How to Choose Healthy Treats For Your Pet

By Tara Nemeth

What is hiding in your treat cupboard? Would you believe an ingredient used to make anti-freeze? How about "edible" plastic? When shopping for treats for your favorite pet, always take a look at the ingredients list. Even treats that are marketed as beneficial or healthy for your pet can sometimes contain ingredients you do not want your pet to eat.

The following are the top three ingredients to avoid when choosing treats for your pet:

• "Meat By-Product Meal" (sometimes listed as chicken by-products or poultry by-products). By-product meal consists of the dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass that are considered unfit for human consumption. By-product chicken meal for example consists of slaughtered chicken parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines. If you want a meat based treat, choose one that does not contain by-products.


• Artificial preservatives including BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, and propylene glycol. BHA and BHT are known carcinogens. Ethoxyquin is regulated by the FDA as a pesticide and is banned from use in human food. In 1997, the FDA asked the pet food industry to voluntarily reduce the amount of Ethoxyquin in pet food. Propylene glycol is a preservative commonly found in some types of anti-freeze, cosmetics, and moisturizer lotions. Mixed tocopherols (a vitamin E based preservative) is a natural alternative to chemical preservatives.


• "Animal digest" which is defined by AAFCO as "material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and un-decomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed." Animal digest has no healthy substitute and is never found in quality treats.

Treats serve a variety of purposes. Some are great for training, others useful for hiding pills. Some treats are specifically designed to scrape away plaque and tartar and freshen breath while others provide a simple way of supplementing your pet's diet (Glucosamine for dogs for example frequently comes in a tasty, edible form). You want the best treats available for your pet. By learning how to read an ingredients label, you can help ensure you achieve that goal and avoid being tricked by treats.

Tara Nemeth is the Director of Field Development for Petlane, a pet product company offering the best toys, treats, gifts, and health and safety items for dogs, cats and birds. People, pets and pet products are Tara's passions. She lives in California with her husband and her 6 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Jade. She invites you to visit her company's website at http://www.petlane.com and for great pet parenting ideas, see her blog at http://www.petlane.com/blog