Product Review: Starmark Petsmart Exclusive Treat Ringer

The Starmark Treat Ringer is a Petsmart Exclusive food toy. It features an inner rod that holds edible Treat Rings, surrounded by a tough plastic rim. It comes in three different shapes, a ring, a bone, and a horseshoe. The ring is supposed to be the easiest, and the horseshoe the most challenging. This is a toy designed for power chewers and dogs that destroy everything.

Photo by Erin Koski

I spotted the Starmark Ringer toys at Petsmart and then failed to find them on the Starmark website when I wanted to learn more about them. On a subsequent visit to the store, I learned that these toys are sold exclusively at Petsmart. I was familiar with this concept, but had only ever seen My Little Ponies and dinosaurs as store exclusives at Toys'R'Us and Target. Exclusive dog toys are a whole new thing.

I bought this toy on our trip to Idaho, where I was able to test it on a variety of different dogs. My cousin's weird little curly-tailed mix was happily tearing chunks off of our Everlasting Groovy Ball within moments of claiming it, so I even had a power chewer test drive it.

I'm guessing Molly is a border collie/beagle/pug cross. 

How Long Does It Take?

The Starmark Treat Ringer horseshoe comes with five treat rings pre-installed. They take quite a bit of manual dexterity and some force to put on the toy, and are quite difficult to remove. The dogs mostly have to lick and nibble with their front teeth in order to liberate the treats. 

The only treat rings available for the toy are chicken-flavored, and contain "natural chicken flavor". It's pretty far down the ingredient list though, and Brisbane had already inhaled a bowl of Molly's chicken-filled food the day I bought the Ringer, so I let him play with it. Brisbane spent just under five minutes removing a single ring from the toy. Molly took about two minutes to pull one ring off, and only left some minor tooth marks instead of demolishing the Ringer. Theoretically it would take Brisbane 20+ minutes to empty the ringer of its original complement of rings, while Molly might take only ten minutes.

I liked how focused all of the dogs were on this toy. Sisci and my cousin's pit bull puppy both worked for a while on it, and were engaged until the toy was emptied. My aunt's little chihuahua/rat terrier mix spent half an hour trying to free a ring before he needed a break.

Pros: Tougher than other Starmark toys. Challenging yet engaging. Suitable for dogs of any size.

Cons: Might be tough enough to break teeth. Treats only come in chicken flavor. Cannot hold hold any other sort of treats.

Bottom Line: I think that "Petsmart Exclusive" thing worked, since I've started going there specifically to look for toys only available there. 

Treat Tuesday: ZiwiPeak 'Good Dog' Treats vs. Daily Dog Food

I love using ZiwiPeak's Daily Dog air-dried dog food as training treats, but they also make actual training treats. Both are made from air-dried meat, organs, and seafood, so is the only difference the size of the bag? Kinda.

Treats versus Food

Visually, the only difference between the ZiwiPeak beef treats and beef dog food is the size of the pieces. The food comes in tiny little squares that are exactly perfect for training treats. The treats come in longer strips that I then have to rip into appropriate sizes to use for training. Otherwise, that's it. Unlike the Real Meat dog food and treats, there's no discernible difference in texture.

The primary difference between dog food and dog treats is vitamins and minerals. Just about anything can be in dog treats, but in order to be labeled as a complete and balanced diet, dog food has to meet a certain nutrient profile. This is why pretty much every dog food ingredient list ends with a bunch of chemically-sounding things. 

ZiwiPeak 'Good Dog' beef treats are made from beef, lecithin (hopefully not derived from corn), chicory inulin (a prebiotic), and parsley. ZiwiPeak Daily-Dog air-dried cuisine is made from all that, plus organs, green-lipped mussel, and assorted vitamins and minerals. Oddly enough, the website states that the treats are made from meat, organs, and seafood when all three flavors appear to be made from only meat.

Treats on the left, complete and balanced dog food on the right.

The ZiwiPeak treats and food are so similar that the dogs don't seem to really notice a difference. I personally find that the food makes perfect training treats right out of the bag, while the treats need to be chopped or broken into pieces. As an added bonus, the food is actual dog food, so I'm not filling my dogs up with extras when we have long or intense training sessions. Kibble isn't always exciting enough to work for, but they'll do nearly anything for a piece of ZiwiPeak.

Corn is in Everything

Brisbane recently tested positive for a corn allergy, which didn't seem like a big deal at first. I already feed mostly grain-free foods, and high-quality dog treats tend to be corn-free and wheat-free anyway. I would just have to stop playing catch with popcorn, right?

Cornstarch.

Wrong. I already read ingredient labels for everything, and almost immediately I discovered that corn is in everything. It may not be in the form of "ground yellow corn" or "corn gluten meal" as found on the labels of low- and mid-quality dog foods, but corn has many forms. Some flavors of Starmark's Everlasting Treats contain cornstarch. PetSafe's Busy Buddy no-rawhide treat rings are also made from cornstarch.

Corn Has Many Names

I have heard people complain that nearly all processed human food contains corn, and that the word 'corn' is not always part of the name of a corn-derived ingredient. With this in mind, I googled "corn allergy" and immediately found www.CornAllergens.com. From there I learned that seemingly-innocuous ingredients like alcohol and citric acid can be derived from corn. Food manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients of their ingredients though, so nearly anything can contain corn. Zukes Genuine Jerky contains natural flavors, those might be corn-derived. Their Lil' Links contain glycerin, citric acid, and sorbic acid, any of those could be made from corn too! Zukes Z-Bones contain lecithin, which is also in a whole bunch of dog foods. Lecithin can also be derived from eggs, soybeans, sunflower seeds, and quite a lot of other things. 

When a dog food manufacturer says their products are soy-free or corn-free, does that include lecithin? I'm not sure. I do know that Brisbane isn't nearly as sensitive to corn as the person who made the Corn Allergens site, thankfully. I can't imagine going through life worrying about sneaky corn in my shampoo.