Are dehydrated duck/chicken feet safe chew toys?

[jasperngeorgie]

My doodles don’t eat raw yet. But my gal likes the ferret chew sticks. I know they are not heathy but they are one of the few treats that I’ve found she enjoys so I’m trying to find some alternatives that make her happy without compromising her heath.
I have a local pet store that sells untreated, unflavored dehydrated feet and raw hide etc. I’m not sure she would eat them if I gave them to her but I’m wondering if it’s safe to try.
1) because they are technically raw and she eats kibble (I’m still working on my research but as I understand you don’t want to mix the two too close together)
2) if there are any other concerns with a dehydrated foot in terms of digestion. (Can I safely give it to her as is? Should I rehydrate? Will she probably not even eat it if she won’t eat anything but kibble otherwise in her diet right now?)

Thank you!

[Heather]

I don't like dehydrated treats...they're a choking and blockage hazard. It's not something I will risk.
ciao

[peacexlovexpets]

Dehydrated "rawhide" is not considered a raw product, as it has been processed and all bacteria should have been desiccated away during the drying process. Technically, it would be fine to mix it with kibble.

I'm not a fan of dehydrated animal feet/bullysticks/rawhide even with dogs. Since they are the "animal" product, your ferret (or dogs) will see it as an edible treat, not a toy. In dogs at least, this leads to ingestion of large pieces of the rawhide that can cause blockages. I don't see why ferrets would be any different in that respect.

If you want to introduce them to a new meat product, what I have found to work is to cook the meat, dice it up, dehydrate it, and then grind it into a flour (I use a $10 coffee grinder from amazon) and then use that "flour" to coat their current kibbles, in order to get them used to the flavor in a way that they can't eat around. You then can hopefully start the transition to full pieces of meat at that time.