eating toys

[Danna]

My 1 1/2 yr. old golden retriever sometimes eats her stuffed toys. She'll eat some or most of the fuzzy "body", rip out all the stuffing and scatter it all over the floor, and eat the squeaker. She mainly does this at night while we're sleeping (I keep a few toys in the bedroom including a nylabone, kong, and stuffed toys). She's not crated at night, usually sleeps on her bed without a peep and hasn't bothered anything else in the room like furniture or shoes. She doesn't seem to have any tummy/intestinal problems as a result, but is it dangerous to let her do this?

[Pam]

Danna my Bella (1 year old standard poodle) does the same thing. She thinks the idea of a stuffed toy is to see how fast she can have the stuffing on the outside. In the beginning I thought she was just unstuffing the toy and not really eating it....until I began to find stuffing material when I was on "pooper scooping" duty. I don't think eating a little now and then is a problem, but honestly I have stopped buying them. She never ate the squeakers fortunately and that's what I would worry about most. For now I keep her well supplied with bones and balls and heavy duty toys and that seems to be enough, but I know she would just love to get her little jaws on a stuffie if she could!

[Danna]

Yes, I was thinking that I'm not going to buy her any new stuffed toys for a while, although she still has quite a supply to run through. I think I will at least remove them from the bedroom and keep them in the family room so I can keep an eye on her when she's "playing" with them.

She has lots of bones, nylabones, and kongs too and can really give them a workout, but every once in a while she just really goes to town on the stuffed ones.

[LoudLou]

Louie has a lot of stuffies. We had to start unstuffing them and re-stuff them with old socks and shirts or towels. Some stuffed animals are filed with Polyester Fiberfill wich has small amounts of Fiberglas in it!! Louie ingested it over his 1st Easter and got sick. $400 later we now watch him carefully when he plays with them.... Thankfully he has never eaten a squeaker.

[Cincy'sMom]

Cincy loves to eat anything and eerything she can get her little paws on...stuffed animals, towels, rocks...doesn't matter!!! She will eat it all...there fore we have to watch her and make sure she has plenty of kongs, balls, etc. Sadie is funny cuz she will tear things apart and not eat them.

[anna_66]

Originally posted by LoudLou
Louie has a lot of stuffies. We had to start unstuffing them and re-stuff them with old socks and shirts or towels. Some stuffed animals are filed with Polyester Fiberfill wich has small amounts of Fiberglas in it!! Louie ingested it over his 1st Easter and got sick. $400 later we now watch him carefully when he plays with them.... Thankfully he has never eaten a squeaker.

Ok Katie, that's a wonderful idea! I think that's what I'll start doing too, I know how those vet bills are, outrageous, but worth every penny for our furbabies!

[Danna]

So far she hasn't shown any interest in the "guts" just the fuzzy outside, but thanks for the info on the polyester/fiberglass. I'll definitely keep a closer eye on her.