Treat Tuesday: What is a Venison Crepe?

I've written about Superior Farms and their venison crepes before, but I had a lingering question about this particular product. I found the Superior Farms booth at SuperZoo, and they invited me to choose a treat from their display of wonderful animal-based chews and treats. Of course I selected a venison crepe, and then I had the opportunity to ask my burning question:

What, exactly, is a venison crepe?

The label says venison hide, but what part of the deer renders this exquisite little scrunched up bit? The rep was happy to tell me, as the squeamish don't tend to pop up with such geeky questions.

Superior Farms is all about using every part of the animal, and dog treats are a really great way to use the weird bits. Venison crepes are made out of the face skin of a deer. Can you see the nose on this one? I like to imagine these were born when someone dropped a piece of hide on the floor, let it dry off a bit, and then went "you know what, that's actually kinda cool!"

Fr those unacquainted with the venison crepe, this is a rawhide alternative that is great for dogs with beef allergies. For my dogs, who enjoy bully sticks and don't just gobble them down like quick snacks, these things last for more than one chewing session. Superior Farms makes their products in the USA, without any of the scary chemical processing that imported treat usually go through.

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?

Treat Tuesday: Superior Farms Venison Crepe

The Superior Farms Venison Crepe is a natural chew made from 100% venison hide. It is softer than rawhide, and made in the USA without any scary chemical processing. It also isn't stinky like bully sticks. Ours arrived in our October Allergy-Friendly BarkBox and was snarfed down by Brisbane shortly afterward.

Good For: Giving dogs with beef allergies something nice to chew on. Keeping the monsters busy when I'm trying to blog. Occupying dogs in crates. Being possibly more digestible than beefhide, it certainly feels a lot more light and fluffy.

Not Good For: Lasting as long as Wholesome Hides. Feeding dogs who like to swallow things whole.

How Much We Like It: Not quite enough to order another one for Brisbane, but I might if I saw one in a store. It's such an awesome novel protein chew for dogs with allergies. If Briz were allergic to beef, these would be a staple here.

The November Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

The November Allergy-Friendly BarkBox finally arrived, and it is, of course, Thanksgiving-themed. Everything in it is pretty cool, and I'm a little curious what the normal Bark Boxers got.

The Caru Real Pork Stew is the most unexpected thing in this month's box. I've never encountered their products before. It is delightfully Brisbane-safe with no poultry or egg ingredients. Caru also makes other flavors of stew, including turkey. I bet everyone else got turkey stew. Did you guys get turkey stew?

Don't worry, that's not a real raw chicken leg, it's just a squeaky toy from PetProjekt, packaged to look like raw poultry. It is so delightful I don't even want to take it out of the packaging yet. I need to leave it in a few more unexpected places to weird people out before I actually give it to the dogs. PetProjekt also makes some phenomenally realistic sea shell squeakies, and I have been coveting a nautilus for some time. Yes, I covet dog toys. I buy them based largely on what they will look like strewn across my floor. It's like interior decorating for lazy slobs.

We got a squeaky carrot from P.L.A.Y. that is adorable and will probably go over at least as well as our crab and squid. I finally bought a squid. I will do a review on it eventually.

Is that a bag of lamb biscuits from Superior Farms back there? Why yes it is! While I'm delighted, this is another one that I'd like to compare notes on to see what the non-allergic pups got.

The last thing in this month's box is a little keychain container of SafeMade Apawthecary Cleaning Wipes for touching up yucky dogs. We don't get anything resembling snow around here so we don't have to worry about salt on delicate feetsies, but these could up being useful anyway.

Treat Tuesday: Superior Farms Lamb Biscuits

We got our first bag of Superior Farms Lamb Biscuits in a BarkBox, and loved them so much I had to get more. These are nice stinky grain-free cookies with an odor that I find rather pleasant, if meaty. The little hearts are very dense and difficult to break, and are just a tiny bit bigger than the opening of a large Kong.

Good For: Hiding in board game puzzle toys and playing games where the dogs can sniff them out. Surprise treats left in crates for dogs to find. 'Just because I love you' treats.

Not Good For: Shoving inside Kongs and other toys with holes too small for the biscuits to just fall out, at least around here. Tossing to the dogs on my way out the door when I don't want my hands to smell like stinky treats.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to keep them on hand most of the time. These were also Josie's favorite treat, and at her final vet appointment she went to sleep with her nose in a bowl of them, so I have a very sentimental attachment to these dog biscuits. Is that weird? It's probably weird.

The October Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

This month's allergy-friendly BarkBox finally arrived, and it's a spooky one! I love Halloween, so this is a theme I thoroughly enjoy. Everything is Brisbane-safe this month, with no chicken, turkey, duck, or eggs. This month we got a couple of interesting new cards in our box, the first was a little note "to the dog of the house" letting Brisbane know that one of the items on the "what's in this month's box" card was a little different from the item that they sent. The second was a Scout's Honor card describing the new satisfaction guarantee. From now on, if Briz doesn't love something in his BarkBox, we can let them know and either get a replacement or credit at the BarkShop.

The info card says we have a SafeMade Dia de los Muertos skull, but our Day of the Dead skull is actually from Dex & Penny. It's a crinkly, squeaky plush sugar skull with reinforced seams. Ulysses thinks it's pretty cool.

Uly also loves the Flash & Glow Jr. ball by American Dog Toys. It lights up when it hits anything, I can get it going just by slapping it into my palm. It's pretty hard compared to our usual rubber fetch balls, but it held up well when Uly decided to give it a celebratory chew.

We're already fans of the Superior Farms heart-shaped cookies, so I'm enthusiastic about the Venison Crepe in this month's box. It's made out of deer hide, and looks like an amorphous blob of rawhide.

I'm also pleased with the Hare of the Dog Rabbit Jerky Stick. I particularly like feeding rabbit to my dogs, and this company uses all-American USDA-inspected bunnies. Also made in America are the Wet Noses Howlin' Goodies pumpkin biscuits.

The final goody in our box is a bag of Max & Ruffy's Mother Quinoa's Pumpkin Patch treats. Both these and the Wet Noses cookies are made from pumpkin. The Max and Ruffy's biscuits are also vegan.

The August Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Last month I almost canceled our BarkBox subscription when I received yet another box of mostly chicken-based treats and unappealing toys. I was informed that there was a new allergy-friendly BarkBox we could try, with no chicken, turkey, beef, corn, soy, gluten, or wheat. While we could still be showered with duck and egg-filled goodies, I figured it would significantly increase our chances of getting Brisbane-safe treats. BarkBox delivered!

We got a big bag of heart-shaped Superior Farms Venison Biscuits! Grain-free, egg-free, and poultry-free, these are easily my favorite thing we've ever gotten in a BarkBox. They're also a bit nostalgic, we got a bag of lamb-flavored biscuits in one of our first BarkBoxes, and they were Josie's favorite treat. She went out crunching a bowl of them at the vet. These are stinky, dense cookies that are the perfect size for cramming into Kongs and other stuffable toys.

The other bag of cookies is Feel Good Treat Co Seafood Chowder, and it outdoes the venison treats for stink. These things are fishy as hell, in the worst way. We got some Baker's Best Maple-Glazed Salmon with Blueberries treats from the same company in our March BarkBox, but those weren't anywhere near this level of funk. The dogs love them.

We got a Jax and Bones Nautical Wheel Rope Toy that Ulysses helpfully chomped. Knotted rope toys aren't very popular around here, but on visiting the site I discovered that they have both a sauropod and an octopus rope toy. Yes, I'm complaining again that I didn't get the right toy in my box. I know we're signed up for the allergy-friendly BarkBox, can they also make a dinosaurs-and-cephalopods BarkBox?

The last item is one that I'm very excited about, it's a Waboba Fetch ball. Waboba, the ball that bounces on water. We have got to get to the pool with this one ASAP. A ball that bounces on water might be enough to get Brisbane to actually jump off the side of the pool instead of insisting on taking the stairs every time.