If you have a puppy, you know they chew on everything. Just like human babies, when their teeth are coming in, they are in discomfort and chew as a way to relieve the pain and help their adult teeth break through their gums.
Vets recommend providing your puppy with something that “gives” during this stage. Nothing firm like a bone as it can cause damage to your puppy’s forming teeth. Be prepared for constantly redirecting your puppy from things like chair legs, socks, and other pieces of furniture. This constant chewing stage will last approximately 5 months, depending on the size of your dog. Most puppies have their full set of adult teeth by the time they are 8 months. Think of it as your puppy experiencing the world with their teeth, just as a human child uses their hands.
In the past I wrote an article about what to give puppies to chew on. This article goes into further detail about a specific product that I give to my furniture wrecker, Mollie, a miniature schnauzer.
When Mollie (pictured below) was 8 months old and had destroyed my husband’s desk chair, we had her enrolled at Petco’s Puppy Training school. There they recommended N-Bone Teething Rings. These are simply teething rings for puppies.
N-Bone is a brand under NPICpets which is based out of Texas. At first I was concerned because NPIC stands for Natural Polymer International Corp. However, after reviewing the website, their mission, vision, and philosophy resonated with me so I thought I would give them a try. They are the perfect size for a puppy’s mouth and are offered in two different flavors – chicken or pumpkin. I tried the pumpkin flavor. It smells like cinnamon and looks like a pressed rawhide bracelet at first glance.
Rawhide is a BIG no so I double-checked the ingredients to verify it wasn’t. Its ingredients are listed as rice flour, gelatin, vegetable glycerin, water, oat hulls, calcium carbonate, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, cranberries, natural pumpkin flavor, brewers yeast, cinnamon, fennel, algae meal, and Tumeric. Citric acid is used as a preservative. I would prefer to know exactly what vegetable their glycerin is made out of and I’m sure with further digging I could find out (or I could call them). None of the ingredients concerned me so it passed the test.
Mollie took to them right away although it takes her a bit to figure out how to hold it steady. I try not to let her chew the teething rings on carpeted areas but she has and it leaves virtually no residue or area to be cleaned. It passed the clean test. Really the only messy part was my dog’s beard. Which comes with the territory of owning a schnauzer.
I’ve continued giving these to Mollie, however now she chews them in half within thirty minutes. With any object being chewed on, I suggest supervising to make sure your pooch isn’t chewing off more than they can handle.
Frequently Ask Questions
Q: What are the N-Bones made of?
A: Dried potatoes, vegetable glycerin, water, chicken, natural chicken flavor, calcium carbonate, cranberries, citric acid (a preservative), brewers dried yeast, cinnamon fennel, fish oil (source of DHA), turmeric.
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Q: Where are N-Bones made?
A: Made in the USA with globally-sourced ingredients.
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Q: Whats the preservative in this product?
A: Citric acid.
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Q: Are these digestible?
A: Yes.
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