I Feed good food...and crappy treats, am I bad?

Ok so Hannah is fed Canidae chicken meal and rice kibble and Holly gets Timberwolf Organics kibble. Well the girls always enjoy their nightly Milk-Bone brand dog biscuit...does this make me a bad person? They only get 1 a day and they really love them and the Canidaes and Innovas just do not seem to go over as well with them and they are too expensive. I have considered just not giving them a nightly treat at all but they really like them, and miss them if they don't. They get all upset if I say "bedtime" without first going and grabbing them their milk-bone.

I do the same thing sometimes. My dogs get Canidae and Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul canned mixed with their kibble. And I do buy a bag or two of one of those brands of biscuits. But I also get those horrible things that smell smoked. They probably have artificial flavors etc in them and who knows what else. But they're really skinny little tube shaped things and I cut them into tiny pieces crosswise...great training treats and the smell is very enticing. Sometimes I get those from Nutro brand and sometimes I get those Pupperoni kind. They're probably not very good for them, but it's a small amount and they love them. When I'm feeling industrious, I'll make my homemade liver treats. They really love those!

Occasionally, I've gotten those biscuits called Bonz. They really like those too.

If you have Costco, I give my dogs Kirkland's version of milk-bones and they like them just as much. I wouldn't feed kibble with the same ingredients, but there's nothing in them that I absolutely can't stand feeding. There's a lot of wheat and some beet pulp but no corn or anything really disgusting.

I do the same thing.... Chloe loves the pupperoni things also...

That's funny.:lol-sign: like reverse snobbism
My one dog won't touch low end biscuity treats. He acts like they aren't made of food. The other dog would eat literally anything so she's no judge of what's yummy.
For biscuit type treats, my picky dog really does like the Mother Nature ones (made by Naturapet). Have you tried the peanut butter ones? They also like the Evo treats.
I don't know what to say. I probably wouldn't buy them- I simply refuse to support those companies putting out that crap and I don't want to feed my dogs the carcinogenic preservatives they contain.

we have a costco but no membership. We looked around there once and just did not think that the membership would be worth it. Atleast I'm not the only one that does this. I did buy the Innova healthbars for awhile but they just didn't care for those they actually LOVE the Milk-bones! I will occasionally get them the mother hubbard stuff and the canidae biscuits but the dogs always end up making their way back onto the Milk-bones and love them. Maybe I should look into mixing them up like Milk bones one night and Canidae biscuits the next? That would probably ease my mind a little but not kill my wallet.

My dogs, squirt the pitbull, and jessica the tiny toy poodle eat timberwolf. squirt will eat anything as a treat, and jessica is very persnickity. but they both like pupperoni, and beggin' strips which i know is not good for them. just a a treat after dinner, ours that is.

You're right Sam. I shouldn't feed some of those things for the reasons you stated.

Oh! I just remembered something. I don't know what the brand is or anything, but a few times at Safeway (I don't always see them) there were these brown, natural paper/cardboard boxes of biscuits. The boxes had black lettering. They were VERY inexpensive, comparatively speaking...like $2 and some change. And when I read the ingredients, you wouldn't believe how good they looked...like super premium stuff. Gosh, I wish I could recall what they were called.

Buddy Biscuits...?? I know they are in a box like that...??

Actually, yes! Herschel loves those and they smell so good that I had to take a nibble.

Like all dog biscuits, they taste dry and bland. But they smell so good!

The ingredients in those aren't so good. Partially hydrogenated fats, etc. We used to use them as training treats for Herschel when he was a baby but too many would make his stool soft.

I think anything in moderation is okay as long as the dog's main diet is a healthy one. I personally feed the Canidae snap biscuits as the nightly treat. They are not nearly as expensive if you buy from the bulk boxes.

Julie, you may want to check Costco out again. They sell the big box of milk bones and you can save a fortune on diapers and wipes for Kenny. My husband and I love Costco and it saves us a lot of money.

For most dogs I think junky treats in moderation are okay. For my dog though, he's allergic to wheat so that eliminates about 100% of the junk food treats. Plus, I'm switching him over to a grain free diet, including treats.

Another thing is with the food recalls I would DEFINITELY check the ingredient list for wheat gluten. Whether that specific treat is on the recall list, made by menu foods or not, I wouldn't take a chance right now.

Peanut Butter
Ingredients:
Unbleached white flour, peanut butter, vegetable oil, mixed tocopherols (natural preservative).



Where do you see partially hydrogenated fats ??? Please tell me....

I go to the grocery store and buy the Newman's Own cookies, because hey are perfect to stuff into the Kong. >^^;<

I definately agree! If you were in good health and ate extremely healthy food for every meal, I don't think you'd stress over the occassional ice cream bar. I personally don't really care what's in my boys' treats. They get so few of them that it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

I'm sure they manage to eat worse than those treats when they're amoking in the yard.

I used to feed junkie treats, but once I started making my own, my dogs won't eat anything else. They actually turn up their nose and walk away. If I go to so much trouble feeding them well, I don't want to give them crap treats, especially now that the recalls have moved on to some treat varieties. Plus, they go wild when I start baking...

I give Kona Milk Bones, pupperoni, and Three Dog Bakery treats. She loves them all, with Milk bones being her fave.

You guys should try Three Dog Bakery. Kona loves the treats, and even Sam, Rob's mother's dog, loves them, and she is 14 years old and a picky eater!



[URL="http://www.threedog.com/]Three Dog Bakery[/URL]

I give the TDB stuff, but I get it for cheap as well. But, they're half-decent. The JnS Bits with carob chips has a small portion of hydrogenated soy/cottonseed oil, but I don't feed many at a time. The Bark n' Fetch biscuits are nice; I have a bag of Apple and Oatmeal sitting next to me.

Apple/Oatmeal biscuits: whole wheat flour, rolled oats, apples, molasses, cinnamon, dried egg product and natural vegetable extract.

Not the best, but not the worst.

I trained Kona with the Jump n' Sit Bits Variety pack. She just didn't train well with any "normal" sized dog treats, so I thought some little nibblers would help out, and damned if they didn't!

She still learns new stuff when I have them around...last night I taught her "Tell Me" with them