What the top 5 trends in Dog Treats in 2025 mean to the discerning Australian dog owner!
Given that Google is the biggest search engine in Australia, and it accurately keeps track of the latest trends, it makes sense to understand what the dog treat buyers really want via them.
We take a look at the top 5 dog treat trends that people are looking for to make their dog happy. And what truth is behind those intentions?
Dog treats spoiler alert
It’s all about DIY recipes.
Three of the top 5 dog treats searches were interested in specifically how to make dog treats at home, in recipe and method.
For those people who have tried this, you will realize that there can be some cleaning issues, nutrition and in particular SAFETY concerns in DIY food solutions for your dog.
The top request was all about ‘homemade dog treats recipes – vet approved ‘. The other notable mentions are just generic recipe queries and Christmas specific recipes (no doubt using a lot of low-grade nutrition of flour).
Everyone loves to save a bit of money during a ‘cost of living’ crisis, but for dog treats, its not always as simple as you might think.
Firstly, home-made means that if you are going to source the ingredients (and some of those are meat) – and cook them just enough to not ruin the protein. That is a true skill. And of course, if you under-cook meat you will leave the treat open to growing bad bacteria, and extra water left in the treats will make the treats go off.
Sure, you could cook treats every few days, and you would get better at it no doubt. But unfortunately, most DIY dog treat recipes are just about flour with a few plant add-ons.
If you want to go the nutrition path, you are most likely only going to have stock standard meats, and you will still have to watch that they don’t go off in the fridge before using them etc.
Meat based DIY treats are also likely to have surface grease, that means that they are going to be messy to handle while in the dog park or back yard, let alone letting them hit the house carpet or rugs.
The term ‘vet approved’ is going to be one of the most misused terms in existence.
Besides the fact that vets make a substantial amount of their money selling plant-based dog and cat food, they are unlikely to want to vouch for your cooking methods to ensure that you don’t make your dog sick.
The second specific term – dental sticks dog treats
You should probably be aware that the end goal of a dental stick treat is thoroughly cleaning dogs’ teeth. This is because most owners don’t have time or training to clean their dog’s teeth regularly, and getting a vet to do it annually wont leave much change from a thousand dollars.
Vets and dog food companies have done so well at convincing people to buy a specific brand of ‘dental stick’, that its now one of the top selling dog treats in Australia.
Curiously, dog food, the commercial type that is typically well over 50% grain or plant matter, means that its also very high in carbs (raw sugar) – which create cavities in the first place in a dog’s mouth. So, if you don’t want rotten dog teeth, don’t keep feeding them carbs.
Then the dog food companies (of the major advertised brands) tell you that you should buy their dog teeth cleaning product. One that is artificially created (both in extrusion technology and ingredients). Its almost like their commercial dog food is making a ready-made market for their commercial teeth cleaning products.
Now if you knew that these treats are not as robust as natural dog chews (ie often crumble), contain zero meat, and have a massive mark up, you might wonder how they became a best seller.
It’s true that we have created a specific dog treat dental stick category on our site, full of 100% single ingredient dog treats that do a better job than artificially created sticks. And you would think that vets would recommend them. But if a vet doesn’t sell a product, its hard to imagine that they would recommend sending their own client’s money elsewhere.
We were more interested in providing a nutritious snack for dogs that was single ingredient and would naturally clean their teeth. Why shouldn’t dogs and their owners have it all?
Why is there a demand for ‘3 ingredient dog treats’ in Australia?
This is the final piece of the puzzle. Three ingredient treats are one of the top 5 most sought after treats in Australia at the start of 2025 !
And since this term is among mostly dog treat recipe questions on Google, it makes sense that people are searching on how to make or buy 3 ingredient dog treats.
Since we specialize in single ingredient dog treats, you might think that we would be a big fan of 3 ingredient treats, but that simple term is very problematic when it comes to nutrition.
And here is the reason why.
A DIY 3 ingredient version
If you are making a treat yourself, the vast majority of dog treat recipes online are about grain-based treats. Things that look good to humans. Things that you can mold into funny shapes. Things that are not ‘expensive’ or nutritional.
That’s all good from a kid’s perspective, but our mission has been to enhance a dog’s nutrition and longevity, not just something that plates up nicely.
What you will find in most low ingredient dog treats, is that flour (wheat or rice) is the number 1 ingredient. Its cheap, but unfortunately has very little useable protein for your dog to enjoy. With so many dogs suffering from illnesses related to obesity, the last thing a dog needs is more food that is just empty calories.
The next two ingredients then are typically either (salt, sugar and oil), OR (one or two pieces of vegetable or fruit).
Considering your dog’s carnivore evolutionary origins. Adding more fruit to their diet is akin to offering a rabbit a juicy steak, just inappropriate and unnecessary.
Many DIY recipes are flour and fruit, because they are easy and cheap to acquire. If you cook meat yourself for dog treats, you potentially risk it rotting, or harming your dog because you didn’t kill all the pathogens (e-coli).
If you make a grain-based treat, it can also have health issues. And that is because while single MEAT ingredient treats require NO preservatives, any grain-based treat requires a preservative to stop it going off. But with grain-based treats that are consumed quickly, its mostly about the lack of bio-available protein.
B. ‘Store bought’ 3 ingredient treat versions
If you opt for a 3-ingredient dog treat it is likely that its not going to be of the same ‘quality’ as your commercial dog food.
We believe a treat should taste delicious and be better for your dog. Not just taste of sugar and oil and look good to your child.
When meat treats are single ingredient or offal dog treats, they NATURALLY hold together after they are dried. But if you try and add meat and grain together, you will often need to use some kind of binding agent and other chemicals to stop it going off and bind together.
Most 3 ingredient dog treats therefore are NON-MEAT. They are grain or plant based, just like the dental sticks. But if you are buying a DIY dog treat that is plant based, you aren’t even buying it for being functional or medicinal unlike shark cartilage (for chondroitin) or skin- based treats that have collagen type 2).
When you buy 3-ingredient treats, you want know the amount of any ingredient, just the order of ingredients in them. The manufacturer is under no obligation to tell you the percentage of any of the ingredients (just like commercial dog food).
You will be able to tell if its first ingredient is a grain or plant matter, and the protein amount is very low on the label, that it doesn’t include any meat, but that’s about it.
In fact, why not put in the 3-ingredient dog treat term into the google search bar. What you will find is grain-based treats pretending to be meat based (ie in the shape of a bone or heart), with the majority of the recipes including flour or potato as the base ingredient, then peanut butter and some kind or other plant (fruit or vegetable) like banana or pumpkin.
Even if you reject that a dog’s ancestor was mostly carnivore, no where in a domestic dog’s lineage were they ever herbivores! There is a huge difference between a dog being able to stomach a food, and it being anywhere as near bio-available as animal meats.
The only redeeming value of these plant-based things, besides empty calories, is that they might provide roughage for a good solid stool. But that said, that is the main value of commercial dog food too. So why double up on plant matter rather than quality protein your dog can actually need and use?
CONCLUSION
Disappointingly 2025 begins with the largest Google searches (and real world demand for the low cost DIY grain based treats options).
Even the ‘dental sticks’ are just shameful grain based non-nutritional items that if they contain carbs are only compounding the dental problem.
That is why we have segmented our 100% single ingredient healthy treats down to the micro level of “dental stix’ , dog training, low fat etc.
We very much understand the ‘cost of living’ crisis is biting hard Australia wide, that is why we suggest that if you are going to buy your dog treats, you buy something functional (ie either naturally medicinal or long lasting) , or at least high protein. Maybe even a meat that they have not regularly tried.
If you buy or make treats based on plants, you are just adding carbs, and empty calories (very little bio available protein), unlike the quality body building protein you get in meat and offal !
NOTE, we sometimes have customers visiting us that tell us about how they feed their dog croc meat in their diet via their main commercial dog food. You should be aware that commercial mixes likely only contain a small fraction of genuine crocodile meat in it.
‘Ingredient splitting’ and various other tricks are employed to ensure that the products seem like they might contain a lot of rare meat, but actually are still mostly plant based.
There is no requirement for dog food or dog treats in Australia to contain percentage dry weight of ANY of their ingredients. That is why, unless you buy a SINGLE ingredient dog treat, you will actually never know how much you are feeding your dog, of any specific ingredient.
Stay healthy !