.
I bought this product for my dog and discovered that it is now being made in Vietnam. How do we know if it isn’t contaminated with residue from all of the Agent Orange that was dropped on that country decades ago? I’ve heard that Agent Orange still causes birth defects in people and animals in that country. This is a real concern, if we don’t how the SmartBones are being made over there. Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you.
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Hi Karinne,
I don’t know too much about it personally but I was able to find the company’s stance on it on their website. It reads
“Our products are manufactured in China & Vietnam. These countries are sometimes wrongly criticized for inferior products. Our factories use only premium ingredients and strict FDA standards to assure our products meet extreme quality control levels. Millions of dogs all over the world enjoy SmartBones – and our products have never been recalled by the FDA.”
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I think my dogs would love the BUTCHER’S CUT INNOVATIVE CHEWS!