Bully Sticks for Dogs

Bully sticks are dried bull pizzle, the plain old name for a bull's penis, and thickness tells you more about how long a stick will last than length does. The rest of buying one is reading the listing for weight, deciding how much smell you will live with, and knowing when the stick is done.

What a bully stick is made of

A bully stick is one organ, dried. The pizzle is a long, tough, muscular tube, and makers trim it, hang or rack it, and dry it into a stick that is dense all the way through. A plain stick's ingredient list is usually a single word, beef, and the supplier listing is where you confirm that for the stick you are buying. Shapes vary: straight sticks, braids, twists, springs and cut rings. The shape changes how a stick sits in a dog's mouth and how it wears down, not what it is made of.

Some sticks are flavored or coated, and then the list grows. Read it the way you would read a food label.

Treat length and thickness as two facts about one object, and add a third before you buy: how many sticks come in the pack. Some listings sell one stick and others a bundle, and the weight on the listing is what lets you compare them fairly.

Thickness, length and weight

Length is the number on the bag, so it gets the attention. Thickness does the work. A stick as thin as a pencil and a stick as wide as a thumb can share a length and still differ a great deal in weight, and in how many afternoons they last. A short thick stick can outweigh a long thin one.

Supplier listings give length in inches and often add a thickness grade or a weight. Use all of them, and put weight first when the listing gives it.

Then measure against the dog, not the chart. Hold the stick beside your dog's muzzle. It should be clearly longer than the muzzle so it cannot disappear into the mouth, and thick enough that the dog needs a paw to hold it still while it works from the side. A stick that vanishes in three bites was the wrong size, whatever the chart said.

Here is a habit worth the thirty seconds. Weigh a stick on a kitchen scale the day you open it, and weigh what is left when you retire it. The difference is what your dog actually got through, and it tells you which weight to buy next time better than any chart.

Odor and how it is reduced

Dried animal muscle has a smell, and a bully stick keeps a good share of it. The smell is the stick's biggest practical problem, and it is the reason low odor sticks sit on the shelf beside the standard ones. Makers who sell them describe their own methods on the listing, and the claim is theirs, so read how the page puts it before you buy. The trade off is plain: low odor sticks tend to cost more.

Low odor is not no odor. Expect a stick to announce itself the minute it leaves the bag, and expect it to smell strongest once it is wet from chewing. A porch, a tile floor or an old towel under it keeps the carpet out of the arrangement.

Open the first bag outdoors, or at least beside an open window, so you know what you are dealing with before the stick is on the living room floor. A zip bag or a lidded jar keeps the rest of the supply from scenting the cupboard.

Holding the end: when to take it away

Every stick ends the same way, as a short stub a dog could swallow. The rule has nothing to do with a clock. Once the piece that is left is short enough to go down whole, take it away. Trade the stub for a small treat and most dogs hand it over without a fuss.

Some people use a holder, a small ring or cup that grips the last piece so the dog can keep working a stub that would otherwise have to go in the bin. A holder buys a few more chews; it does not change the rule.

The raw feeding notice on this site covers bully sticks as it covers every chew. Choose a size and texture that suits your animal and watch it while it eats, since a chew can break into pieces and become a choking hazard. So stay in the room.

A long chew is also food. The notice reminds you that treats are not meant to replace regular food, so count a thick stick as part of the day's treats.

Storing a half chewed stick

A chewed stick is damp. Lay it on a rack or a plate for a few hours before it goes back into anything, then keep it in a dry spot in a bag or jar with a loose lid, away from the radiator. Wash your hands after handling any chew, as the notice asks, and wipe the spot where the stick was chewed.

A stick that has been chewed to a ragged, thin shape should go. A stub, a splinter or a soft patch: any of the three means retire it, whatever is left on the scale.

Sniff and Shift does not make bully sticks. Its Air Dried Chicken Feet are the house chew: air dried in small batches in Malvern, with chicken from New York, and a foot instead of a stick. For a dog that goes through sticks quickly, our guide to dog chews for aggressive chewers covers sizing up, and the yak chews for dogs guide covers the other long lasting option. The full range is in bully sticks, and the raw feeding notice is worth a read before the first one.

Common questions

Are bully sticks all beef?

A plain bully stick is dried bull pizzle, so the ingredient is beef, and the supplier listing is where you confirm it. Flavored or coated sticks add ingredients, which the listing names. Read the list for the stick in your cart.

How long does a bully stick last?

It depends on the dog and the thickness. A thin stick can be gone in one sitting for a strong chewer, while a thick one can be worked at for days. The weight and thickness on the listing are better guides than the length alone.

Why do bully sticks smell so strong?

They are dried animal muscle, and the smell comes with the raw material. Low odor sticks are made differently and tend to cost more, though low odor is not the same as no odor. Give the stick to the dog on a porch or a tile floor if the smell bothers you.

Does a bully stick holder help?

A holder is optional. It lets a dog work a stick down to a short stub that you would otherwise take away. Match the holder to the stick's thickness, and keep watching the dog while it chews.