Healthy dog treats are meat based not carrot, beans or apricots. you own a dog!

This is the third blog on the healthy dog treat site to review an article that claimed to know ten or more perfect single ingredient foods that are healthy dog treats. So far we have found only one on their list is actually true, and maybe there is one more below, maybe.

The article says that Carrots are great for dogs!  They say that you should “Pack a raw baby carrot or two for a great on-the-go dog treat. Or cook them and mash into your dog’s dinner for a sweet and healthy addition.”

I had a client a while back that gave his dogs carrots as a reward. Yes, they go crunch, yes the dogs like hearing the snap, they have a great texture and are fun. They have sugar in them too!

But It doesn’t really give a dogs jaws a work out like a natural and healthy dog treat bone or roo or beef cartilage or roo or beef jerky will, so it fails that test of adding even a jaw work for a dog.

You will also usually find a lot of carrot undigested in your dogs poo – a clear sign that it is useful as filler and perhaps fibre but not even the fibre that is recommended for dogs to eat (yes there are specific fibre groups that are better than others at keeping your dogs intestine healthy.  For the carrot giver – Dogs will get addicted to the fruit sugar, owners will get addicted to the fun of giving it to their dogs, but it does bugger all for nutrition or strengthening gums or cleaning teeth.

Cauliflower  The erroneous article that we are reviewing say ” Many dogs love cancer-fighting cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. ”  But like eating cabbage – what is the point? Dog’s get plenty of filler and the minimum levels of vitamin and minerals in their commercial dog food (that is by law that they at least reach a minimum level).

You will notice that lately a lot of trendy and expensive dog pellet dog foods also include things like blueberry, carrot and a whole array of vegetables in trace element levels to get you to buy their product (because it looks good on the label TO HUMANS). But that is what they are doing, selling to your emotion, not creating a product that is really good for your dog.

“Our dogs have been known to beg for little bits of cauliflower, fed raw. If your dog needs more convincing, chop it so it resembles feta and sprinkles on your dog’s dinner.”

Here is a hint, if your dog begs for vegetables perhaps you aren’t feeding them meat or taking them for enough off lead dog walks (ie they are bored)- these are the two things that are critical to having a healthy dog (meat and walks) NOT vegetable filler.

” If your dog needs more convincing,” to eat something that is a vegetable, DONT CONVINCE your DOG TO DO A DUMB THING. How will making cauliflower ” resembles feta” be of any value to a dogs health? If a dog eats kibble and wheat for too long it can actually have trouble identifying meat as a food – that is when you know you have truly gone too far !

Did you know if you buy wet or canned dog food, they also disguise soy to look like chunks of meat. Its acronym is TVP – research that …

A wild dog or a dog raised on meat products will usually turn its nose up at pellets (unless its a rescue dog with food issues) and tricking a dog to eat vegetables, that it would not naturally eat is stupid if not negligent. But as the very powerful dog food industry have you buying grain for your dog each week – negligence will never be proved.

Cheese  They say ” Most dogs simply adore a tid bit of cheese, making it a great high-value reward for training ”

Feeding a little bit of cheese now and then is ok as far as raw feeders are concerned, it is a meat by- product – though because it probably contains lactose, like humans dogs stomachs can get upset. Cheese is also relatively high in kilogjoules and can make a dog get fat easily. Proper dog treat companies feed dogs lactose free milk products – like our yougurt drops.

Dogs mainly like it “high value training treat” because it is stinky and they are nose driven. A much better training treats is the universally used high protein high nutrition, cheap beef liver pieces.

 Dehydrated Apricots  THEY SAY ” Dried apricots make for a sweet healthy treat that travels well, perfect for indulging a dog with a sweet tooth. – only feed little bits of dried apricot to prevent tummy upset. ”

I have heard of owners saying that their dogs crave fallen apricots directly from the tree. Again sugar is the culprit (basically empty calories, like drinking coal soda for humans).  The fake healthy dog treat article notes to use dehydrated apricots because like apple seeds, the seeds in apricots are poisonous (there is a hint in why dogs would not naturally consume the fruit in natural form.

If feeding this is going to give them a stomach upset, then its not natural and should not be fed to a dog.