It’s a natural reaction to want to provide for your dog. They are your companion and friend so wanting to give them the best treats and snacks as a reward is common place. But as the saying goes “a little too much of what you like can be bad for you” may also apply to one of the most popular of today’s dog treats.
Bully sticks have long been touted as an all natural snack for your canine friend but recent studies from the University of Tufts suggest that there may be some hidden dangers lurking within this tasty snack.
Are you over feeding your dog?
First up are the number of calories that these seemingly healthy protein sticks contain. Now you have to remember that most dogs don’t need to consume a huge amount of calories each day to stay in shape but the research showed that an average pizzle tested contained between 9 and 22 calories per inch.
How Many Calories?
The average length for a bully stick is six inches (6″) which means that it would contain approximately 90 calories.
Now this may not appear to be a great deal of calories for you or me but for little Fido this could in fact account for up to 30 percent of his daily recommended intake of calories.
It should be noted that the sample range for this survey was quite small and only involved a tiny sample of 26 different types of bully sticks selected from retailers across Canada and the United States.
The same bully sticks were then tested for various contaminates including bacteria and antibiotics. Escherichia coli was found in 27% of the samples among other bacteria in lesser amounts.
Not all of the contaminants found have been known to infect humans and dogs do tend to have a more robust immune system. After all bully sticks are a natural meat product so it wasn’t unexpected that these results would detect some bacteria.
What to Take Away From This Survey
So what did I learn from this survey.
- Everything in moderation. (Don’t feed your dog bully sticks every day)
- Try to select the best quality dog treats and if your pooch becomes sick after eating one then it may be time to try a different brand.
- Always wash your hands after touching a pizzle
- Don’t eat your dogs Bully Sticks
What Surprised Me Most Was ..
One surprising fact to come out of the survey is that many dog owners surveyed did not even know what a bully stick was made from. I’m sure that it’s of no great shock to readers of this site to discover that a Bully Stick is just a dried penis of a bull or steer. But nevertheless some people still find this fact a little repulsive.
Take away what you will from the survey but Bully Sticks are still a very nutritious, digestible and relatively safe treat for your dogs, especially when compared to some of the alternatives such as rawhide.
It always pays to investigate the different types of treats that you feed your dogs and it is worth purchasing the most natural, and by that I mean organic, products that you can.
Your View
What do you think? Do reports like these alter your views on feeding your dog bully sticks?
I normally take these sorts of statistics with a pinch of salt. You have to be sensible about it and take care not to over feed your dog.
As for the bacteria, okay, I can understand that as it’s a meat product but when you see the strange and wonderful things that my dog chews on I’m surprised that he doesn’t get an upset stomach more often.
I’ve fed Oscar bully sticks for years without incident and I don’t think he’d appreciate it if I changed his favorite doggie treat now.
I know what you mean Sarah. I was just reading a news article the other day that said that disease causing bacteria is found on most raw ground turkey and that’s for human consumption. So I’m sure that you have to put claims like these into some sort of perspective.
I’m sure that they’ll be some dog owners that stop feeding bully sticks to their pets when they discover that it’s made from a dried penis. But I know for a fact that my Jack Russel doesn’t give a hoot about that. He just loves the taste.
I have to admit that I didn’t know what a bully stick was before I read about them on this site. A friend of mine recommended them to me and my dog loves them to bits.
I only give them every now and again and my dog gets a lot of exercise so I don’t have a problem using them as a special treat.
Does it bother me now I know what they are made from? Maybe a little. I just make sure that I always clean my hands after.