Treat Tuesday: Primal Beef Nibs

Hey, Primal makes bite-size training treats now! These Beef Nibs are made from beef heart, sea salt, and that's it. I think they look almost exactly like cross sections of a Slim Jim, but I'd need to chop up an actual Slim Jim to be sure. Primal also makes chicken, turkey, and pork treats in nib-form.

Good For: High-value stinky training treats. Picky dogs. Dogs with allergies.

Not Good For: Feeding an entire handful at a time since there's not a whole ton in the bag.

How Much We Like Them: Even Ranger was willing to eat them without hesitation. Obviously we ran out of them immediately, need to buy more now.

Food Friday: Alternative Protein Roundup, Pork Edition

My quest for Brisbane-safe foods has brought us a variety of pork-based treats and dog food over the nearly two years I've been blogging here. We've already summed up the venison- and rabbit-based goodies, so this week it's time to take a look at an often-overlooked alternative protein. I'm not a huge ham or sausage fan, but I think we can all agree that bacon is awesome. I even chop it into tiny pieces and toss it with various training treats to make them extra-awesome.

Why Aren't There More Pork-Based Dog Foods?

Photo by Erin Koski

Chicken is by far the most common animal protein found in dog food, beef is the second most common, and lamb third in my own experience reading infinite ingredient labels. Pork is supposed to be a poor-man's meat, cheap and plentiful right? So why isn't everyone making dog food out of it?

The first reason I've heard for not feeding pork to dogs is trichinosis, or trichinellosis. This is a parasite transmitted through consumption of raw or undercooked meat of infected animals. The worms live in the muscles until the meat is eaten, then they are released to infect the new host. This used to be a major issue with pork in particular until laws passed in 1980, along with good food storage and handling practices like freezing pork for several weeks before cooking it. Today, trichinellosis is extremely rare, with around 20 cases reported annually in the United States according to the CDC. Most of these are not from consuming commercially-raised pork though, they are from eating raw or undercooked wild game meats.

The second reason I've heard for not feeding pork to dogs is because it supposedly causes pancreatitis. Given that Brisbane has eating tons of raw pork bones without developing it, I'm not terribly worried. The association mostly seems to be between dogs eating super-rich fat scraps and getting pancreatitis, and obviously pet food manufacturers are monitoring the fat and protein levels in their products. It mostly seems that some companies in the industry are leery of using pork just because of their customers' outdated or inaccurate information. This is actually a good thing though, because it means most dogs have never been fed pork, so it can be used as an alternative protein and part of an elimination diet.

Pork Dog Foods

It seems that some of the very best dog food companies use pork as an alternative protein. Primal offers pork-based versions of both their Nuggets and Pronto foods, and both of these use only pork and some veggies so they can be useful for helping sort out food sensitivities. Acana Singles Pork and Butternut Squash is the only kibble we've tried so far that only used pork protein.

Companies seem to be more likely to make canned foods out of pork, rather than kibble Wild Calling offers one that is just pork and vitamins to make it a complete diet. Fromm's Four Star Shredded Pork Entree is the most appetizing food we sell at work, if a dog won't eat that they won't eat anything. Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Diets only offers a canned pork food, but offers a kibble variety for each of their other proteins. Natural Balance offers a wild boar and brown rice canned food, but no boar kibble. We got a carton of Caru Real Pork Stew in our November BarkBox.

Pork Dog Treats

All our favorite pork-based dog treats were discovered via BarkBox. The Bixbi Essentials Pork Jerky arrived in the 2014 December box. Two years ago we got some PetSafe Indigo Smokehouse Strips in our March box, last year we got some Healthy Dogma Bacon Hearts in the March Box. The August Box brought us some Wagatha's Maple Bacon Biscuits. Surprisingly, our favorite pork-based chew, the bacon-flavored Dogswell Boundless, did not come in a subscription box. 

Food Friday: Alternative Protein Roundup, Venison Edition

Brisbane's Bark Blog is approaching its second birthday, and we're taking a look back at some of the unique and interesting goodies we've found for dogs with food allergies. Brisbane himself is allergic to poultry and eggs, and was recently diagnosed with corn, barley, and sweet potato allergies as well. Finding foods, treats, and chews for him is an ongoing project, and I'm always looking for new things to try.

Venison is a popular protein found in quite a few limited ingredient diets intended for dogs with food allergies. I assume it's also somewhat easy to get in places where people hunt. Here on the coast of southern California, nobody hunts. Well maybe a few people do, but nobody talks about it. Saying you go out and kill animals for sport sort of feels antisocial, unless those animals are fish. Guns aren't common either, and the people who do have them tend to keep them in lockers at shooting ranges. I have seen a number of raw feeders recommend asking friends that hunt for their freezerburned deer meat, which seems downright foreign when I know so many people that have never even tasted venison.

Photo by Erin Koski

Anyway, venison is a nice flavorful game meat that my dogs absolutely love. Like rabbit, it is a common alternative protein that does not seem to be a common allergen yet.

Venison Food

Stella & Chewy's makes both freeze-dried and frozen Simply Venison raw dog food. Primal also offer a frozen raw singe-protein venison food in their Primal Nuggets product line.  

In the non-raw food department, Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Sweet Potato and Venison food was a common sight around my house until I figured out that Brisbane was allergic to sweet potatoes. We also tried the canned version back when the place I worked still carried it. Wysong gave me a coupon for free shipping, so I bought a bag of Epigen Venison, but Ru didn't like it. I'm not sure I would buy it again because it contained powdered barley grass and Briz has a barley allergy. Likewise, we'll be skipping the Party Animal Heavenly Venison canned food from now on because it contains sweet potatoes. 

So far, I think our favorite venison-based single-protein dog food has been the Canine Caviar Wilderness dog food. The canned version also went over well here. It's awfully high in calories for Brisbane, though. At the moment, we're working our way through the big bag of Pure Vita Venison and Red Lentils that the company handed out when my employers started carrying their products. Free dog food is my favorite kind of dog food. Ziwi Peak makes an air-dried venison, but it costs way more than their beef dog food so I've not been able to bring myself to buy it yet. I bet it smells horrible yet wonderful.

Venison Treats

So far I think our absolute favorite treat has been the Superior Farms Venison Crepe. It was basically a soft, delicious rawhide chew, but made out of a deer instead. We've had numerous Etta Says Deer Chews show up in our monthly subscription boxes, and they never last long. Less exciting are Natural Balance's LID Sweet Potato and Venison cookies. One of our favorite training treats so far has been the Merrick Venison Holiday Stew sausages.

What other deer-based, elk-based, or moose-based products are out there that we haven't tried yet?

Food Friday: Alternative Protein Roundup, Rabbit Edition

Brisbane's Bark Blog has been around for close to two years now, and in that time we've reviewed a lot of food and treats that use allergy-friendly alternative proteins like rabbit. Since Brisbane is allergic to poultry, I don't normally consider turkey and duck to be alternative proteins. I also know that beef is a common allergen, and that buffalo and bison may not be different enough for dogs with beef allergies. Lamb was considered alternative a couple of decades ago but has become increasingly more common since then. For the purpose of this blog post, I'm going to stick with the more exotic choices.

Rabbit is a high-protein, lean meat that, frankly, should be cheaper and easier to find in the grocery store. Those little buggers are everywhere, on the trail one even leaped into Brisbane's mouth. I bet giant bunny feedlots in the middle of California would smell way better than the legions of cows currently occupying that space.

This picture has nothing to do with this post.
Photo by Erin Koski

Rabbit Food

I think our favorite rabbit-based food is Stella & Chewy's Absolutely Rabbit, freeze-dried is always a winner around here. Wysong Archetype was also a winner until Brisbane's allergy test revealed his barley allergy. Raw is also quite popular, and Brisbane and Sisci both loved the Primal Nuggets we tried. The place where I work used to carry Wild Calling Hoppy's canned dog food, and that was what we tempted picky dogs with until our vendor stopped offering it. Instinct also offers a rabbit-based canned food. Our least favorite was Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Potato and Rabbit, which is high in carbs while being low in protein and fat. Mostly it's just widely available and worth trying if you're not sure what your dog is allergic to and can't get something like Wysong Anergen 2 instead.

Rabbit Treats

In addition to rabbit-based diets, we've found a bunch of bunnymeat treats. Some are made almost entirely from rabbit meat, like Wysong's Dream Treats and Barkworthy's Rabbit BonBons. Others have some additional ingredients, like the Etta Says Crunchy Rabbit Chews that also contain rawhide. Zukes offers a couple of different rabbit-based versions of their semi-moist treats. Their Lil' Links Rabbit and Apple Recipe are still safe for Brisbane's ever-growing list of allergies, but their Mini Naturals are full of barley so those are now off the menu for us.

Have you found a rabbit-based product we haven't tried yet? Please share in the comments!

Food Friday: Primal Nuggets Rabbit Formula Raw Dog Food

One of our local pet stores recently began carrying a variety of Primal Nuggets raw dog food. We've tried Primal Pronto, the pelleted form, before. The nuggets come in a wider variety of protein sources, with a total of six different options for Brisbane and his chicken, turkey, duck, and egg allergies.

Rather than small rapidly-defrosting pellets, Primal Nuggets are rectangular prisms of raw meat. Each weighs about 1 ounce and provides 39 calories. The food is 85% rabbit meat, bone, and organs. The other 15% is made up of things like squash, celery, collard greens, and vitamins. This is a single-source protein food that would be a good choice for a dog with food allergies. There are a number of fruit and vegetable ingredients, but these are less likely to be allergens. Of course, for a really serious elimination diet you would want to be feeding straight rabbit meat.

Primal Nuggets predate the Pronto pellets, but they are smaller than the patties I fed Brisbane when he was a baby. I actually found them to be nearly as convenient as the Pronto, Brisbane and Sisci would both happily eat them frozen. The nuggets didn't stick together in the bag so I could just grab a couple, toss them in a bowl, and serve them up immediately. Of course this would never work with Ru, as refrigerated food makes him shiver uncontrollably and he definitely won't touch anything frozen. He's not a fan of raw food in general because it's always cold.

The Primal website specifically states that their food should be fully defrosted before serving, but I have been feeding Brisbane frozen meat for a decade with no issue that I can see. Frozen or defrosted, raw or cooked, fresh or kibble, it all comes out looking the same.

The how-to-feed page also uses the term 'toxins' without specifying what substances they are referring to, which usually means they have no idea and are just throwing the word around.

Like all raw foods, Primal Nuggets are fairly expensive. That said, my dogs don't eat a ton and I'm not using this as their entire diet. It's definitely a worthwhile food to have in the rotation, and is something I would be comfortable feeding for an extended period of time. It's a great option for dogs with allergies, and awesome for rotating between protein sources. Brisbane can have their rabbit, venison, pheasant, pork, beef, lamb, and beef and salmon foods, and I would definitely be comfortable rotating through those on a permanent basis if I had to choose just one food for some reason. Primal frozen foods are rated five out of five stars on Dog Food Advisor, with the chicken and lamb formulas meriting four stars due to their high fat to protein ratio.

Have you fed your dog raw food? What type?

Food Friday: Primal Pronto Beef

Primal Pronto is raw dog food that is almost as convenient as kibble. It comes packaged in a resealable bag, and the food itself is in pellet form. It's still raw ground meat, just shaped into small pieces so it can be scooped out of the bag. This also allows it to defrost almost immediately, taking all the inconvenience out of raw food that comes in patty or loaf form.

Brisbane was exclusively raw fed for about six years, until the inconvenience, expense, and difficulty with portion control became too much for me. I did some prey-model raw, and some pre-made raw. Primal was one of the first commercial raw foods available in my area, and the first one I tried for Brisbane. At the time it only came in large patty form. I was perpetually forgetting to defrost the next day's food, or defrosting too much and having it go bad. Prying the frozen patties apart was a pain in the butt.

Obviously the people at Primal had some of the same issues. Primal Pronto addresses basically every issue I had with the inconvenience of raw food. This stuff is literally as convenient as kibble to feed. Open bag, scoop into bowl. The only difference is that this is raw meat, and so I need to wash the bowl, the measuring scoop, and my hands after feeding it.

Primal Pronto is also pretty pricey, at $25 for a bag. It's 64 calories per ounce and 64 ounces per bag. Since Brisbane subsists on a mere ~150 calories per day (plus however much pizza he can steal), theoretically this one bag could last me around a month. Primal makes quite a few single-protein raw foods that Brisbane can eat with his poultry allergies, including beef, lamb, pheasant, rabbit, and venison. Unfortunately, Primal Pronto has significantly fewer selections and only offer beef and lamb for Briz.

The Hype
Primal's website actually has significantly less hype than I expected. Despite all the claims in the raw feeding community that raw food is infinitely superior, there haven't actually been controlled studies or anything resembling scientific proof. I love scientific proof. The website does talk a bit about the diet of animals in the wild, but in a sort of unassuming, plain text fashion. I like it.


Following the Trail
Like all the awesome pet food companies, Primal makes their own food in their own facility. Their ingredients are human grade and the meat they use is all from USDA-approved sources in the USA and New Zealand. Not only do they not use any ingredients imported from China, they also do not get their meat from animals fed on imported feed from China.

The Good Stuff
This is a really amazing food, with incredibly high-quality ingredients and lots of options for dogs with allergies. I just can't get over how convenient it is, too. Easily the easiest raw diet ever.