Quote:
Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams
Heat treating any kind of bone is a bad idea. It makes them far more likely to splinter, and antlers are a type of bone. Because of this, your boiled antlers are not a good and safe chew for any pet. Even the littlest amount of heat can render bone type material unsafe to chew, for the mentioned reason of splintering.
There is also very little agreement on whether or not antlers are even safe for pet rodents in the first place, and I would lean heavily towards the side of caution even if yours hadn't been heat treated in any way.
You can still use the antlers for art or decorating though, so definitely don't let them go completely to waste. They may not be suited for using as chews especially once heat treated, but antlers can be absolutely beautiful pieces of art!
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Bummer. I wish I hadn't boiled. I found plenty of links regarding making them safe for dogs and the common methods are washing with soapy water or boiling or both. I did put the antler in Yeti's tank last night after I found all the links regarding making them safe for dogs since dogs can't have cooked bones. But I did see some suggest the water / soap method because they worried boiling would make antlers more brittle. I regularly make bone broth and I find the boiled bones are softer and disintegrate after cooking. But that's after 24 to 48 hours of cooking. So that doesn't really eliminate the threat of splintering after a quick boil. Then again, I've seen plenty of antlers/bones in my life on the hundreds of acres that adjoined the property I grew up on. They were often in the sun and bleached from the light/heat and animals had gnawed them. I don't remember seeing splintering but then again, I wasn't looking for it. In any case, Yeti seemed pleased with the arches he could run under but didn't seem interested in chewing the antler. So I'll keep an eye on him. I'm also going to use the antler the squirrels and chipmunks annihilated and see if I can scrape away at it the way a rodent would to see if the scrapes sort of crumble/dust or if they splinter. I have wood working tools somewhere from long ago...thinking one of them would be perfect for a simulation but I have no clue where they are. I was going to just throw that chewed antler back to the squirrels so it would be a great test. In the end, if I find it splinters, I'll just place antler on top of tank as an additional cat deterrent LOL Can never be too safe! And I agree...skulls make great artwork...my husband has a coworker that engraves them and would like some and we'd like to bleach and keep the next one as art in our home. So they definitely won't be wasted if we opt not to keep them in tanks! TY!
