Single Ingredient Dog Treats And Dog Food Toppers?

Single-ingredient dog treats are extremely popular these days, and we do sell several single ingredient dog treats. However, we also sell many limited ingredient or single-species dog treats and food toppers.

We believe single-ingredient dog treats do serve an important function, but at the same time, we think too much of an emphasis has been placed on single ingredient dog treats. 

The biggest reason why single ingredient dog treats are so popular is largely a reaction to the fact that many dog foods have ingredient lists as long as war and peace.

This kind of reaction is like a pendulum swinging to the other side, but unlike a pendulum, it hasn’t settled in the middle at least yet.

The middle, in this case, would be single-species or limited-ingredient dog treats, especially when it relates to protein, as that is more often than not the offending allergen. 

While there is no legal definition of what constitutes a limited ingredient treat or food; that means it's up to you the consumer to decide for yourself whether something meets your definition of limited ingredient, which could be vastly different than what we or any other company considers limited ingredient. 

Benefits of Single Ingredient Treats

• Single-ingredient dog treats can be a great option, especially for treat intensive training sessions, as you don’t want to feed too much organ meat and deal with the possibility of diarrhea.

• Single-ingredient dog treats are also perfect during a diet elimination trial to determine allergies and for dogs that have sensitive stomachs. This same logic could also apply to single species treats.

The very benefit of single-ingredient treats is also its biggest downside, as single-ingredient treats have a very specific nutritional value.

One of our key beliefs is in providing a wide range of nutrients and that  Rotating between a variety of food, treats, chews, and toppers is extremely important for maintaining the health of our dogs and cats.

That we should seek to provide as much variety as we can so we can avoid giving too much or too little of specific nutrients and compounds.

We are all guilty of not rotating between foods, treats, chews, and food toppers. We know our dogs have preferences. We are all guilty of grabbing treats from the same bag day after day, or always buying the same treats. We are all guilty of not rotating between different treats.

This is the benefit of limited ingredient treats, or if there is an allergy, single species treats. They can provide a slightly wider range of nutrients. 

While the prey model diet is deficient in many nutrients, it does provide a wide range of nutrients, which makes it, in our opinion, an excellent option as far as a treat, especially if you can rotate between different protein sources. This is why we partly based our Primal Treats and dog food toppers on the prey model with some modifications.

This is also why our food toppers are not single ingredients but single species, unlike most of the brands that have made food toppers since we first launched our freeze-dried toppers. They are all a mixture of Muscle Meats and Organ Meats. The muscle meats are also not from the same part of the body as leg meat has a different nutritional profile than breast meat, not just in essential nutrients but also in other compounds such as the amino acids taurine, glutamine, and proline, the dipeptide carnosine, CoQ10, Carnitine and whole host of other compounds that we often overlook. 

This is why we think the focus should be more on limited ingredient or single species instead of single ingredients dog treats. 

Single Species Dog Treats

Part of the reason single-ingredient treats have exploded is that many people are seeking out single-ingredient treats because of an allergy or intolerance. Using Single-Species Treats address this concern just as well as single ingredient dog treats, as protein , particularly beef and chicken, are the most common food allergies in dogs.

Limited Ingredient Dog Treats

We also believe in sneaking in ingredients that have the potential to be beneficial to our dogs. Ingredients that our dogs would normally turn their head.

That is why we have treats such as Beef Heart and Beetroot, Lamb and Spearmint, Duck and Bok Choy, Lamb Heart Turmeric and black pepper, Beef and Hawthorn, Salmon and Herb, etc.

These treats allow us to sneak the ingredients, and the compounds that they contain into our dog's diets. 

We make our infused honey for that very specific purpose so that we can sneak herbs into our dog's food without them noticing it.

There was a time when we would try to sneak powder into our Akitas food, and he just wouldn’t eat. He also didn’t trust his food for several weeks after that and wouldn’t even touch his food if Samantha was the one feeding him.

By infusing them with Honey or mixing them into his treats, he no longer suspects that we tainted his food with some herb or supplement.

Ultimately, we believe we need to focus more on limited-ingredient treats or single-species treats instead of just single-ingredient dog treats.