Healthy treats and chews for dogs?

[Fl0w3ryard857473]

Our vet is pretty disparaging of treats for dogs saying most are full of rubbish. So which are healthy or the most healthy? Currently give our dog yakkers, Beco and Lily’s Kitchen treats but aware there are many others out there which may be just as good or maybe the above are no different to all the rest.

Have read rawhide isn’t great then wonder about the dried animal bits you see and what is in things like hooves.

So advice please as would like to keep our dog as healthy as we can.

Rabbit ears with fur on make excellent wormers as well as a treat

Frozen carrots/cucumber. Fish skins and pieces from Sea Treats or Fish4Dogs

Rawhide is incredibly dangerous for dogs - it should be illegal IMO.

You want natural treats - air-dried if possible, and absolutely no cooked bones. Some (like pigs ears and pizzles) are quite high in fat but very tasty, others are lower in fat so you need to make sure you don't give too many of the higher fat ones, and obviously adjust their meals accordingly.

I would look at things like: beef trachea, cows ears, venison legs, pizzles, ostrich braids, ostrich bones, pig snouts, cows hooves (smelly!), moon bones, beef tendons, buffalo skins, camel skins and anything hairy - rabbit skins/ears, for example.

Avoid rawhide

Go on jr pet products...single ingredient treats on there would be best. Avoid cheap treats, full of rubbish

Rabbits ears
pigs ear
beef scalp
calmel scalp

Hairy rabbit / cow ears either dried or frozen

Frozen sprats/ smelt

Frozen Chicken / duck / goose feet

Pigs trotters

Poultry necks

Meaty rib bones

Ram horns, these can also be stuffed like a natural version of a kong but they make great chews and last my boxers at least a month!

Find any raw food stockist near you, they should have freezers full of raw snacks to try out

Carrots!

Sprats.

There are a few bakeries around too, I know the woman who has this one and she definitely uses human grade ingredients- we could eat her stuff (and a friend has tried a pup cake, said it was tasty 🤣) my dog used to go nuts for her stuff which I would buy as she lists her ingredients and he had allergies

www.millieandrubysdogbakery.co.uk/

Cabbage heart..
Raw carrot.
Brocoli stalks.
Not raw pumpkin for older ddog with dodgy teeth im costly e..
£800!!

Treats are great for satisfying natural behaviours like chewing, giving a point of interest, cleaning teeth and giving additional nutrients depending on what you pick

so you can get fish skins which are a great source of omega 3 (only give in the garden they stink)
collagen sticks ( it’s collagen great)
chickens feet (good for joint health)
etc so partly what you choose depends on what you want for your dog. I’ll rarely give chicken feet for example because they last mine 30 seconds- but a little dog will take a while

natural Cornish pet or jr pet products are good places to start and buy a range- or many local pet shops sell individually and you can do pic and mix bags (your Jollyes and pets at home are shit for natural treats)

pizzles, rolled skin (different to rawhide) and tendons are my go to

Sprats chopped into half inch lengths as recall rewards.
Marrow bone stuffed with cheese.
Peanut butter on a Lickimat (Lidl do it 100% nuts).

Our vet said Dentastix are the worst for being full of rubbish.

We give our pup frozen vegetables or things like chicken feet and rabbits ears. He also has deer sticks as an alternative to dentastix, for longer lasting treats he loves dried deer skin or buffalo tail.

We are lucky that we have an excellent raw feed store need us that stocks this kind of thing but there are lots of websites that do snack boxes filled with dried animal products, I’m thinking about ordering one of these to try new things for him.

Lily's Kitchen is now owned by Nestle so expect the ingredients to change if they've not already.

We buy a lot of natural air-dried chews, typically from Dragonfly Products. Some higher fat, some lower, some long lasting, some more "quick wins" - favourites with TerrorPup are pizzles (JR Products do odourless ones if needed!), buffalo ears, furry rabbit ears, beef scalp and anything fishy. Be warned fish ones tend to leave a trail of fish scales. She also LOVES beef lung, it absolutely reeks.

Treat wise we buy from a reasonably local lady we met through a breed group (Brian Recommends) and buy the sausages or liver. The sausages in particular we like as can be cut smaller. These are her high value, we then mix with chopped lower value JR Pate (we chop loads at once and freeze in small boxes). Occasionally we add in some tiny cubes of cheese or roast chicken. We always have a bag or two of Eden treats in the house in case of lack of prep. These are pretty much the only "big brand" ones I'd buy ideally.

We use yoghurt, cooked sweet potato, cooked carrot, peas and other dog safe fruit and veg to stuff Kong's/lickimats etc.

Our pet shop (it's in Henley, an independent one), has good old fashioned dried liver. Has rows of treats and snacks loose and you get it weighed out, just like pet shops were in the 1960s/70s. Not sure how it's prepared perhaps baked and dried slowly? But you just break off a tiny bit as a treat - it snaps really easily. Dog goes mad for it and it is honestly the best thing for recall on walks, nothing else cuts it.