4x2 Dog Biscuits

[chuckie500]

I was reading another post and someone suggested 4x2 dog biscuits. Haas any one tried them? What are the main ingredients? I was thinking of using them for my little ones to chew on to keep them busy for a few minutes. Are they very digestible as I am paranoid about obstructions as one of mine tends to gulp food down so I don't give him bones.

[alpha bet]

Not sure if its the same but what I know about 4 x 2 biscuits - these are the old fashioned style of biscuit that was developed for working dogs. They were easy for the stockman to have in his saddlebag and use for his herding dogs.

Initially made by 'Farrells' - (but I think the company name may have changed). The name came from the fact that the biscuit is 4 inches x 2 inches - they were also called Farrells Dog Biscuits.

Available thru most feed stores. They are pretty good substitute for bones as the dogs sit down and give them a good chew and then easily swallow. I think they might have preservatives.

[OSoSwift]

Have used them quite a lot in the past, but due to the difficulty in a consistant source down have have kind of given up!

There is not a lot of different ingredients in them and I cannot remember about preservatives, but my Dobes and Staffy loved them.

They also came in 2 X 1 Biscuits as well.

ETA yes they are digestable, like a quite hard Biscuit

Edited December 19, 2009 by Rommi n Lewis

[Jsk]

Ok ingredients are:

Wholegrain cereal and cereal byproducts, meat and meat byproducts (derived from beef and / or lamb and /or chicken) tallow, dicalcium phosphate, garlic powder, salt, natural flavouring, emulsifier, natural colour, preservatives and antioxidants.

I give them to my show dogs and my parents gave them to the racing greys.

[Get Whippet]

The ones I use are made by "Best Care" - I use the 2 x 2, however, the also make the 4 x 2s.

Straight from the box (2x2), Ingredients:

wholegrain cereal and cereal by-products, meat and meat byproducts (derived from beef and/or lamb and/or chicken), tallow, dicalcium phosphate, garlic powder, salt natural flavouring, emulsifier, natural colour, preservatives and antioxidants.

Crude protein 12%

Crude fibre 5%

Crude fat 3% min

Salt 1%

metabolic Energy 76kcal per 25g biscuits

I only use them as a treat, and my guys love them - whippets and pug man. They thoroughly chew them and have no problems with digestion etc, even Pig (the pug) chews them down albeit a bit slower than the others.

[Nekhbet]

I tried them for a bit, two of my dogs ended up with terrible skin and my dogue's hair fell out

They're cheap and can keep dogs going. If your dog has skin allergies or wheat sensitivities I'd steer clear of them

[Staff'n'Toller]

I think Nekhbet was using them in larger amounts as the carbohydrate staple with raw meaty bones.

My three have one morning and night, I use 2 x 2's, they love them. They are pretty tough I can't break a 4 x 2 with my hands so they tend to have to chew them well to get them down. Their main diet is super premium dry so I haven't noticed any coat or skin problems.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Staff'n'Toller

[chuckie500]

Thanks for all the speedie replies. I might go see tomorrow what I can get. I only want to use it as a chew treat, maybe one every other day to help keep the teeth clean and as a treat. One of mine has had allergies I suspect so i'll just have to see if this make sit worse or not. At the moment they use an dentastix or dentabone, but they are not hard at all and last 20 seconds. I guess they are made of cereals too and he hasn't reacted to that.

[Rysup]

I use them as treats, always have a box of them here, though I use the 2x2's as I have some smaller dogs.

[Nekhbet]

I only gave them 2-3 a day and they're 48kg and 60kg dogs. I think it might have been a preservative in there that is not labelled or the quality of the ingredients I dont know.

I would give one biscuit and wait a week to see if anything pops up, if it does antihistamine.

Now for treats and chews we just get butchers scraps or there is a bloke at the market that smokes his own animal bits a whole pigs tail smoked and no preservatives is $1.75! Whole beef brisket is $3

[Starkehre]

Our large breeds adults have 1 2x2 (half size of the 2x4 Box 1) every morning as their breakfast. I predominantly feed once per day, but like them to have a small something in their tummy in the morning. Cheap, easy, they enjoy it, hard to crunch and after using these for about 7 years, my dogs have never had any adverse affects.

They enjoy their morning bickie, sort of a ritual at our place. Mind you it is gone within seconds

Edited December 19, 2009 by dyzney

[Ceilidh]

Yep, a ritual here too, god help you if you don't have the bag of bickies in your pocket when you finish the morning duties Mine have a 2x2 (Box 1) EVERY morning and again at night after tea.

[laneka]

I too use 2x2's. My dogs love them. They get two or three per day. Never had a bad reaction from them.

[persephone]

chuckie- your dog cannot gulp bones if they are big enough!

tends to gulp food down so I don't give him bones.

They cannot gulp bones- they must chew them- that's the beauty of it

A chicken carcass/rootail /large piece of brisket will force him to chew!

[benshiva]

My dogs LOVE them. They get one a day and think it's fantastic. Even the babies like to chew on them

[Bisart Dobes]

I have probably the fussiest dog in the world - Darred - love him to bits but if he deems something unedible he won't touch it - luckily his mother is a 'goat' (will eat everything ).

I posted a while ago for help to get the weight on him to show him and someone suggested the 4 x 2 biscuits - we had used them as treats years ago but stopped due to having dogs on totally natural diet. Well the fussy boy loves them and on top of his normal intake of food he gets 4 everymorning - he will eat 3 1/2 to 4 of them and that top up is keeping the weight on him.

No adverse reactions here either - the others get them on occasion, except for our girl who was baited about 2 yrs ago now, she's recovered now but I still won't feed her any wheat based products.

[dianed]

My dogs have them every morning and funnily enough they always grab one and take to bed with them at night. The Dogpro 4x2,s ingredients say no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives? Whatever my dogs just love them and prefer them to dry bits.

[Cala]

One a day here.......... keeps everyone happy!

[wagsalot]

We send a free one out with most of our orders (the bestcare ones) and have only had positive feedback.

[Staff'n'Toller]

chuckie- your dog cannot gulp bones if they are big enough!

tends to gulp food down so I don't give him bones.

They cannot gulp bones- they must chew them- that's the beauty of it

A chicken carcass/rootail /large piece of brisket will force him to chew!

If your dog does not chew them adequately then yes they do gulp them down. Having just watched my boss spend an hour trying to get a whole chop out of a Boxer using an endoscope recently, I can tell you it happens quite a lot. Just PM Dr Charles Kuntz and ask him how many surgeries he does to take large bones out of dogs throats complete with days in hospital and stomach feeding tubes surgically inserted!!

My Stafford isn't fed bones because she is so over the top about them it's a constant bite; bite; swallow; bite; bite; swallow until it's down....and generally it doesn't stay there. You can feed large bones but if they only do a minimum of chewing you end up with huge shards in the stomach and that causes it's own set of problems!!