I have heard a lot of people say that rawhide is bad for dogs. But we have use rawhide a lot for all of our dogs to keep them busy and to keep them chewing on something that is theirs not our furniture etc. We didn't use it much for Oreo our 13 1/2 year old dog and she ate the couch, the chair, pillows, the loveseat, the curtains. Since we got Dazzi almost 2 years ago now and definitely since we got Taggert a year ago, there is always rawhide for them to chew on. On winter evenings it kept the 4 younger dogs busy doing something besides driving me nuts. Now that summer is here we will be taking them to the dog park so they probably won't need as much rawhide. But as far as I am concerned it is great for dogs. Maybe cause it is always available here they don't "overeat" it. They chew awhile and then sleep or go do something else.

Since it is available to them all the time and since none of my dogs are overweight (well, maybe Snoopy by about 5 lbs.) I would say it does not add calories. Maybe all that chewing uses up all the calories they eat. I do notice they drink more water after chewing on a bone for any length of time.