Hi all

I hope everyone is well, I’m posting to inquire about what healthy snacks / treats you’re all using and recommend for a 4 month old puppy. I’m conscious of the fact that there are loads of treats on the market but the packaging leaves much to be desired. Loads look akin to sugary snacks for kids!

My other half bought the following today:

Dentastix
Good boy - crunchy chicken & calcium bones

We’ve tried the “good boy” which looks like a sugary kids snack. Our pup is very windy and I’m not entirely sure that this is a good thing!

She’s been on a diet of royal canin and transitioning across to a diet of natural dog hub grain free food which she loves.

What natural and tasty easily sourced off the shelf treats would you recommend moving forward?

Best

If u  are talking training treats then I ve used allsprts.
Small pieces of cooked chicken ,or actually any cooked meat cut up really small . Hard cheese or the soft squirty type where they can lick some off for reward .
I also make liver or sardine cake which is really easy .
Liver , egg , flour of choice u can use coconut flour . Mix together add water of needed so its like a cake mixture and pop in oven until done .it freezes easily too. Substitute sardines for the liver if u like .
Other non training treats are dried pigs ears hooves rabbit ears pizzles the list can go one .nothing raw hide and most of those are easily available on line.  Beware  if u use raw bones as the big weight bearing ones can break teeth unless u remove  when the meat has all been stripped off. I prefer the softer non weight bearing bones or fallow deer antlers which are soft. I know others dont agree but having  a gsd that fractured a tooth ad know who have damaged teeth .  I wouldn't risk it personnaly.  After that he had chicken wings and various other bones that are non weight bearing .

I use liver, heart, kidneys - all boiled and then chopped up.

I buy any roast joint on sale, roast it and chop it up.

Cheddar.

For recalls, sardines, smoked mackerel, paté....

I wouldn't buy pet shop treats in a bazillion years. They are more expensive than all the above, they taste less good for your dog and they are full of additives, colours, preservatives, sugar, salt etc etc...

If you're talking specifically made for dogs then JR pate tubes are probably the best.  Pure meat, single species too, and cuts like tinned ham so easy to deal with too.  For drier stuff, Pet Munchies dried meats cut up or the equivalent in other brands.

But in general, I'm with 1234 - cooked meats and cheese.  I also do tuna cake (2 tins tuna in oil, 2 eggs, plain flour - roughly 160g but I never measure it, I just add until it's a fairly sticky paste.  Mix well, put on plate, microwave for 5 mins.  Leave to cool and cut.  Cuts better when it's been chilled in the fridge), and occasionally a plain egg bake too (load of eggs well whisked, pour into greased baking tray, bake at 140C for around 35 mins.  Leave to cool, cuts easily into small cubes).

I do also use some less healthy things but mainly for trickier behaviours I'm struggling to crack - that's when I break out the rich tea finger or malted milk bits!  Otherwise it's the above.

Excellent. Thanks for the feedback!

I use the little dried fish cubes a lot - plenty of places sell them- contain nothing but fish compacted into a little smelly dried cube

My dog will happily sell her soul for fish cubes. On the rare occasions someone else walks her I make sure they are carrying fish cubes and that the dog knows this, then there’s no danger of her suddenly deciding to nip off home to mum and dad midway.

I use dried fish - from a source down here in Cornwall ** which is cheaper by far than Fish4 although there may be marginally more 'bits' which I put on top of her food now.   Also Dentastix, Bonio and Morrisons own gravy-bone biscs.   Oh and at one point, pigs ears and of course, raw meaty bones when possible to be eaten OUTSIDE!!   With me keeping an eye on things - to stop 'swapping' going on, again when we had numbers.

** https://purelyfish.co.uk/product/whitefish-skin-cubes-1kg-bag/
Not over the counter - online.

What I do not use are rawhide chews after having to fish a soggy mass out of one of my Basset's throat to prevent him from imminent death

When with numbers, I'd bake calves liver with an expectant group round the oven waiting

You've had some excellent advice on healthy treats.  If you didn't know what was in a dentastix, here is the ingredients list from a very popular brand.  They are not examples of healthy treats.

Rice Flour, Wheat Starch, Glycerin, Gelatin, Gum Arabic, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Poultry Flavor, Powdered Cellulose, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Iodized Salt, Potassium Chloride,  Vitamins (Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate [Source of Vitamin C], d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement [Vitamin B2], Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Alpha Tocopherol Acetate [Source of Vitamin E]),  Potassium Sorbate (A Preservative), Smoke Flavor, Zinc Sulfate, Green Tea Extract, Turmeric, Iron Oxide, Copper Sulfate.

Another vote here for the JR pate tubes, healthy, good value, convenient to use and the dogs love them.

My fish treat source has a discount day planned for the 9th March.   It may be a good idea to go there to order dried fish and any of their other products.

> a discount day planned for the 9th March

10% off everything!

Riv loves all the usual meat/cheese/fish/stinky stuff, but he’s also a fan of potato in all forms, eggs, and bread. Banana is very high value to him too.

I don’t think I’ve had an entire banana all to myself for years, with him and the rabbits liking it so much!

> My fish treat source has a discount day planned for the 9th March

Oh they look good MamBas, I'll do an order on the 9th, if you refer me you'll get 10% off any day, I'll pm my email address

LIke a lot of people I make my own liver cake, or sometimes I substitute liver with tuna, mackerel or sardines.

I also like dried liver, boil it up first, because it's easier to cut into tiny pieces when it's cooked, chop it up and then spread out over a couple of large baking trays and dry in a  very low oven for a few hours. It keeps forever, I'll often have some in my jacket pocket for weeks, the dogs would sell their soul for it

One of my dogs will do anything for a sugar snap pea

> One of my dogs will do anything for a sugar snap pea

One of my favourite memories of my old lab Summer was when she was out with me in the garden one afternoon. I was picking mangetout peas for dinner and dropping them in a bowl on the floor. I picked loads but the bowl just didn’t seem to be filling up.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out where those peas were going every time I turned my back on her... but it took me an embarrassingly long time to twig!

She’d also steal windfall pears (but not apples, for some reason), and sometimes cherry tomatoes off the plants in the greenhouse.

Just remembered Primula cheese in tubes - it’s my secret weapon for persuading Riv to stay still for things like grooming, which he hates.

Probably his absolute to-die-for treat is room temperature hotdog. Easy to cut into ant-sized pieces appropriate for a pap too, which is fantastic for doing shaping or anything else that requires rapid-fire food straight to his face. I often find treats too crumbly to get really small.

@ chaumsong.   Re keeping liver treats in pockets - be careful..... it has been known for mine to chew pockets out in my jackets when liver has been kept in there

Yep  been there too mambas :)

Is that 10 percent off the purley range?
I like the sound of having fish cubes handy on walks etc.

Does anyone else know of any other companies doing cost effective fish cubes?

Some brilliant suggestions so far :)

Pate
Fish cubes

Thats a really good price on the fish cubes- they are very light weight so would be huge amount.

ps liver cubes- I used to use those with my first weimaraner when she went a little deaf about recall in park- only snag was I ended up with EVERY dog in park sat by me !

Just seen that the natural dog hub also sells fish cubes for a similar price. They do free delivery on orders over £45 so if anyone hasn’t yet had a look at their dog food range then I’d recommend having a look.

If you are using treats for training I have found that some are too big. You only need tiny pieces or the dog is busy chewing each treat rather than doing the activity you are training for. A mixture of sizes works so you can decide which size is best for the reward

My dried fish source (as above) do free delivery for orders over £30.

> be careful..... it has been known for mine to chew pockets out in my jackets when liver has been kept in there

I too have several jeans, jackets and a dog walking bag that have been 'modified' in this way