Dog treats are opposite to how dog owners think of treats for ourselves. We love chocolate and sugar, but we don’t need these things. They typically spend a moment on our lips and then just add to weight without providing much more value.
Unfortunately, that concept of human treats has carried over into the dog world. That a treat should be unhealthy, an indulgence. But really that is just to satisfy the owner that they have done something brilliant for their dog, rather than the reality that they have done the opposite.
Sugar and salt and oils added to grain are the main stay of high margin dog treats, and just add energy to their diet, that will make them obese when its higher than the energy they use. In the perfect world people would understand that a real treat, is providing your dog with 100% meat dog treats to their dogs, something like Bruce’s Healthy Dog Treats, because they get maybe a third of the meal as meat, in their commercial dog food.
No matter what treat you provide, to keep your dog in good shape, you need to reduce the amount of kibble by the same amount of dog treats you add. So, if you add an indulgent unnatural treat for your dog, you are actually depriving them of any of the vitamins and minerals that they add to virtually all commercial dog food. That treat is actually doing your dog harm, rather than boosting their quality protein!
Dog treat additives – artificial colors.
While typically not as bad as artificial flavours (chemicals added to dog treats to fool your dog into eating the unnatural treat in the first place), artificial colors can also cause allergic reactions in dogs.
The use of artificial colours is only for the benefit for their owners.
Since dogs only see half of the colour spectrum, from blues to the middle of the yellow spectrum, and don’t see anything between yellow and red chances are that many artificial dog treat colours are not distinguished by your dog.
It’s called branding and differentiation. Marketing tactics to distinguish one treat from another brand. There are some relatively benign colour options, but the more natural a colour option, often the harder to source and store and the more preservatives might need to be used to keep the treat safe.
Since large corporations are all about pinching pennies to increase the bottom line, they will provide the cheapest input price option. The chemical that will make the most colour per small drop, regardless of if it’s going to add to a dog’s allergy or not. The idea is, that so many allergies can be so low level, like a human getting slightly runny noses each time they have dairy, because of their allergic reaction to lactose, that they don’t know the connection or they choose to ignore it.
CONCLUSIONS
Some of our wholesale suppliers use colour additives in their dog treats, but they are a small amount, and they use basic readily available natural compounds. For instance, black can be created by adding iron oxide. This is apparently because many owners have been trained to believe that chicken should be a yellow colour, and beef a black color. Other companies might use black plant matter or even beetles, but sometimes the inclusion of these ‘natural’ colors require an extra level of preservative so the color doesn’t spoil the treat.
We could list the wide spectrum of chemicals used for colors in dog treats, and itemise each of the potential side effects, but that is a long list of things. Like with children artificial colors can cause anything from loose stools to upset stomachs and hyper-activity.
Given the wide range of colors, colour additives and potential side affects, you would almost think it was wiser and safer to just go with single ingredient meat-based dog treats that have only ONE ingredient in them. NO preservatives required.
Then you will actually know what you are paying for, and if your dog has a bad reaction, what the cause was. And even better your dog will be getting a big protein boost to make up for the defit they probably are getting from their commercial dog food – because not all of those ingredients are bio- available either.
