It's simple to locate dog treats for sale, but a lot harder to find ones that have real nutritional value for your pet. Make sure to read the labels and see what ingredients are contained in the dog treats. Just as with human food labeling, dog foods legally must list their ingredients, in order from the largest amount down to the smallest.

When looking at the active ingredients in dog treats you want to concentrate on the first four ingredients. These are the most important components of the treat and should be carefully examined. Try to avoid ingredients like any type of corn, meat by-products, glutens, and soy. Corn, glutens and soy serve as fillers and provide no nutritional value. Meat by-products are animal parts not fit for human consumption. Other ingredients to be avoided are butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and ethoxyquin, these are known as carcinogens. Propylen glycol, often used in dog treats is commonly known as anti-freeze!

Dog food and treats that are homemade is a great idea. By making your own treats and foods for dogs, you can put what you want to put in them. Plain yogurt with honey and peanut butter and put in a icetray and got frozen is a great idea for a snack for a dog. Vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and green beans is a very healthy snack for a dog that carries extra weight. Dried sweet potatoes might be another option for something healthy for them. Foods such as grapes, raisins, and macadamia nuts are not good for dogs at all and very harmful, so don't feed those to dogs. Do some research before feeding foods that are not healthy for dogs.

All dogs love raw beef bones. They provide an excellent way to clean your dog's teeth, as well as keeping it entertained for extended periods of time. Natural, raw treats also equals less waste to clean up, and the marrow in the bones offers a myriad of health benefits. Please do not offer dogs bones that have been cooked, as this causes them to splinter. Always keep a close eye on your dog when feeding raw bones as a treat.

Discussing treat options with your vet is something to consider. But do this with some amount of caution. The majority of vets have little training in pet nutrition. Most of their nutritional training is come from information provided by pet food manufacturers that are promoting their products. This is why most vets carry the brands of these companies. Read the labels and you will be amazed at what is actually going into these vet recommended products.

Even when you have used a product in the past it is always good to check the labels of your pet's food and treats. Even premium-food makers will sometimes change their formulas in order to cut-costs. Insisting it was safe, one manufacturer began using the fish preserved in ethoxyquin. When they received many customer complaints, the company reversed its decision. Recently Candidae dog food modified the formula of its lamb and rice variety. Although the new formulation is comparable to the older version, some ingredients have been downgraded; neither recipe is a premium quality product.