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Old April 1st, 2010, 05:54 PM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2007
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Quote:
what could it possibly taste like?
Depends on the species. All my dogs have liked sumac. Never tried it myself. I have tried Yellow Birch twigs which smell and taste like wintergreen. Nature's own toothbrush and breath freshener. A wounded Sugar Maple may drip sap down the trunk which tastes very mildly sweet in Spring. If the sap drips and freezes you get a sapsicle, a real treat on a hike in the bush.

As to the stick eating, some swallow, some don't. Both my Lab pups ate the whole stick, bark, wood, everything. They grew out of it but we did get little piles of chewed stick barf. Fortunately no injuries. A couple of small pieces got wedged sideways between one's upper teeth and caused her distress till I reached in a pulled them out. I do give current pup a hunk of cherry to chew on sometimes. It's quite a hard wood and he doesn't get very far with it but enjoys the same chewing he'd get with a bone.

I watch to make sure not too much chewed wood goes down the gullet.

Quote:
I stripped the bark off and threw it, only for her to start chewing off, and eating the end of the stick!!!!
Yeah, I was going to say, I'd leave the bark on. Swallowing the bark is going to be less troublesone than swallowing the wood with it's potential to splinter and puncture, I think.
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