Product Review: Benebone Dental Chew

This Benebone Dental Chew is a bacon-flavored durable nylon chew toy made with bacon because how cool is that? This toy is large and comes in a unique shape. The handle loops are great for sticking a paw through to hold the toy at just the right angle, and the ridges are supposed to help clean the teeth during chewing. This toy is currently available in one size and only in bacon flavor, but the company plans to release chicken and peanut butters flavors in the future.

Photo by Erin Koski

Sisci loves her original Benebone, but she didn't take to this toy immediately. Instead, it sat around for a couple of months before she suddenly decided it was time for a good gnaw.

The handles and ridges of this bone are both awesome and terrible, depending on the dog. Some dogs love the ridges so much they immediately gnaw them into oblivion. They definitely become jagged and scratchy when chewed, and it's not hard for an enthusiastic chewer to make themselves bleed.

The cool loops on the Benebone Dental chew pose enough of a hazard that it should really be a supervision-only toy. Dogs have gotten their legs and jaws stuck in the loops. Fortunately Benebone seems to have super customer service, and they say they are happy to exchange the Dental Chew for a regular Benebone Wishbone if your dog has an issue.

Pros: Durable, long-lasting, and more attractive than any other non-edible chew.

Cones: Loop design of toy poses entrapment hazard if the dog's jaw or leg is just the right size. Nylon ridges tend to become sharp when chewed.

Bottom Line: If your dog loves Benebones, Nylabones, or ignores most non-edible chew toys, this one is probably worth a try.

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. 

Treat Tuesday: DIY Pill Pockets Again

I started making my own pill pocket treats for Brisbane a couple of months ago, and since then I have made a few batches and learned a few things I wanted to share. Briz is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, and every flavor of Greenies Pill Pockets contains either chicken or duck. Here are the batches I have attempted so far:

Coconut flour/beef babyfood/coconut oil: It has been super hot here for the last several months with no sign of cooling off anytime soon. It has been so hot for so long that I forgot what coconut oil does when it gets cold. Like most fats, coconut oil turns to a nice hard solid when refrigerated. This batch of pill treats went from perfect texture to rock hard once I stuck them in the fridge. We still used them, but I had to let them sit out or roll them around in my hands a bit before I could squish the pills into them.

Coconut flour/bacon/bacon fat: Guess what else goes hard in the fridge? Bacon fat! These were definitely a lot tastier than the babyfood ones, but I ended up adding some peanut butter to get the texture right.

Unlike most bloggers, I am willing to show you my sloppily-formed
DIY pill pockets in all their lumpy glory.

Rice flour/Steak/Liver/Bone Broth/ Peanut Butter: I just made a huge batch of these and forming them into little pockets took forever. I tried adding a bit of xanthan gum to see how it changed the texture, but I don't think it did much. Maybe next time I'll add some gelatin for curiosity's sake. Yet again, I didn't set out to make these peanut butter treats, but I ended up adding it to help with the texture.

My ideal pill pocket texture is as close to the freshly-opened Greenies Pill Pockets as I can make it. This is a lot like playdough, it needs to stick to itself and be easily squished from one shape into another, but not be so sticky that the tub of them turns into an amorphous blob. This latest batch really didn't stick to itself, it resisted being rolled into shape and instead had to be smooshed rather firmly. I know that cream of tartar is what gives a homemade playdough its distinctive texture, maybe I should try that next.

Treat Tuesday: Healthy Dogma Bacon Hearts

This cup of Healthy Dogma Bacon Hearts arrived in our March Allergy-Friendly BarkBox. Unlike the Jamaican Bacon Hearts found on the Healthy Dogma website, these contain no poultry, eggs, beef, corn, wheat, soy, or gluten. They are made from peas, pea flour, tapioca, canola oil, cranberry, sweet potato, and of course bacon.

Good For: Mid-value training treats. Popping into Kongs and the Treat-Dispensing Chew Ball. Find-the-treat games.

Not Good For: Lasing very long.

How Much We Like Them: They're half-gone already.

Product Review: Aussie Naturals Squeaky Bacon

The Aussie Naturals Squeaky Bacon is a stuffed toy made from leather. It contains a squeak and is bacon-scented.

Photo by Erin Koski

The Squeaky Bacon arrived in our March BarkBox, and was promptly ignored by everyone until Ulysses arrived in May. I like the Aussie Naturals company, their products are made with a focus on the natural and sustainable. Leather, jute, coconut fiber, wool, cotton, and natural gum rubber are their primary materials, and they aim to produce quality products with a minimal carbon footprint.

I like the concept, but I can't help but notice that the Aussie Naturals website has changed recently. AussieNaturals.us is a very professional-looking web store with a wonderful backstory about the original company, ABO Gear, and how they branched out into the pet market. The new site, AussieNaturals.org, is done primarily in Comic Sans, with an abbreviated "about us" page and an overall rough and unpolished look.

Photo by Erin Koski

The company and their website aside, the Squeaky Bacon is pretty amusing. Brisbane and Ru ignore it entirely. Uly will occasionally toss it around. Nobody here has gnawed on it yet, but a friend got the same toy in the March BarkBox and reported that her Jack Russell Terrier mix ate it. As this was the only toy that particular dog had ever felt the need to devour, it appears to have some sort of strange attraction.

Pros: Biodegradable, non-toxic, environmentally-friendly toy made without plastics or petroleum products. Sturdier than fabric squeakies, and the leather provides a novel chewing texture for most dogs.

Cons: Small size make it unattractive for dogs that love great big mouthfuls of squeak. Some dogs consider it a snack. Manufactured in India by a company that is based in Georgia, nowhere is Australia involved except in the name.

Bottom Line: It seems to be a good company making quality products. I wish they were manufactured in the USA as I have some concerns about quality control and the potential for toxic materials in the leather. Not something I would have purchased on my own, but the Squeaky Bacon is certainly a welcome addition to the toybox.