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Himalayan dog chews are supposedly a good, long lasting dog chew and treat. The dog chew is made up of dried yak and cow cheese. It's a really hard and dense dog chew that is very difficult to break. The purpose of the chew is for your dog to spend a lot of time gnawing and softening it so that small pieces can be scrapped off and consumed. This keeps your dog occupied for some time so that they aren't bored if left by themselves a long period of time.
I gave one to Waffles recently but he showed no interest to it until I tried giving it to his brother. Waffles probably didn't know what it was as we rarely give him such hard objects to eat/play with. We give him a marrow in bone sometimes but take the bone away once we see him chewing it. Once his brother became interested in the dog chew, Waffles was also interested and got quite possessive over it. Surprisingly, Waffles really liked the chew after gnawing at it for 10-15 minutes. He didn't make much progress at all but I think the flavors were tasty. Waffles spent the next day working on the chew and actually ate over half it. I didn't witness him chewing it but I know it's not an easy feat for him to make so much progress. He was really occupied working on that dog chew. We still have the remaining dog chew and Waffles has not expressed interest in it again. Maybe he knows it's too much work with very little reward? What's left is an end chunk of yak cheese. There are instructions on the package that say you can microwave the remaining end piece and feed it to your dog. I haven't tried it yet.
Fortunately, Waffles did not have any bathroom issues after consuming so much of the dog chew. Usually we notice slight changes to his poop when his diet is different but this was not the case. We also didn't notice if the dog chew was overly salty as Waffles didn't drink all his water. So, I'm concluding that the Himalayan dog chew is safe to eat and is a great "toy" that keeps Waffles occupied. Would I buy these again? Waffles' personality is more of a squishy stuffed animal chewer/crunch down on milk bones and lick up the bits and pieces. He doesn't seem to enjoy spending a lot of time with his food. I probably won't buy these again because he doesn't show interest or get excited when we give these to him. He would much rather have a soft treat or milk bone.
The brand we used was Himalayan Dog Chew. There are other brands such as Himalayan Yak Dog Chew or Himalayan Chews. I've heard the other brands are not as great as these products easily breaks into small pieces and defeats the purpose of a long lasting chew. I would recommend purchasing the Himalayan Dog Chew brand to ensure quality and effectiveness. These are also pricey and while purchasing online can be a better deal than buying from a retail store, sometimes the retail stores (ie, PetSmart) will have them on sale for half the price! Happy shopping.