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: Hound & Gatos Beef Canned Dog Food

Hound and Gatos touts itself as "The Original Paleolithic Pet Food Company". They make canned pet foods out of pretty much just meat, which makes me likes them quite a bit. They also say some questionable, laughable, and outright ridiculous stuff on their website, and use some questionable online marketing tactics that make me feel slightly icky about supporting their company. But only slightly, I mean its entirely possible the questionable stuff was the work of one hopeless idiot that eventually lost their job. At any rate, putting this stuff in my blog post means it's possible I'm inviting trouble from Hound &Gatos and that is kind of exciting. Living dangerously, yo.

The Food

I found this brand of dog food via my usual method of walking into a small business pet supply store and scanning the shelves for anything that we've never tried before. I picked this one because it was a novel brand that did not contain any poultry, egg, sweet potato, barley, or corn, so Brisbane could try it.

Hound & Gatos offers eight different dog food recipes, and at first glance six of them look potentially Brisbane-safe. This beef can contains nothing but beef, water, some gums for texture, and vitamins. If all their foods were made this way, Brisbane would be able to eat all but the chicken and lamb/chicken/salmon cans. Unfortunately, on closer examination, only the beef, pork, and salmon foods are poultry-free. The trout and lamb foods both contain duck liver, and the rabbit recipe has both duck and turkey in there. Nope.

Dog Food Advisor rates this food five our of five stars as a whole, but this beef can only merits 4.5 stars due to its high fat-to-protein ratio. This makes in more appropriate for a high-energy performance dog, and less appropriate for an older dog or one with pancreatitis.

The Company

For those who did not grow up in the southwest and therefore speak pidgin Spanish by default, 'gatos' means 'cat'. I find their slogan interesting, because it uses a well-known food-woo term that sends up red flags for me as a fan of evidence-based claims. I mean, what exactly a hunter-gatherer society ate isn't exactly consistent. Also, dogs are kind of basically scavengers, which meant they were eating the non-optimal paleolithic leftovers and junk rather than prime cuts of mammoth steak. I mean, that's why we even have dogs in the first place.

Hound & Gatos describes their food as hypoallergenic, which is demonstrably false. Allergies to animal proteins are quite common, and their inclusion of various poultry ingredients makes several of their products unusable for my allergy dog. They also announce that they believe fluoridated water is partly to blame for dogs becoming ill. This is where my opinion of the company went from "pretty good" to "probably crazy". Let's face it, there is no credible, reliable scientific evidence that fluoridated water makes anyone sick. I can handle pet food companies making the appeal to nature and blathering on about what animals eat "in the wild", but straight up crazy conspiracy theory is where I draw the line.

Speaking of crazy, lets go back to that Dog Food Advisor page and scroll down to the comments at the bottom. Note that several have been deleted, with the moderator note below, 'Those with a vested interest in any product must publicly disclose this important information to others and always post using their real names. Your use of multiple identities as evidenced by your recent comments posted here using different names yet from the same computer is a violation of Our Commenting Policy "...the use of multiple identities or other deceptive tactics designed to mislead readers are strictly forbidden." Because you have violated this policy, your comments have been removed.'

So somebody from this company was making sock puppet accounts and using them to post multiple glowing reviews from seemingly unrelated parties. Below that are several suspiciously similar comments by various parties describing how Hound and Gatos food made their dog's coat nicer and gave them more energy. Pretty much every one of those comments says the same two things, and they were all made around the same time. I'm not sure why anybody thought this looked like legit PR for the company.

Additionally, several less sock-puppety users on Dog Food Advisor mentioned that they had attempted to contact the company with questions, but had not been able to reach anyone. The sock puppets replied that they had very good luck contacting the company and even spoke to the owner, which is the PR equivalent of going "nuh-uh!"

Bottom Line

This is a high-quality food. My dogs like it. In fact, it was the first thing I could get Sisci to willingly consume after her spay surgery. They make a couple of foods that seem safe for my allergy dog. Though they use co packer Performance Pet, this packer seems to have very high integrity. That said, the amount of woo on the website, and the fact that some part of their Public Relations department is or was staffed by someone with the foresight and maturity of a twelve-year-old, makes me feel a bit squicky about buying their products on a regular basis.

Food Friday: Dogswell Nutrisca Raw Freeze Dried Bites

Nutrisca now has Raw Freeze Dried Bites in addition to their kibble and canned foods. These little squares are made with either chicken or beef, including bone and organ meats. Other ingredients include apples, peas, cranberries, and of course chickpeas. Nutrisca is all about the chickpeas.

The Company

Dogswell was founded in 2004, and I first became aware of their food a couple of years later. When I was trying to get Brisbane to lose some weight I was still doing a lot of raw feeding, but I wanted to use kibble as training treats. Nutrisca's foods were just becoming available in my local stores and so they were being heavily promoted. I could get a 1 lb sample bag for $2, and it was being advertised as good for fat dogs with its low glycemic index.

It looks like Dogswell was acquired in 2009 by TSG Consumer Partners, but they seem to be operating independently. Dogswell got their start with jerky treats manufactured in China. This led to at least on treat recall due to contamination with antibiotic residue in 2013. Despite this, the company continues to defend its manufacturing practices and insists it hold the facilities to strict standards, and uses third party testing to ensure purity. While most of the newer Dogswell products and all of their dog food is made in the USA, their website proudly states that this is only due to consumer pressure and not anything wrong with things sourced and made in China where standards are often more like guidelines.

Dogswell does not own their own manufacturing facility as far as I can tell. Their canned food appears to be co packed by Simmons Pet Foods, who also produce canned food for Nature's Variety and a bunch of other companies. Their kibble is produced by Tuffy's Pet Foods, who recalled some Nutrisca kibble earlier this year for salmonella contamination. 

Sometimes cats happen.

The Food

These are really dense little nuggets, much denser than Stella & Chewy's or Wysong Archetype. The Dogswell website has them listed under treats, but the package states that the food meets AAFCO standards for a complete and balanced diet. I don't think I could use them for treats, they are much too big, and crumble when I finally succeed in breaking them up a bit.

The Verdict

I got these when Ru had a dental cleaning that included removing nine tiny teeth. He was supposed to eat soft food for a week or so, and he is ridiculously picky. He eats Stella & Chewy's most of the time as long as I don't add any liquid or put anything on it, so I figured he might be interested in these. I was wrong, he doesn't like them nearly as much. He eats these about as willingly as he eats any type of kibble or canned food, which is to say he'll eat them about half the time with no rhyme or reason why or why not. Sisci is far less picky and likes them, and Brisbane adores them as he adores all things edible.

These rate five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor website, with no worrisome ingredients. They are only available in 5oz bags, no big bags for big dogs. Obviously Dogswell isn't really expecting anyone to be feeding these as a complete diet to anything but a super picky tiny dog.

Food Friday: Real Meat Beef Dog Food

Real Meat Dog Food is an air-dried food made from beef, bones, and organs. It is produced in New Zealand from free-range grass-fed cows, and has all the nutritional awesomeness of raw meat, without the need for refrigeration or raw food handling precautions.

I found another air-dried dog food! I would be madly in love with this food if I hadn't found Ziwi Peak first. I was aware of Real Meat's jerky treats, and this is basically a giant bag of those. Only instead of just treats, it's actual dog food so I don't have to feel bad if all of Brisbane's calories come from training treats.

The Company

Real Meat's most widely available product is probably their 95% meat jerky treats. These are great for training, and available in several different proteins for dogs with allergies. They have lamb, and venison jerky treats, as well as the more common chicken and beef. They also make some really cute dog food seasonings made from several different meats. I've never seen these in a store before, but they all have chicken in them so I wouldn't be buying them anyway. 

Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, so I appreciate that most of Real Meat's products are made with a single protein source. They don't feel the need to cram chicken or eggs into every recipe. I like that this company is family-owned, and their website says they put their investment into making really good food rather than advertising and marketing. It's a pretty incredible food, and a bit less expensive than Ziwi Peak.

The Food

Real Meat originally made three varieties of their food: beef, lamb, and chicken. Each is made from just that protein source, with a little parsley, rosemary, pumpkin, and vitamins. They have recently added a turkey food, and a turkey and venison food; both of these also contain ground beef bone. I really appreciate that their packaging and website aren't plastered with statements about nature, dogs being wolves, or their diet in the hypothetical wild. The food stands on its own, it doesn't need a bunch of hype. What little hype there is can be found in small print.

This is a pretty amazing food. Naturally Brisbane loves it, as Brisbane loves all things edible. Sisci also enjoys it. Ru...likes it, but it consistently makes him reverse sneeze. It's weird. Usually spicy food that does that to him. Dog Food Advisor gives all the Real Meat recipes five out of five stars.  

The Price

Real Meat Beef dog food is really, seriously dense. At 724 calories per cup, it's the most calorically dense food I've encountered after Ziwi Peak. This is great for 6-lb Ru, who needs to fit a ton of calories into his tiny body. Not so great for 40-lb Brisbane, who needs the same amount of calories as Ru and is the most efficient dog on the planet. A 2-lb bag of Real Meat beef cost around $24 and provides 4250 calories, so $0.56 per 100 calories. If I was to feed Brisbane only this food, it would cost me well under a dollar per day. Were I to use the company's recommendations, it would cost closer to $5 a day.

It's cheaper than Ziwi Peak, but Real Meat air-dried dog food just doesn't work as well for training treats. The food is made in much bigger chunks, so I have to break them up into much smaller pieces before I can use them. The dogs also just aren't quite as nuts for the Real Meat. I guess it's not stinky enough.

Food Friday: Ziwi Peak 'Daily Dog' Air-Dried Cuisine

Ziwi Peak's Daily Dog Air-Dried Cuisine provides all the convenience of kibble, but is made almost entirely out of meat. It is highly-palatable and not unlike feeding my dogs jerky, so they think it's amazing. I have yet to encounter anything like this before, it's not freeze-dried, nor is it a dehydrated powder. There is no need to add water, and it does not need to be refrigerated either.

I found this food at a shop in a nearby town. The name was familiar, but I had never actually taken a look at their food. I'm glad I did, because this stuff is amazing! It makes the best training treats ever. The dogs all love it and will eat it in almost any circumstance, it doesn't crumble, smell bad, or make my hands all gross. As far as I'm aware I don't have to treat it like raw meat, either. There aren't any warnings on the website or packaging about handling safety.

The ingredient list is pleasantly short. We have the beef version, which consists of meat with ground bone, organs, green-lipped mussel, and that's pretty much it. There are some vitamins, a little kelp and parsley, but this food is basically meat. That's amazing!

What's not so amazing is the price tag. Naturally, good food isn't cheap. This 2.2 lb bag cost me a little over $30. Measuring the food is a bit interesting, it comes with its own 2oz scoop. The bag and website both have feeding calculators that, of course, tell me to feed my dogs way too much. One scoop of food contains about 279 calories. According to the feeding calculator, Ru should be eating 3/4 of a scoop per day, Briz should be getting 2.5 scoops, and Sisci should be getting a little over 3 scoops. Brisbane and Ru both seem to need around 100-150 calories per day, so they actually only get half a scoop. Sisci seems to need around 400-600 calories, so she would get around 2 scoops.

The 2.2 lb bag contains about 18 scoops, that would be a month worth of food for Brisbane by himself. It's a little over two weeks worth of food for Briz and Ru together, and would only last us six days if I decided to feed this exclusively. For Briz by himself, it wouldn't be terribly cost-prohibitive at less than a dollar a day. At $1.78 per scoop, Sisci would cost me about $3.50 a day to feed though, and closer to $6 a day if I were feeding her what the package recommends.

Fortunately, ZiwiPeak also sells a 5.5 lb bag which should contain approximately 45 scoops of food. Unfortunately, the price per ounce appears to remain the same. It goes down to about $1.60 per scoop, but that's not a dramatic reduction. This is an expensive but very high-quality food. Dog Food Advisor gives in five out of vie stars across the board, with a brief mention of an unpleasant interaction with the company's customer service. While many customers seem to have had wonderful experiences, it's possible that ZiwiPeak doesn't like dealing with difficult questions from the extremely well-informed.

Food Friday: Lotus Dog Food Brings Ru Inner Peace

I picked up a can of Lotus Just Juicy Beef Shank whilst hunting for a soft food that Ru would eat willingly. Ru approved, as did the rest of the crew. This is a grain-free, limited-ingredient wet food made from high-quality beef, broth, potato starch, and tomato paste. It contains no carrageenan, no guar gum, and no xanthan gum, if you care about that sort of thing. Instead is uses agar agar as a stabilizing agent, because apparently some seaweed-derived gelling agents are still cool to use.

I picked out this can of dog food partly because it was a single-source protein variety, and partly because of the artwork. Look how pretty! It turns out the artist who does the package art for Lotus studied at UC Santa Barbara, my own college. Lotus has their own private cannery in California, so they are somewhat local to me, which I think is cool. I hadn't seen it before, but grabbed when I was checking a local store for Zignature foods. I was disappointed to find only poultry-based foods of that brand, but pleased to find the Lotus cans.

The big selling point of Lotus foods seems to be that their kibble is baked rather than extruded. This requires a longer cooking time at a lower temperature, which may preserve some of the vitamins that would otherwise be lost. I would be very interested in this kibble if it didn't all contain poultry and/or eggs. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, and it's extremely difficult to prevent cross-contamination when I have anyone in the house eating those allergens.

When I opened up the can of Just Juicy Beef Shank, I was immediately impressed with the texture. This stuff looks good enough to eat. I think that's why Ru liked it so much, he was pretty sure he was getting people food.

All of Lotus's canned foods merit five out of five stars on the Dog Food Advisor. While they don't offer enough variety for me to say I'd feel comfortable making this my dogs' exclusive diet, I would be happy using Just Juicy Beef Shank as part of an elimination diet for a period of weeks or months. I can't use their dry foods, but their canned offerings are definitely going to part of our rotation.

Are any Lotus foods available in your area?

Food Friday: Evanger's Hunk of Beef

Evanger's Hunk of Beef is a canned dog food supplement, but not a complete and balanced diet. The name delivers, this contains chunks of cooked beef and nothing else. It has the dubious honor of being the most disgusting thing I have scooped out of a can for my dogs to date. I expect that someday I will work up the courage to buy them some canned green tripe, and this record will be smashed. Until then, we have the Hunk of Beef.

This is a grain-free food with an ingredient list that consists of a single item: beef. It is cooked in its own juices and looks significantly less appetizing in person than the picture on the can.

It's worth repeating that this is not a complete and balanced dog diet. It's a food supplement, meant to be added to Evanger's vegetarian canned food to make a complete diet, or added to a complete and balanced kibble. Since it doesn't have anything in it but cooked beef, it lacks calcium, fiber, and other important nutrients.

I've mentioned the somewhat colorful history of the Evanger's company before. They've had some silent recalls where product was pulled from store shelves without any information passed to consumers. There have been some recalls, but at least Evanger's owns their own packing facility.

This particular product is proudly proclaimed to be "hand packed". The website goes into further detail, declaring that the meat was placed into the can by hand. I'm not entirely certain how I feel about the value our culture places on things done "by hand". There are lots of things that are honestly better when done by hand, but these things tend to be artistic in nature. "Hand painted" and "hand carved" mean a lot when I'm buying pottery or furniture. Other things seem to be pointlessly advertised as "by hand". Obviously an ice cream shop will be serving "hand scooped" ice cream, and restaurants will have "hand poured" wine, there's not really any other sensible way to do it. I can't remember I saw an ice cream scooping machine, or a wine pouring machine.

When it comes to "hand packed" dog food, I'm sort of on the fence. It's nice to know that a real live person personally stuffed this can full of beef while presumably watching to make sure nothing weird got in there. On the other hand, automated processes can be less prone to error. I haven't decided whether I prefer my dog food to be more like art, or more like driverless cars.

Given the company's range of issues, I'm not planning to feed my dogs Evanger's Hunk of Beef on a regular basis. This is more of an occasional stinky treat.

What's the grossest thing you've ever scooped out of a can for your dogs?

Treat Tuesday: Beef Trachea

Beef tracheas are edible dried cow windpipes. They are also known as "moo tubes" and are easily identified by the cartilage rings that make them so delightfully chewy.

These are pretty far up on the gross scale, they're usually pretty greasy and smelly.

Good For: A longer chew session for average chewers. Keeping Brisbane busy for 20+ minutes. Being exciting enough to be worth chewing.

Not Good For: People who mind feeding their dogs recognizable animal parts. Nice carpets. Dogs that swallow things whole.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to buy them occasionally for Briz, but not enough to not exclaim over how disgusting they are every time.

Have you ever given your dog a beef trachea chew?