The Good: Daisy loves them, Great for the dental health of rabbits, Inexpensive enough
The Bad: Difficult to attach to the cage/keep attached
The Basics: For the winter holiday, Daisy received a package of Penn-Plax Pumice Chews which she immediately indicated were a preferred treat of hers!
With the holidays behind us, one of the true delights for me is how I get to bring joy to the lives of others. This holiday season, I think I might have only brought real joy to my wife and to Daisy, our pet bunny. With my frequent reviews of products for Myah – our new Siberian Husky – and Gollum – our little black cat – it is pretty easy for my readers to forget we even have a rabbit. And yet, Daisy has been with us over a year now and on Christmas Eve, she was very social with my mother-in-law and my hope is that Daisy has come back alive as a pet. For the past year – since she gave birth to a stillborn last Christmas Day – Daisy has been antisocial and sullen. Yet, I knew my wife and I were spoiling one another, Gollum and Myah, so I made sure to pick Daisy up some holiday treats as well.
The new treat for Daisy was the Penn-Plax Pumice Chews. Honestly, I saw them when I was at the pet store, they were on sale and they were less expensive than the spongy gourd-like luffa treats Daisy likes that I had planned to buy her. I opted for these because they were cheap, looked a lot like the other things Daisy likes and because I recalled that it was Rowe who did not like salt licks (reviewed here!). I figured this might be a happy medium between the luffa treats and a salt lick.
It is a rare thing I get to say in relation to Daisy (or any other pet), but I was right! Daisy immediately went for the Pumice Chew when I put it in her cage, even before she sniffed the block food that she has loved consistently since we picked her up! Before bed on Christmas, I checked in on Daisy and she had about one-fourth of the Chew left, making this an instant hit with her. When I moved the remaining fragment from the floor of her cage to her bowl, she leaped for it immediately and continued eating it!
Penn-Plax sells their Pumice Chews on a blister pack with four chews. Each pack comes with one each of a white, red, orange and yellow chew. The Pumice Chews are hard, rough blocks 3/4” tall and 1 3/4” wide. They are octagonal and have a 7/16” hole through their centers. They smell like apple and strawberry, though any scent from them fades pretty fast. By the second day of having the package open, the scent from the remaining Pumice Chews was virtually imperceptible. Daisy’s first experience was with a white one.
Also on each blister card is a plastic hook that looks like a little claw. The green plastic claw is 1 7/8” long by 1 1/4” wide by 1/2” thick. It has two parts. The front is essentially a pincer and that allows one to clip a single block to the clip through the hole in the center of each Chew. The back end is ribbed to allow one to attach the clip inside a bunny’s cage to allow the rabbit to chew the Chew from a raised position. I quickly discovered that the bars of Daisy’s cage were spread too far apart for this to work. So, I simply clipped the treat to the clip after I had already put the clip through a bar. This worked just fine.
With a Pumice Chew affixed firmly to the clip, sit back and watch your rabbit attack the Pumice Chew! Daisy seemed to gnaw at the Chew exclusively, though the packaging says some rabbits will scratch at it. Either way, this provides dental cleaning for small animals and Daisy was so vigorous with hers that her teeth are very clean, even a day later!
The Pumice Chew is just like a pumice stone one uses on their feet in terms of composition. The small animal gnaws at it and it powerderizes. This leaves a very fine powder at the bottom of the cage that does not seem to harm rabbits at all. However, the process of gnawing this toy/treat apart is often vigorous and this should be used in conjunction with water. Make sure your rabbit has plenty of water whenever you provide them with a Pumice Chew!
The only other note for the Pumice Chews is this: when your rabbit gets though a significant portion of the chew, it will fall off the clip. When that happens, the clip should be removed from the cage, lest your rabbit chew on the clip. While the Pumice Chew is fine for rabbits, the plastic clip can be very bad for a rabbit who gets bored and chews or consumes it. The Pumice Chew need not be attached to anything for the rabbit to enjoy, especially when it gets smaller from the rabbit playing with/eating it. As a result, it should be fine to remove the plastic clip whenever the Pumice Chew is no longer in it.
The Penn-Plax Pumice Chews bought me a second great day with my Daisy, which is a gift after a pretty irksome year with the girl! With the promise of more good days to come, this becomes a very easy product for me to recommend for rabbit owners who have a finicky little friend in their midst!
For other rabbit treats, please visit my reviews of:
Combo Chews
Ware Manufacturing Treat-K-Bob
KT Bermuda Grass
9/10
For other pet product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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