I'd be very concerned about the dog toys breaking apart and causing the dog harm.
I think non-used prototypes would be fine, but nothing that would actually go near the dog
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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Yeah, it's not the material, it's the chewed off bits that I would be worried about. It would help you prototype something, then make a mold that you can use.
For my dog though, if it doesn't squeak, it doesn't exist.
Good point on the mold.
I see your point about parts breaking apart being a concern.
How familiar are you with TPU? It’s quite durable and robust. It’s a plastic currently used in many dog toys. Between that and Part of me feels like TPU being a soft plastic that would minimize risk.
TPU prints are very robust for FDM prints, but dog toys need to be solid objects. Even a small dog will tear apart a printed toy. Layer adhesion is no match for dog teeth.
Printing a mold and then casting the toy would give much better results.
Pretty familiar, I also use it for prototyping. It's an awesome material, but FDM is no match for a dogs teeth.
I wouldn't want to take the risk, peraonally, but I guess it comes down to your level of risk tolerance and if you're absolutely confident it won't harm your pet
TPU is a great choice for dog toys and a lot of them are manufactured from it! It doesn’t provide a good environment for bacteria to grow and is also used in medical equipment.
https://www.petinterest.gr/en/content/tpu-material-what-it
You’ll want to make sure that the toy is big enough for your dog and I think I’d use enough infill and walls to make it extra strong since puppers can have crazy strong jaws.
I tend to agree with you on most points.
However, some other people have taken a more cautious approach. I think currently the censuses is leaning toward, best not to.
Would you give a 3D printed toy to a human baby? Dogs are like small children, they rely on us for a lot and we're responsible for their safety. I think an overabundance of caution about any homemade toy is a good place to start.
My biggest concern would be it breaking apart in unpredictable ways so that something gets lodged in an esophagus or worse in the digestive system. If you can't monitor your dog 100% of the time they have it, then I would not consider printing a toy.
While TPU is used for dog toys, it's also certainly injection molded. There are no layer lines and no unknown additives in the plastic that is used. 3D printing filaments have no standard of composition or disclosure of what is actually in a roll of filament. The materials used for dog toys from reputable companies are tested for safety.
AI response for the heck of it.
TPU pretty completely bonds between layers, there's not the same risks associated with pla and petg. Printing TPU can be a bit of a hassle so if you're using it to prototype make sure you tune your profile for TPU. I think it's a great idea.