Natural and Organic dog biscuits As Healthy Dog Treats
We see many adjectives thrown around for human food and dog food and dog treats. What do all the claims and omission mean:
Grain free – a common term used in the dog food industry that has simply kept the meat level the same 20-30% and just substituted – Grains for veggie filler like potato. No real positive change for your carnivore dog.
Natural and healthy dog treats
I use the term natural to mean FOOD that a dog was evolved to eat. That is why Natural in the correct usage should mean meat based. However, it usually doesn’t!
OTHER dogs treat companies use natural or healthy to mean a low number of additives. They consider a mostly grain dog treat to be natural or healthy for a dog as long as its WHOLE GRAIN. We sell organic dog biscuits, but we call them biscuits. Many other companies sell dog treats that have almost the same amount of grain as a biscuit but call it a ‘meat’ dog treat!
Dogs are carnivores and should have a minimal amount of carbs (grain or veggies) so NATURAL dog treats should ONLY be meat based. Unfortunately there are very few rules for branding and advertising of dog treats or dog food.
DOG TREATS – No additives, NO preservatives
Our 100% meat jerky ranges don’ have anything besides the meat. BUT they are about the only range that you can trust to have no preservatives. It seems that when you add grain and fat to add taste, that the treatment requires preservatives. Preservatives are not bad as such, must human food has them, it just depends on the type and amount needed.
The black dog range mostly has potassium sorbate, this is human grade preservative, no mystery.
NOTE, if a product just has “NO preservatives”, Or JUST “no additives” on it, there is a good chance that it has the other component. If it doesn’t have meat in it, who cares if it has no additives?
DOG TREATS – No artificial flavors
This is a clever marketing trick. Artificial it seems means chemically synthesised in a lab to taste like meat, or to add to grain to trick a dog into eating the product. Blackdog range does not have artificial flavours, it has REAL meat in high quantities.
What some other brands do is to add a lot of salt and fat to substitute for meat. These are considered valid ingredients and NOT artificial flavors. If there was enough meat, a dog would eat the treat anyway, so it shouldnt need any fats other than that which come with the meat. Sure dog food can have sunflower oil added for Omega 6 – but for dog treats, this is just a flavoring trick. And this is how a ‘low meat treats a company’ can add a lot of salt, oil or other unhealthy product and consider it a Natural flavor, so can also boast “no artificial flavors” and make a dog eat something they would not normally eat.
DOG TREATS – Organic dog treats
As any shopper will know, organic red meats such as beef, lamb or even white meats pork and chicken coast a lot more than regularly farmed meats. That is why, unless the meat is a very bad cut or by product (which has very bad inclusions), these most common meats are very unlikely to be organic.
Thus organic in dog treats usually means anything that is wild such as fish, shark or kangaroo, the assumption is that the animal didn’t accidentally stumble into eating any pesticides or other nasties of the human farmed food chain.
Thus Our healthy dog treat range of Kangaroo and fish products are all classed as ORGANIC.
Dog Treat – offal ingredient
People are wary of offal because many dog food makers and treat makers use the absolute worst condition ‘by products’ of industry and pass it off as tasty offal.
Quality Offal is a vital part of a raw dog diet, and quality offal is higher in many nutrients than regular lean muscle meat. Again its the trust you have in the brand that should persuade you.
Conclusions
Most people look at the dog treat packet design and the colors and the price and weight and make a decision. But mostly its about the brand (advertising), price and weight. Since dog food is usually very vague about percentage of each component (its not law) then dog treats are even less so.
That is why its important to understand the tricks of the trade that some unscrupulous dog treat makers use to dupe the public. Bruces Healthy Dog treats are genuinely natural and healthy as possible. Some black dog products will have human grade food colouring because people expect a given meat to look a given exaggerated colour and the human grade colouring is safe for humans and dogs. All the ingredients in the treats are listed on each product page.
Our organic range (roo and fish) that is the 100% meat products, are going to always be the most natural, organic and safe that you can buy for your dog.
But the fact is that even if you want to buy biscuits, yogurt or carob treats from us, you know that we are a trusted brand and company, not a corporation in it for the fast buck.