What Ingredients Are In Your Dogs Treats?

I don't know about your fur babies, but I can tell you mine our spoiled when it comes to treats. It is so tempting to buy treats and have a full bucket and variety of treats on the counter. Duke, our Australian Cattle Dog (AKA Blue Heeler) is convinced that if he sneezes, he should be rewarded with a treat. Most of that is my fault. When he was younger, he was tough to train. I incentivized him with treats. With that said, he gets more treats than he should. That is why I created 8 Paw Fur Boy Pet Treats. When I started looking at the ingredients on the commercial treats, frankly, I was shocked. Either there were ingredients I knew were not good for him, including red dye and/or items I had no idea as to what they really were. With 8 Paw Fur Boy Treats, I promise you, you'll recognize the ingredients. It is very important to me to promote healthy, natural, organic ingredients in to the 8 Paw Fur Boy Pet Treat because each one offers a different nutrient that one of our Fur Babies need in addition to being a special treat.

I've done a lot of research on different ingredients and health needs of our precious Fur Babies. I find it fun to create new treats and flavors. We have our in-house panel of taste testers. We have Duke (Australian Cattle Dog. RIP (yes named after one of our favorite TV characters) our rescue kitty who is a connoisseur of all things food especially people food. Cookie is my grand dog who lives up the street. She is a 3-year-old schnauzer. Yes, she has a sweet tooth and steals food from the grandkids. Mary Jane is her sister, and she is a 7-year-old Chihuahua. Susie Q and Cedar The Tree Eater are rescue huskies that are my grand dogs that belong to my son. So, as you can see, we have a variety of breeds, personalities and ages of Fur Babies.

With the well being of our Fur Babies and Grand Fur Babies a priority, I bake all of our pet treats in the United States. We do not outsource any of our baking. We source local farmers and growers as much as possible.

Choosing the right treats for your dogs is critical to their health and well-being. It can be overwhelming to read the dog treat ingredient list as you stand in the treat isle trying to figure out which is the healthy ingredient, and which one may harm your Fur Baby.

Let's take a look what's harmful on the ingredient list.

Preservatives That Are Harmful For Your Fur Baby.

We do not use any preservatives. We have a unique 2 step baking and drying process that extends the shelf life. Here are some of the preservatives that you want to watch for on labels.

Harmful Preservatives

Sodium metabisulphite

Propylene Glycol

BHA/BHT

Ethoxyquin

Watch for fillers and byproducts. This is another way that manufacturers bulk up their treats. This cuts down on the expense of truly creating a healthy nutritious treat. Our Fur Babies aren't too different from us in that if they eat junk, it will manifest itself straight to their waistline. It can also, lead to digestive problems, diarrhea, or food allergies. Some fillers that should raise a red flag for you are corn or corn bran, Rice hulls or rice bran, Cereal byproducts, soybean, oat, rice hulls or meal. Wheat -gluten and corn are on the list as well.

The other filler that is used commonly is animal byproducts. Hold on to your stomach the byproduct fillers are anything that is left after slaughtering an animal. These byproducts come from euthanized and diseased animals. It is perfectly legal to put these into dog treats.

Keep An Eye Out On The Ingredient List For Colorful Dyes, and Carrageen.

As colorful and appealing as some of the treats may look, the dyes are not healthy for our Fur Babies. Some artificial colors have been linked to hyperactivity and cancer in dogs. Another main ingredient that you may spot on an ingredient list is Carrageenan. It is used to keep the dog treats moist. This ingredient has been linked to cancer and inflammation in canines. It is derived from a species of red seaweed. It is edible but has no Nutritional value and can upset the digestive track. We have a two-part cooking process that gives our treats a two month shelf life without artificial dyes and preservatives.

Make sure you read the ingredient list on your dog treats. More often then not we have a tendency to skip over an ingredient we aren't familiar with. Take a moment to google it on your phone. You may be surprised at what some of the leading, highly recommended treats have in them. Let's keep our Fur Babies healthy!

Last but not least, make sure that your pet treats are manufactured in the USA.