The best dog chews are always going to be natural meat based ones. I went into a dog shop today to get a dog harness and was amazed to see a lot of oddly shaped compressed vegetable matter and bonding material in many different colours.
Here’s a tip for newbies … dog industry companies like to sell you new shiny things that appeal to small kids and adults alike.
But perfectly shaped compressed puzzles that are green red or any NON brown yellow or black in colour are as unnatural as you will find in the dog world.
They are made from cheap ingredients, massively marked up and sold to the unwitting dog owner.
dog chews – What the vets do and don’t tell you
The vet is mostly well meaning. They look after your dog when it is sick and you go to the ones you trust. However the nutrition segment of Australian vet schools is limited and often sponsored by commercial dog food companies. Vets are programmed early on to sell you grain based dog food and anything that keeps their business afloat. The don’t sell natural meat based products typically because they are not saturated in preservatives and they have a concern about shelf life.
Of course 100% meat products tend not to need or have any preservatives in them, but vets and many dog shops like to sell grain based dog treats as they seem so much more clinical with each piece pressed into a perfect tiny shape of grain (with a little meat added).
You may have heard that bones are dangerous for dogs, and we agree small cooked bones are, but bones form an essential part of any raw feeders dogs diet – for the natural calcium and phosphorous in the right ratio.
Big dogs can easily handle our big dog bone treat. They will chew the bones down to nothing and access the nutritious 100% natural bone marrow.
Small dogs can struggle with trying to get anything off a large bone, so that is why we sell roo tendons, and the jerky range such as roo jerky, beef jerky etc. It’s great to dress a toy or something highly artificial up as a ‘dog chew’ but it should be illegal to sell products that take the place of natural hard animal products or meats. We have so lost sight of what a dog’s real diet is, that we will accept anything a store sell as a good idea for a dog to put in its mouth.
Why wouldn’t you give your dog chewing satisfaction and real nutrition at the same time? If it’s 100% natural and animal based, there is no issue about if the nutrition is bad for a dog. The only thing, like with every chew, is that you supervise your dog the first few times to ensure they are not overzealous in the swallowing part of the game.
