[Bobby dog]

Talia B:
I don’t know of any treats that would be soft enough not to crumble when inserting a pill into it.

If you are up to making something you could buy some lean ground meat from the grocery store and make small meatballs. I make them for my dog as treats and freeze them. I pull a few out at a time and keep in the fridge for treats. I use about 2 lbs of lean ground meat and add an egg or two, roll them to about an inch in size and cook them at 400 degrees for about 5 or 6 mins. You can also add other ingredients if you have them (and they are appropriate for your dog) like finely chopped dog appropriate vegetables, turmeric, parsley etc.

I have also seen people suggest cooking canned food for treats. I have never tried it, but I imagine it would be easy to make a soft treat out of canned food.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Are these treats raw? I know the Simply ones are, but what about the biscuits?

[Talia B]

Hello,

I have a golden with a bunch of allergies and to keep them in check she gets a pill. She is allergic to peanut butter and shouldn’t have cheese bc of chronic yeast ears (We are x plowing different food options also). The treats that we have used are not that nutritious and dry out over time even if sealed correctly or they crumble when your pushing in a treat. So has anyone found the perfect dog treat or does anyone have a recipe. We use to use cream cheese (before we knew it was contributing and would love w similar consistency 🙂

[Dog_Obsessed]

Thanks! I placed my first order there earlier today, I got some $1 samples and some treats. I actually figured out that 675 points will earn a months worth of food for Lily. Also, their food seems to much cheaper on their website.

[Dori]

THK is in our rotation and I always prefer to order from their site. I feed Zeal in rotation. They give points for meals and treats, etc. Every certain amounts of foods you get a free one. They send you coupons and free or discounts on items.

[Naturella]

@cdubau, THK Perfect Form is a supplement, I can find it at my local pet boutique/specialty store, it is given in small amounts and here it sells for $1.59/pack. Lasts my 15-ish lb terrier mix about a week when given as directed twice a day. Really works miracles in the guts.

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/treats-supplements/supplements/perfect-form

Sells for $1.25 on the website, but I would probably go for the box of 16, just to have handy. Together your dogs will probably go through about 5 teaspoons/day or so, so close to a pack/day. The box of 16 will be enough for 2 weeks, to see how they do.

I try to keep about 2-3 packs at all times for just in case.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Naturella.

[Naturella]

BCnut, I have a question – I have seen in Bruno’s stool undigested carrot and apple pieces from Sojo’s/THK dehydrated foods. It is only those two that he seems to be unable to stomach. However, if I give him raw apple, I see no peel, nothing discernible in his stool (and I am a stool examiner, lol). I haven’t tried with raw carrot recently, but I think it would still come out as it enters. I have also given him raw coconut and it comes out as it entered him. Coconut oil gets absorbed though. Kale sticks (branches) with some leaf matter are not discernible but sometimes when he eats grass (he does it every now and again), it comes out in straight bunches, like it entered him.
So why would he not be able to eat some rehydrated veggies vs raw? I do let them sit for a while in the water, but they don’t ever completely return to an “original” form. This also happens while on THK Perfect Form.

My next question is, I have seen recipes for cooking with THK for treats and such. Should I cook it first till the veggies are mushy, or cook it lightly and puree it, or is it not a big concern?

[Susan]

Hi Alina, how long has he been on the wet & dry Natures Variety?? You know Rottweilers are prone to IBD, Like Dog Obbessed said put him on boiled Chicken, rice & a little bit of boiled pumkin for 1-2 weeks, rest his stomach/bowel, no treats, no wet tin, nothing else, if he’s still doing very sloppy poos or diarrhea after 2-3 days on the chicken & rice, I’d see a vet…

[Bobby dog]

Is there a possibility he ate something he shouldn’t have?

Also, does he get any treats? If he does, I would also stop feeding those until he’s back on track. Hope he gets better without a trip to the Vet!

[Elizabeth P]

I won’t pay the high price of sweet potato treats. I microwave a sweet potato, slice it (skin and all) and dry it in a low oven for a couple hours. Cheap and easy and keeps well.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Oh yeah. I was looking at their fish treats yesterday. I thought the beams were chews at first, but it seems like they are sort of more like treats. I really liked the look of the quickies, because they are so low-calorie, so when I finally get around to placing an order on chewy.com those will be on it.

[InkedMarie]

The only jerky type of treats I’ll use are the ones from The Honest Kitchen.

[aquariangt]

I do use real meat jerky for training treats sometime, if you’re looking for a solid one

[arwyru24]

It’s always really bothered me that it would even possibly be worth it to ship chickens halfway across the world and then sent back. It’s crazy and super shady. I also do not buy anything jerky regardless of the brand. Before I was better educated I bought my last dog jerky treats ..blue buffalo brand and also happy hips. He lived to be 15 when he died and I don’t think he suffered any ill effects but it’s hard to say He got epithelial lymphoma at about 14 and the tumor was removed but who can really say what causes some of the cancers. It really hurt his quality of life in his final year. He didn’t tolerate chemo well and developed pancreatitis as a result and it was just a hard last year. I don’t make my own food or feed raw but I try to do all that I can to feed healthy foods and not take undue risks but I am always questioning myself. I have a vet I trust implicitly now but unfortunately didn’t find him until the dog was 13 and cat was 15. He would have saved both of those animals a lot of pain and suffering. The dog had two surgeries to remove crystals the second time he was 12 and was blocked completely. The other vets just had him on c/d dry his whole life. This was the first vet to tell us water is very important and took him off the rx food and had us feed high quality canned with lots of water added in. They don’t push science diet there they give a list of brands they suggest which are all good choices (taste of the wild is the only one I can think of that’s debatable) It’s such a shame that it’s so hard to know who and what to trust to take good care of our pets. I agree with BC nut completely. … this shouldn’t be so hard.

[Zeljko L]

My boy eats Totw salmon and he is having perfect stool on it. Last week I bought another bag and I saw kibbles look different they are having some crumbs around and bag is full of crumbs. Previous kibbles had a plain surface and even at the end of bag there was no crumbs. Now my boy is having very smelly stool,soft and drinks lot of water. Last week he is parasite and giardia checked all negative,he doesnt get any treats and no eating anything except his food. So there is something in his food. I write an e mail to Totw they didn t responded probably it is a weekend.
This things makes me very upset! You want best for your baby and giving lot of love and money to provide them long lasting , happy life and someone is playing with us.
Zeljko

[Dog_Obsessed]

Okay, thanks. I am also guilty of breaking up training treats in tiny pieces, I usually give Lily like 1/8 of a treat.

[Hater and Molly’s Mom]

Not long at all, lol! I usually break them in half since a lot of them in the bag are rather large. They gobble them right up. In fact i usually break most of their treats in half. Molly needs to loose a few pounds so i really have to watch what she eats.

[Hater and Molly’s Mom]

I haven’t tried any freeze dried food for treats yet. I use the NVI treats, Etta Says and Crumps sweet potato chews which are a big hit here.

[theBCnut]

I use Vital Essentials freeze dried dog food for treats. Also Pure Bites freeze dried duck liver.

[pugmomsandy]

Dehydrated and freeze dried can be either cooked or raw. Grandma Lucy’s actually lightly cooks their food products before freeze drying so they may also do that with their treats.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Thanks! There are some freeze-dried treats I give her, they are called Trail Buddy treats and they are made by a company called Cycle Dog. For some reason, the only place they are available around her is REI. There are some other freeze dried treats at the pet store that I might try. In terms of freeze dried food, is dehydrated/freeze-dried the same as raw?

[Karen J]

Okay, so she’s not getting a lot of treats because I’m so busy I haven’t been training her much. She only gets the supplements once a day.

But, what small kibble, grain free options do you think might be worth a try? You sound very much against BB, they are tiny bites and grain free. But she’s not eating them all of a sudden.

Now I’ve heard dogs do self fast. I’ve tried Orijen dry no go and too big and Merrick wet, wouldn’t touch it.

I haven’t found any pee puddles lately, that’s the good news 🙂

[theBCnut]

Are you maybe giving too many treats? She looks like a very small dog. If she is still pooping, she is still eating. Try cutting out the treats for a couple days. And try cutting back on the amount of supplements, in case they are decreasing her appetite. If her eating doesn’t pick up then, changing foods again may be what you need to do. My dogs didn’t like BB when I tried it, but that was years ago. Personally, I’ve heard too many stories of dogs getting bladder stones on it for me to want to feed it to a dog with crystals.

[Karen J]

Trixie, the dog that had crystal in her urine and having a puddle in the house occasionally is now taking d-monnase & vit c using cream cheese as a delivery vehicle – nothing else hides it.

no grain, she was eating Blue Buffalo Basics, grain free, small breed “lamb& potato with Stella & Chewy chicken dinner patties crushed -sprinkled on top.

stopped eating kibble and stella just started a few days ago. Poops though. She gets Good Lovin Lamb & Kiwi blend freeze dried treats, grain free treats, Natural balance dental chews and bully sticks, so she’s not getting that much of it. Occasionally a pure bites chicken breast treat freeze dried.

She’s active and healthy and as far as I can tell pees and poops outside on the patio thru the dog door and when we go on walks.

last few days won’t eat the kibble and stella & chewy mixture at all.

What gives – do I change her food again?

don’t know if she still has the crystals, supposedly no infection or stones prevailed.

[Dog_Obsessed]

I am always looking for healthy treats that are either complete and balanced or pure meat or veggies, and so that I don’t have to worry as much about feeding too many. I am not opposed to raw feeding in general, but I don’t really want raw treats because it is harder to use good sanitation practices when giving treats throughout the day. Anyone have suggestions?

[theBCnut]

They do not know what the Chinese chicken breeders did to the chickens or what the processors did to the chicken to make it lethal. I read all 82 pages of the FDA report. They tested the jerky for everything they have a test for and even created new tests to test the jerky, but they never found anything that should have caused those problems. There are still things they suspect, but they have no way to test for. It could be something that the chickens were fed or something that was added afterward. Nobody this side of the ocean knows, and nobody that side of the ocean is saying either. No, there is nothing about jerky treats that makes them harder to process.

I really think the problem is that they come from a country that does not value life, so they don’t care what they do to treats for dogs, and especially American dogs. Frankly, if I lived somewhere where dogs got more expensive treats than what I got paid, I probably wouldn’t care either.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Thanks for the input Dori! I’m interested to know actually, what is the exact problem with commercial jerky? I know the treats from China had bacteria and chemicals that caused Fanconi Syndrome, but is there something about jerky treats that make them harder to process safely?

[Dog_Obsessed]

So I seem to be on a role tonight when it comes to creating topics so I might as well create this one:

I know it is a horrible idea to feed any dog food, but especially jerky, that’s from China, but is it safe to feed jerky made in the US such as the jerky treats made by Wellness and Fruitables? I have heard conflicting things online. Thanks!

[Julie L]

I fought for over 18 mo on my doodles sensitive stomach. The vet kept saying to change food etc. I tried almost every food known to man. Ellie was thrown up almost daily with yellow bile and she was a very picky eater. Finally I told the vet I wanted a Pancreatitis test. The test was done and guess what??? She had a very bad case of Pancreatitis. Ellie is now on ID kibble 7% fat and I add in ground turkey breast and low salt chicken broth. I give her chicken jerky (home made without anything added) for a treat and give her kibble for treats. If they haven’t ruled out Pancreatitis please ask your vet why? Good luck.

[Kersi B]

Hello everybody!

I am new here and tried to find some informations on my own, but I am lost…

I move from Germany to California this January and take my 6-year-old Chihuahua (3kg or 6,6p weight) with me.
He already has a light cardiac insufficiency, but the doc said that he doesn’t need any medicine yet.
Here in Germany I feed him with wet (in the late afternoon), dry (he has a extra bowl with some in case he is hungry) and own-cooked food (as often as I can instead of wet food). His treats are 100% dry meat only. And I give him Vitamin K1 and homeopathic Crataegus supplements to his food to strengthen his heart.
But none of the brands I am feeding him right now are available in the US.
So could you please help me to find the brands with the highest quality but affordable for a student? Thank you so much! <3 :*

• This topic was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Kersi B.

[theBCnut]

My favorite treats are freeze dried meats too, VE being number one.

[Hound Dog Mom]

I use a lot of different treats, but lately I’ve been using freeze-dried raw. I’ve got the Stella & Chewy’s medallions now which are pretty large and perfect for my big girls but they could be easily broken into small pieces. Some other freeze-dried raw I like to use is Nature’s Variety, Wysong, Vital Essentials and Primal. I try to go with the complete and balanced foods so I don’t have to worry about how many i give them. Most dogs seem to really like freeze-dried stuff.

[pugmomsandy]

Zukes makes small soft treats and I think a Wellness has a new line of semi soft treats. I’m using ZiwiPeak dog food as treats. The pieces are small flat and about half an inch square and the texture is like soft jerky.

[Naturella]

Melissa, if shopping online is an option for you, websites such as http://www.petflow.com , http://www.chewy.com , http://www.wag.com often have great sales on food, especially on Petflow you can find stuff for about $1.00/lb, which is a great deal. Just check those sites about once/week or so and type in the word “trial” for Petflow and it will give you deals with “trial” sizes (usually smallest size bags – 4-5lbs, but for $1/lb). They have other great deals too, on food and treats and supplies. 🙂

But I second DogFoodie on her suggestions for budget-friendly foods – I have used Dr. Tim’s, Earthborn Holistic, and some of Victor (and a few friends have used it too) with great success and no issues, plus, they are quite affordable. One other option, if you must, you can also use Pure Balance from Walmart – it is not half bad for the price it is.

[crazy4cats]

Julie-
I’m glad you got some good suggestions from Jenny. My previous dog was overweight and I wish I knew then what I know now. With my current dogs, I go mostly by calories, not the feeding recommendations on the bag. I never realized how much difference there could be in calories between different Kibbles. I try to use kibble that is 400 calories or less a cup so I can add different toppers to their meals and still be able to give them a decent amount of kibble to satisfy them. I used the dog food calculator on this site to find a starting point. I subtract calories to account for the “treats” they are fed throughout the day. I have two male labs that are right around 80 lbs. One is a tiny bit thick and the other is very lean at this weight. I feed mostly Victor grain free joint health kibble and add a different protein rich topper to every meal. I wish you luck. I know it is tough to keep our labbies lean. They are eating machines!

[Akari_32]

That is so funny about your aunt Patty LOL

We used to have some sort of very small black hawk with a bright yellow beak that would watch our chickens. I think the only reason it never went after them was because it was small than the rooster was, who was smaller than the silki hen LOL

DogFoodie, thank you. I couldn’t leave her there when all she needed was a change handling. She’s still a snotty little turd most of the time, but it’s worth it see her running to the end of her 16ft leash, and having such a great time, and having her snuggling with me on the couch or in bed.

Lol Jakes mom, they were the cheapest ones we could find, so that’s what came home with us! I can’t believe how expensive doggy stairs are!!

Naturella, they’ll come around eventually I’m sure 🙂 and I wish I had that many goodies stashed away! I hardly ever find deals on treats and chews, so end up having to pay full price for them unless I find something in th clearance bin.

[Naturella]

How cute Ginger and Bailey are! 🙂 And I second Bobby Dog regarding the BCnut and her aunt – age is just a number – fabulousness is forever! 🙂

On my end, things are meh, but I am getting used to it. I think that even though I had been “preparing” myself for this for a loooooong time, I was a bit numb myself when it actually happened. I hadn’t fully thought out the aftermath. I forgot to consider the possibility of my family (mom) not REALLY hearing my message and just retaining her shock factors and not the explanations for them or the reiteration of love for my family and desire for us all to love and accept each other and be open and honest with each other. BUT, I am adjusting, as is she, and we will play it by ear and see if time plus constant/consistent demonstration of care and love on my part will help. Hope is still in me. 🙂

Also on another note, I went through Bruno’s “treat box”, which is overflowing actually, and I pulled out a few things to give to the dog of the family I babysit for. An early Christmas present if you will, lol. After I pulled out a can of Weruva, a dental bone, a sweet potato chew, a bully stick, a lamb ear, a pig snout, a cow ear, a beef trachea, a fish skin, a stingray tail, a tripe swirly chew, a pack of salmon treats, and a few buffalo liver treats, I still have an overflowing box of some of the above treats left for Bruno, plus a Himalayan dog chew, a pig foot (I will probably let Bruno share it with the roommate’s dog), and a ton of food samples! I use them as treats, but I may need to up my usage and just give him meal varieties, i.e. give him his regular food and additive for breakfast; a sample (his normal serving of it, not the whole sample) with THK for dinner. Probably 2-3 meal replacements/week will take care of one sample. And if I do this every other week, I should be good until my kibble supply runs down. And then we start over with collecting food and samples. I really think I won’t hoard like that anymore though… I don’t want to keep more than 6 months’ worth of food at a time in the house… I want more variety, freshness, and deals too, so I will stock up when deals come every 6 months or so, and try to include more fresh/natural additives like freeze-dried/dehydrated/frozen commercial raw. But for now, he’s doing well it seems, and I should be transitioning him to Back to Basics in about 2 weeks. Hope he does well and not like the NVI disaster! LoL.

(P.S. I just realized that my post is halfway entirely related to dog food, but I didn’t know where else to put that second half, so sorry guys – it s here!)

[Jenny Rellick]

InkedMarie–You are very right that dog obesity is a human-mad problem, not a dog problem. Humans with overweight dogs may project their own feelings about weight loss and portion control to their dogs, and the consequences can be serious. Dogs will almost always have room for any treat or larger serving of food a human offers, and dogs quickly learn who and how to ask for treats and table food, not because they are hungry, but because that is what dogs have done since ancient times. However, I think there is such a thing as a dog who is fed correctly but is still hungry. Here’s why:
My Leo lived in a no-kill shelter for 21 months and was fed a 1 star dog food the whole time. Because it was not nutrient-dense, he got 4 cups per day of food per the manufacturer’s guidelines. When I transitioned him to 1 and 1/3 cups per day on a 5-star food, split into 2 meals, my dog inhaled his 2/3 cup serving of kibble in literally 6 seconds. Immediately afterwards, he would put his paws on the sealed dog food bag and–I swear this is true– he would cry, swat the dog food bag with his paws, try in vain to open the bag, and cry some more. I ignored him and told myself, “In 30 minutes he will know he’s full.” Alas, Leo would camp out next to his bowl, and if you walked by the room, he would bark once, wait for you to look at him, and then lick the empty food bowl and look at you again. Even after obedience school, when we established that he was not the boss of humans, he still continued these behaviors. I didn’t give in, but other humans in the home must have because he got fat and I ran out of food too soon. It was embarrassing to be told to feed Leo less at the vet, only to find that he had gained weight at every subsequent visit. I was also concerned that he was at risk for bloat–a medical emergency typically striking barrel-chested dogs– from eating in 6 seconds. Even though he isn’t barrel chested, my vet was alarmed by a video of Leo “Hoovering” his food. I got a sectional flat-bottom bowl designed to slow him down, and I added warm water to further slow him down per a customer suggestion in a review of the bowl. He was not only much slower, he also reduced his antics. I have been in Weight Watchers, and I was told it was important to drink plenty of water to feel full with meals and to metabolize fat. Maybe the water helped Leo’s hunger.
At Weight Watchers, I also learned to load up on very low calorie, high fiber foods before a restaurant meal or party to prevent over-indulging. By adding green beans to Leo’s “soup,” his antics completely stopped. When the antics stopped, the human conspirators stopped cheating, and Leo lost 12 pounds. He is now a muscular dog with a physique that makes my vet very happy. I share this success story because the solution was very simple, cost-effective and safe. Even if dog hunger is only a human projection, the water and green beans make the owner feel like they are feeding a more satisfying meal to their furchild, and they will be less often taken in by those sad brown eyes.

[DogFoodie]

I second the Nut’s food recommendations.

I would also agree that anal gland issues can be related to food intolerance.

I have a two year old Golden with food intolerance issues. Flax is one of his problems. Recently I have him some treats, maybe one or two per day, just to see how much flax he could tolerate. After several days, I started to get the faint whiff of small gland and knew he had his fill.

Was the protein in your old food chicken? What about the new food? If you’re not feeding chicken now, try eliminating the chicken & rice that you prepare and see if that helps. Food intolerances are tricky to figure out. Mine can’t have fish in any form including fish oil, chickpeas, lentils, beans, garlic or flax. Any of those things could cause him to have strong smelling anal glands. So while the primary animal protein/s could be the problem, it could be something seemingly far more innocuous.

[InkedMarie]

I really think you’re making your dog out to be a human. They don’t need dessert, they don’t even need snacks. I’ve almost always had three dogs and I throw away more treats because they’ve gone stale than I use. I’ve never been in the habit of using a lot of treats.

I’ve never had anyone say you must feed dogs enough to be full. How the heck would you know if they’re full? A lot of dogs will eat everything you put in front of them. This is one cause for overweight dogs. The same for humans. I’m overweight but it’s not from eating til I’m full. You should be satiated, not full. How do you know a dog is hungry? Seriously, people say that and I don’t get it. They can’t talk, you don’t know, it’s an assumption.

[Elyse K]

Before she was on the Hills Prescription I/D low fat (using the dry and a little bit of wet) we used Nutros Lamb and Rice for many, many years without any issues. She does not get any table scraps and the only treats she gets are also the vet prescribed. I will look into the Natural Balance, thank you. And I know there is another topic for this but going to try a probiotic also.

[theBCnut]

I give small pieces of meat for treats or bedtime snacks. Protein stays with them longer than carbs, so I think that helps with hunger more. For a different food, maybe look at Annamaet Lean, I think that’s what theirs is called.

[InkedMarie]

Dogs eat poop for so many reasons, you may never know. The best way to curb this behavior is to pick up the poop. That may mean taking him out on leash. That may mean using a small kennel for pottying.

Dogs don’t need dessert. If you must feed a snack, Milkbones are not a good choice. Look for high quality low calorie foods. I don’t use many treats but I do have some SoJo’s that are low cal.

[Jenny Rellick]

My dog, Leo, was like yours–begging for more food. He went from 62 lbs. down to 50 lbs.over the course of a year on a grain-free dry food. Here are my 4 tips for dog weight loss:

1. Feed the calories for your dog’s ideal weight, not her current weight: Leo gets 725 calories per day, including treats, and has gotten that amount since he hit 62 lbs.. Use The Dog Food Calculator on this site’s home page to figure out you dog’s caloric needs, entering an estimated ideal weight in pounds from your vet or from a time before your dog was overweight, and for activity level, select “overweight.” Leo’s food is 500 calories per cup, and I feed him 1 and 1/3 cups per day, for 650 calories from a high protein dog food. I leave 75 calories for other food, and because the grain-free food I use is so nutritious, I am confident he is well-nourished with the small quantity. Leo gets 2 meals of 2/3 cups, measured with a measuring cup (never eye-ball the quantity.)

2. Pump up the volume with warm water: Use a big, flat-bottom bowl to spread the kibble out, and add enough warm water to just cover the kibble, letting it steep on the counter for a minute or two.. Some kibble swells to make it more filling, and even if your part kibble doesn’t swell much, you are making a tasty broth to drink without adding calories. The water makes the meal take longer to eat, and tricks Leo into drinking extra water, which is necessary for weight loss. My dog goes crazy fpr the aroma while it steeps. Many vets recommend canned dog food for weight loss for exactly these benefits I provide by adding warm water to dry food. My way is much less expensive.

3. Feed green beans liberally with every meal. You can use frozen or salt-free canned (never give salted canned vegetables to a dog.) Of all the vegetables, green beans have an extremely low caloric density but, when cooked (canned green beans are pre-cooked and can be fed directly,) they are appealing to dogs. My dog won’t eat cabbage, lettuce, or celery, but he loves green beans. He gets 1/2 cup at each meal, stirred into the steeped kibble. This adds about 20 calories per meal, but he feels very satisfied with each meal, gets plenty of fiber for bowel regularity, and thinks I am preparing something special for him at each meal. He watches each step, and if I leave the kitchen while the kibble is steeping, he barks and cries as if to say, “you are forgetting to finish cooking my dinner!” If he starts begging before I put the green beans in, I show him the bowl and say, “Don’t you want green beans?” He barks and cries until I add the green beans! If I run out of green beans, he looks so disappointed. When I get back from the store, he goes to his bowl and waits just to get his half cup of green beans by itself.

4. Give very small treats. Except for 2 regular Greenies per week (90 calories each,) Leo gets tiny treats for going potty the right way or listening well. They are about 1/2 the size of the tip of my pinky finger. Most dogs will enjoy one treat three times more than they enjoy three treats all at once. Liver biscotti treats are Leo’s favorite tiny treat. Zuke’s mini naturals are also a convenient size. You could chop up human cold cuts or pepperoni and keep them as treats in the refrigerator. If your dog loves to chew for a long time, antlers are great because only a small amount is ingested or digested at a time, and your dog will burn calories by chewing. Elk antlers seem to be a good size and wear down just fast enough for Leo to get flavor and satisfaction from his efforts. Marrow bones from cattle are similarly good chews for dogs, but bully sticks, pig’s ears, raw hide, and the like present a choking hazard, can cause bowel blockages, have empty calories, and often contain chemicals. By the way, my dog loves his Greenies so much that they serve as his emergency recall reward. For the emergency recall reward, don’t worry about calories!

[DogFoodie]

I second the Nut!

Are you feeding controlled portions? It looks like Orijen has about 478 kcals per cup. Using the calculator on the review side, if she was a bit heavy at 82 pounds, you’d feed her just under 2.21 cups of Orijen daily, assuming she got no other treats at all. Does that sound at all close to what she was getting?

Some foods that I think are great quality (quality proteins) and lower fat are Wellness Core Reduced Fat, Go! Senior and Orijen Senior. Maybe one of those foods would work for her.

[Xiu-Xiu]

My boy is 6 months has the same issue, he only eats his own poo. I normally pick it up before he gets too it, but he would sniff around trying to find it and I always tell him “leave it! lets go get your treat”  he knows that his treats is tastier than his poo. Now he’s learning to leave it (sometime) without the command.

[theBCnut]

They were one of the companies that had the chicken jerky that was/still is killing so many pets. They refused to recall their treats for a very, very long time. I would not trust them to ever do the right thing and so I would never feed their products to my pets.

[Sheena G]

I’ve been really happy with Dogswell Happy Hips Jerky Strips dog treats. I have a golden retriever who’s a big time foodie (I think all goldies are!), so I was happy to find a grain-free treat with vitamins added for joint health. I tried the chicken one first, but then found out my cat (who is allergic to poultry) loves these treats too, so I started getting the lamb option… made in the US, human-grade ingredients, not too pricey at Ralph’s, & they keep my kiddos happy! 🙂

[Sandy M]

I have a 9-year-old greyhound with lobulated kidneys, meaning they’re both highly inefficient at filtering toxins from his blood. I’ve noticed recently that he’s started to have some tremors, which I’m afraid means too much phosphorus is starting to build up in his blood and he’s not absorbing enough calcium to stop it. He’s been on Hill’s Science Diet K/D for years, but I wondered if there were any other kidney friendly foods or treats you folks might know of that could help with his vitamin D3 and other phosphorus binders. Thanks very much for any tips you might have.

-Sandy

[theBCnut]

If she has an issue with grains then the treats could definitely become an issue. But if it really never was the grains, or it’s corn but not other grains, then it shouldn’t be an issue. When I got Micah, he was reating to a food with grains, so I took him off of all grains and once I got a handle on something he could eat, I started testing him on the different grains. There was always the possibility that he was only reacting to one or two ingredients in the food and nothing else. Nope, turns out he reacts to every different grain I tried, and I have tried all of them I could think of, but I never would have known if I didn’t try them.