My Basenji, 16 weeks, just looooves stuffed animals, especially big ones AND sticking his nose in it and extract all the stuffing inside. He seem to really enjoy this part a lot. I was wondering, since they are hunters, maybe that what they would do in Africa: hunt a pray (bigger than them usually) and once they open their bellies, grab the stuff from the inside of the animal… I know that sounds disgusting but I think I saw some documentary on the animals in Africa and I saw them having the same behavior...anybody noticed that with their Basenji too?
In a word…yes 
We have a couple lying around from the litter from this year that have survived, amazingly!
Favorite pass time of any Basenji… unstuff the stuffed toys.. I have lots of "coverings" with no stuffing... they play with them just as well.... and they make great toys for baby puppies .... the baby pups loved playing with them and they were so easy to just pop in the washer...
My prior basenji would do the same, she also had a thing for foam filled pillows…thankfully she never did any damage to the couch.
Yes! Fiji has no real interest in any other toys, but she does like digging the stuffing out of plush toys. Then she licks their wounds, and has more fun tossing around the hollow cloth.
I can't tell you how sick I am of cleaning up a trail of stuffing strewn from one end of my house to the other! Once there is even the smallest hole in the toy it's a gonner! They still love to play with the destroyed limp shell though. I think it's part of the basenji creed. If it is stuffed it must be unstuffed, and the more expensive the toy the better!
Sahara has lots of stuffed toys, she has never destuffed a toy, but one did get a hole from her running after it and her teeth breakng the threads, I have it in my closet to resew. Well, the other day I opened the door to my closet and she got that toy and destuffed the heck out of it. Funny Basenji and I thought she was different, NOT!!!!!
Always….when our Twister was young he watched our older basenji, Hunter, destuff a toy. He then joined in and now there is not a safe stuffie in the house. :rolleyes:
Mine are very selective about which toys get gutted and which do not. We have many stuffies that are barely even touched and then others that are completely unstuffed. The fuzzier the toy the better.
Rocco hasn't shown much intrest in unstuffing yet. He's all about the tags that expain how to clean and care for them. Tags on his beding, blanket, our clothes!
Yes,… OJ is the tag "Thief"... totally..
Kit doesn't show much interest in stuffed animals but paper towels on the other hand…
Oh yea does Zaire love to rip out the insides of the stuffed toys. But Charlie does the same thing. I took to just buying bear skins from the build a bear store here. So lucky for me when she showed up I was already prepared for it.
My kids have tons of stuffed animals…they wouldn't survive if Nala was a puppy, but she really only grabs one (playfully) to get our attention. When I read about lots of other Bs, I am truly amazed that there isn't any "carnage"....
Apache and Chey don't unstuff unless Marlowe starts on a toy, which he does ALL the time. If they can, they'll take it from him and have a field day. They're favorite toys all seem to be the unstuffed ones.
Dallas will chew his & shake them around like he's tearing apart a live animal, but there has only been one that he has actually unstuffed. He has put a couple holes in a few of them but hasn't pulled out the stuffing. I think he likes them intact…or maybe he just hasn't gotten to the destuffing phase yet. LOL
Is this what you mean by pulling all the stuffing out …
Okay I'm still having problems including pictures in my reply here's the link to the picture I tried to insert …
http://www.basenjiforums.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1856/ppuser/790
I am always cleaning up "guts" from Squiggys "kills". If the hole is small enough still, I stuff the guts back in.
I buy his toys at the dollar store and refuse to purchase the neat cute ones at the petstores anymore.
He also has a few gutted shells that he plays with, so I keep them, but usually I toss them after he tears them up so much.
Ours do it too, even the new puppy (heck she is worse than the others really). THey also love the toys that have the velcro puch that you can put the squeaker pouch in. That allows them to get the insides out over and over. It is almost like it bothers them that you put the thing back and they will not stop until it is empty. We also have lots of empty animal husks all over the house.
