ZUKE’S TREATS FOR DOGS (and cats!)

By rawexplorer on August 25, 2013 • ( 0 )

Went shopping…

Reminder to self: do not go shopping just before dinner ‘cos you’ll end up buying a lot!

Sadly I don’t have a dehydrator as of yet to make my own raw jerky snacks, but luckily there are (better) snacks around that I can feed the pets with! Zuke’s is one such brand!

Will blog about the chicken liver PLUS treats next time round–they’re Jackie’s absolute favourite! One of the best treats out there!

A picture of Jackie!

Zuke’s treats are good because they don’t contain wheat, soy or corn. However you must still check the ingredients list because some of their treats are better than others. It’s up to you to check before you buy!

Read Zuke’s story here.

Took a couple of pictures of the available Zuke’s snacks sold at Pet Lovers Centre…

Yummy!

Zuke’s Lil’ Links treats are made with rosemary, turmeric and sage.

Rosemary for dogs:

It’s supposed to be anti-cancer
Natural preservative
Some believe rosemary causes seizure in dogs because it’s a stimulant, but this hasn’t been directly proven. Of course, if your dog already suffers from seizures, it would make sense not to feed this product. Just in case.

Turmeric:

One of the best-known anti-inflammatory agents around
Good for controlling cholesterol
(For the owner) mix it with honey for a good, anti-acne mask. Just be warned: too much turmeric will turn your skin yellow 😛

Sage:

Valued for soothing digestive systems
It’s a mild stimulant, so it makes sense not to feed this if your dog suffers from seizures (only some types of sage, but this isn’t reflected in the ingredients list).

Decided to buy Rabbit Links ($13) because Jackie’s had pork, beef and every other common meat except rabbit. Was feeling quite doubtful about the ‘crazy tasty’ part because so many other treats are ‘crazy tasty’ but he won’t touch it. For example, lots of Natural Balance treats smell great to me (and cost a lot!) but he’d just mouth one or two to make me happy and then spit it out.

Jackie is a 20kg cat-dog, I’m sure of it.

Opened the bag and whew!! The SMELL OF SODIUM HITS YOU LIKE A PUNCH IN THE NOSE!

Oreo’s Mama has tasted one of these before (she’s nutty like me, that’s why we are fast friends) and she said it’s really salty. But you don’t have to taste it to know it’s salty–you will know it once you open the bag!

Took a video of Jackie and the rabbit links…

What I didn’t quite like about the links is that they are hard to break into smaller pieces. One whole link for shaking paws? That’s daylight robbery (of the owner!)! It’s not that the link is crispy-hard. Rather, it has the texture of really tough clay-doh. You can dig your nail into it and if you continue digging, you’ll probably get (ugly) pieces of rabbit link.

It was much easier to just cut it with a pair of kitchen scissors…and probably if you have an old, toothless dog, this won’t go down very well with it.

Each link will give you about 4-6 small pieces. Any smaller and it’ll be messy because crumbs will start dropping all over.

Note: Jackie kept drinking water after I gave him 1.5 links and it also took him a surprisingly long time to get the treat down (see, it’s tough).

Bought this as well!

Held one piece up to show you how big a piece of this is.

Love the shape! So easy to handle.

Can be broken into pieces EASILY and it’s also softer than the rabbit link.

Decided to let Jackie have a choice…

There are also meat-free treats!

PLEASE DO NOT FEED YOUR CAT/DOG A VEGETARIAN DIET (yes–am working on a blogpost on that!).

Anyway I see these not as vegetarian treats, but rather a handy source, novel source of fibre-with-additional-benefits (instead of the usual pumpkin/psyllium/papaya/sweet potato) that you can give your dog. Much better than cellulose!

Beta– stands for beta carotene. Pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, apricot

Greens–spinach, broccoli, cabbage, kale, alfalfal (may want to be careful with this. Broccoli & cabbage & Kale may interfere with thyroid functions. But as long as you don’t overdose on this your dog should be fine)

Berry–beets, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, cherries,

All of these contain ground oat (they can’t be shaped well without binder, remember?). But at least the binder isn’t wheat, soy or corn. I wish the binder was something like pumpkin seed/ pumpkin seed flour, but that’ll make the treat super expensive.

Bought the berry one because Jackie doesn’t get berries!

(Also admittedly it sounds the tastiest of all 3)

Small ‘Z’ nuggets with a defined shape, probably thanks to the oat content.

I took a bite of a nugget…it tasted like a tasteless carb bar. Slightly sweet but not remotely enough to make me happy. If I bought a carb bar like this I’d trash it immediately (and angrily!) and swear never to buy such a useless product ever again. But for my pet…hehe, I’ll take it.

(See? Our dog and cats eat better than we do!)

This is Jackie’s least favourite treat, but he ate it anyway.

Here are more varieties that I didn’t buy, because I didn’t like the ingredients…

Most of the mini naturals come with a high grain-carb content. But the small sizes make it oh-so-handy for training! Ugh! Why can’t the links/lamb jerky be more handy?

Okay, although I gave the Rabbit Link a tick, that’s only for the carb ingredients.

Salt is not featured in the ingredient list for the mini-naturals but it’s listed as the 11th out of 18 ingredients for all of the Link flavours.

Thus, it’s possible to conclude that the mini naturals are less salty than the Links.

(That said, I’ll probably not buy a Rabbit Link ever again)

Well, since Jackie is currently fat (thanks, dad, for sneaking him bread every day in addition to the Better in the Raw/ U-stew for dogs. We don’t trust him to do Prey-Model-Raw. Anyway, Dad has no idea that this blog exists. BOOOOO DADDY!), I took some home for the cats…

Here are two videos of the cats’ response to the treats! They get it now because they’re in good shape. NO TREATS FOR FAT CATS (and besides, these treats are too high in carbs for regular-feeding for cats, including the Zuke’s treats that are meant for cats. I will not buy Zuke’s treats for cats). But just for fun, the lucky TRE cats get a shot at what Jackie had…

Rabbit links:

and

Rabbit links preferred for smell (of course), but the cats couldn’t really eat it. Except Max, because he’s like a black hole and sucks everything in. Poor Muffin and Faith kept licking at the rounds until they walked off disconsolately.

So this is what I did:

Pounded the Zuke’s Rabbit links into crumbs and then mixed it with their dinner for a special treat! You’ll get that amount if you use 2 rabbit links. More than enough for 3 cats.

You can also use Zuke’s Crumbles to make a steak tartare treat, if you like.

To end off…Jackie had his dinner and I had my takeaway Wasabi-mayo macaroni from Swissbake (not very nice) and their Spinach Quiche (nicer, and it made Jackie drool)…

Whew. Dog-tired after a day!

Decided to be nice and did some online searching of the Singaporean online pet shops that sell Zuke’s at this time of writing. I LOVE ONLINE PET SHOPS because I can shop 24/7 and ogle at new pet foods any time I want. BLESS YOU ONLINE PET SHOPS!

And for our non-SG readers, there’s always the main company website where you can try their ‘store locator’, or you can try Amazon 🙂