ElkUSA is America’s Dog Antler Chew expert. Located in the Central Colorado Rocky Mountains, we are surrounded by both farmed elk and deer, and literally hundreds of wild elk and deer, all these beautiful critters are shedding thousands of pounds of antler each year. Antler is well suited for human health products, decoration or crafting furniture and, of course, making great dog chews.
Antlers come from a genus of herbivore mammals known as cervidea. Only cervids produce antler and they can come in all sizes. From tiny 5 lb. deer in equatorial jungles to giant moose weighing over 1500 pounds found in northern climates. All grow and shed antler every year. Usually only males grow antlers, however the northern-most cervids, caribou and the resultant domesticated reindeer, have antlers on the females as well. Perhaps antlers are radiators that help these furry critters survive the transition from a heavy winter coat into the humid and 24-hour oppressive heat occasionally found on the northern tundra.
Unlike horns (like goat horns) or tusks (elongated teeth), every year antlers are shed and regrown. Generally in the USA, antlers fall off in February thru April and are fully regrown by the fall mating season from August thru December. Antler falls where the animal stands and lies there slowly deteriorating with the weather. Knowing where the animals winter can give you a picker’s advantage.
As such, we sell thousands of pounds of antler chews for dogs every year. Some small amount goes to crafts and decoration, but by far the largest quantity at ElkUSA goes for antler dog chew toys. At our store here in Colorado, every Spring we find our own or buy thousands of pounds of prospective antler chews from antler pickers, and from antler bundlers who scour the mountains and valleys to capture this delightfully renewable resource. Biological surveys suggest that only about 10% to 12% of the available antler “crop” is “harvested every year by these pickers. Are you ready to find your own? Be prepared to hike a lot. The easy pickings are grabbed up by the early pickers on ATVs and 4×4’s hunting shed along the roads and easy trails as soon as the snow melts.
Although the recent antler craze has hit the dog chew market by storm, using antler for dog chews is nothing new. Probably ever since man domesticated the first dog, if antler was around, the dog would have chewed on it. So while cavemen made arrow and spear tips or knives from selected pieces of antler, “gog” the dog probably got the chewy antler scraps. So Dog antler chews are just a natural phenomenon that has been rediscovered by modern man and his faithful companion.
The reason dogs like antler for chews is simple. Dogs are carnivores and need meat and calcium and all the other minerals found in antler. The antler outside is a hardcalcium, phosphorous and magnesium shell found almost exactly in the same ratio and in a bio-available form that active dogs need and crave. As a bonus, the antler core is essentially a high power form of bone marrow (meat) supercharged with red blood cells and super nutrients that promote healing and growth. Antler is in fact, one of the fast growing tissues in the animal kingdom approaching over 50 lbs in large elk or moose bulls in about 100 days of growth. That is faster in poundage than most fetus development.
That fast growth and abundance makes antler for dogs a logical choice for an all-natural, even “organic” treat most dogs naturally go for. No artificial ingredients here. What nature made is what you and your dog get. A great, all-natural dog treat that can’t be beat.
Please feel free to give us a call with your antler questions to ELKUSA at 719-657-0942.
