Pups and Their Food
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As you all know, I’m a mommy to the most adorable puppy in the world, Charlie.
I am a firm believer that dogs should only eat foods that contain ingredients that are natural to them and should not contain any byproducts, antibiotics or hormones (I should preface this entire conversation by saying that Charlie eats FAR healthier than his father and I do!). Charlie’s favorite treats are chicken strips, and we have always purchased the Vitality chicken strips made by Dogswell.
Recently, my mom and I were having a conversation about pet treats and food, and she let me know that Dogswell had switched to having their treads produced in China. I was horrified. There are all sorts of FDA warnings about dog foods and treats made in China (you can google to find lots of articles about this, here is one). I looked on the back of Charlie’s bag of chicken strips and, sure enough, there was a teeny-tiny-need-a-magnifying-glass-to-see-it “Made in China” at the bottom. Into the trash they went and off on the hunt we went for a brand of chicken strips not made in China. We found none. Seriously. Lots of treats made in the US, lots of ones he likes, but none that are his favorite kind of treat.
So we decided to take matters into our own hands. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond for a food dehydrator and to Whole Foods for chicken breast pre-cut into tenders, and not only was it relatively inexpensive (around $40 for the dehydrator and $3-4 for a 1/2 pound of chicken) but Charlie L-O-V-E-S the dehydrated jerky. As in, every time I open the fridge he goes nuts because he thinks he’s getting jerky. :) And, I know what I’m feeding him is completely natural and healthy and it’s really no trouble to make. Simply bake the chicken as you would if you were eating it, then pop it into the dehydrator for about 6-8 hours until it’s hard enough to break in two. Store in fridge. Done.
So the moral of the story is, watch the products you are feeding your pup. I felt insanely guilty when I realized I hadn’t been inspecting every single bag of treats that I purchased!
Any good healthy-treat recommendations for Charlie to supplement his jerky addiction?
RT @amiatEAD amiatEAD
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Charlie is adorable!!! We just got a puppy (the 1st dog my husband or I have ever had in our life!) and we are STRESSING over food! There are so many choices; organic ,gluten free,wet, dry etc etc. What does Charlie eat? Right now we are giving Gabriel Innova dry puppy food. I’ve heard of people supplementing with wet food. Tips appreciated!
Our pup got diagonsed as 10% over her ideal weight (a.k.a. chunky), so the vet recommended using veggies as treats. She now only gets sugar snap peas and baby carrots. We thought she’d be unimpressed, but she loves them!
@ thalla-marie! thank you! i think he’s pretty cute myself. :)
charlie eats a brand called artemis, the small-breed version. it’s kind of hard to find, but the first few brands we tried (which i can’t remember now, but they were all organic and had human-grade ingredients with no byproducts) upset his stomach.
i have heard of the wet food supplement too, and even raw-food supplement, which is supposed to be very good for them, although we have never tried it.
@sheri i want to try that! i know charlie’s food has carrots in it, i wonder if he would eat a carrot. assuming you literally just give it to her out of the grocery store produce aisle, or do you cook them?
other than the jerky, the only treats we feed charlie are either small amounts of cheese, which he loves, or other all-natural treats that we buy that are made in the USA. we are thinking of trying to dehydrate apples and bananas for him, since some of the chicken treats he used to love were wrapped around those.
I didn’t realize Charlie was so small! For some reason I always imagined him as a bigger dog.
We try to feed Briscoe all-natural or organic food and treats as much as possible, but, truthfully, I don’t read the packages as closely as I could. A friend’s dog loves to eat vegetables, but I stay away from giving Briscoe “people food.” I don’t want him to start begging when my husband and I are eating! (Although I know that J sneaks Briscoe bits of cheese while cooking…)
We feed our dogs Acana grain-free. Carrots are so good for them! The first couple that Radar had, he would chew them up and spit them out – leaving nice little orange piles all over the place. But now he gobbles them up. Just be careful, carrots have diuretic properties…
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@PJ – i can’t help but give charlie a little bit of cheese. he loves it SO MUCH. and yes, he’s a little baby, he weighs about 10 pounds. he and briscoe would be such great play buddies!
@caryn – thanks for the heads up on the carrots, i will have to do some research, just to make sure they won’t upset his tummy!
We have just started giving our precious pup who is 13 years old, raw chicken wings. It provides good calcium, phosphorous and other good nutrients. She enjoys it and the raw bones (which are perfectly safe for dogs) have really cleaned up her teeth! No more bad breath!
Hi Elizabeth,
This is Rachel from DOGSWELL, I just wanted to touch base with you regarding your post!
Making your own treats is a great idea and I absolutely understand your concern, however I want to assure you that the DOGSWELL® manufacturing facilities meet the highest and most strict sanitary conditions. All of our co-packing plants have HACCP programs, have received high scores by independent third-party auditors, have strict raw ingredient standards and continuously check our products during processing and when they are finished to ensure they meet our high quality standards. Our wet food for dogs, our dry food for dogs and our biscuits are manufactured in the U.S. and our treats are manufactured in China. We regularly visit our manufacturing facilities to ensure the quality and safety of our products. Not only does DOGSWELL® closely monitor the manufacturing facilities, but they are also audited by third-party, U.S.-based audit companies. These companies make visits to the facilities, both planned and spontaneous, in order to ensure that the procedures are up to par from a very specific technical standpoint. We also test product from each batch that is produced and have never had our results come back positive for ANY harmful ingredients such as cyanuric acid, melamine, e.coli and salmonella. I have a Yorkie and I feed her all DOGSWELL products, if I thought there was any risk involved, I wouldn’t do so. Because of our strict quality control procedures I can stand behind our products 100% and guarantee the safety of them!
Please feel free to contact me at info@dogswell.com with any questions!
hi rachel, thank you so much for your comment. i am sure that your company maintains a set of quality standards, but i am unwilling to compromise on feeding my pup anything other than food and treats manufactured in the USA. when and if dogswell decides to bring the manufacturing facilities for treats back to the US (and if i were your company, i would strongly consider this, as i know that i am not the only puppy parent with these concerns), i would absolutely start purchasing them again. also, not only are there FDA concerns, but i would much rather give my money to a company who was manufacturing all of their product in the US and giving back to their local economy and our nation’s economy.
thank you again for stopping by to leave a comment!
Also new to this site. Godiva, Chihuahua only eats healthiest foods. Thank you!
