Milk Bone Original Dog Treats

Sometimes you want to give the dog in your life a treat, and unless you've spoiled it too much, a Milk Bone Dog Treat will suit your pup just dandy.

The Milk Bone Dog Treat is made by the Milk Bone Co. makers of the famous bone-shaped dog biscuit dating back to 1908. Del Monte is now the parent company of Milk Bone.

My little Chihuahua, Fifi (11 lbs.), really goes for Milk Bone Dog Biscuits in the small size. But when I want to give her a different treat, sometimes I have given her the Dog Treats, also from Milk Bone.

The Milk Bone Original Treat is very identifiable. It looks like a little hotdog piece wrapped in a crust, or like a Pig in a Blanket - a treat my mother used to make us when I was a kid. Or if you use your imagination, it looks vaguely like a white bone with marrow in it, which may be what the designer was thinking. Each individual Dog Treat is slightly shorter than an inch and about half as big around. The box says they are bacon flavored.

PROS
The crunchy little treats are neat and clean and bite sized so the dog tends to eat it without crumbling it up and making a mess. The dog can crunch the treat easily and it's gone in one swallow, leaving no mess to clean up, something you can't always depend on with other treats.

I gave the dog only about one or two of the little treats at a time and she seems to quiver with joy, wagging her tail when she hears me open the box. I pay around $3.50 a box (15 ounces) for these at the big box store.

The ingredients are probably not on any nutritionist's honor roll; the main ingredients listed are wheat flour, beef meal and beef bone meal, sugar, cooked bone marrow; the rest are chemicals and flavorings, but the one suspect ingredient is - dried digest of poultry by-products - I had to look that up.

CONS
Dried Animal/Poultry Digest is some funky stuff that can include anything except the squawk and even some stuff that is very suspect. The viscera, head, beak, feet, hooves, etc., and even a little fecal matter can sneak in provided it is only within that which is "unavoidable in good factory practice." Say what? They are politely saying there is a good chance there is crap in Fido's dinner plate. Who determines what "good factory practice" is? Probably the company, as the inspections are surely not up to date given all the scandals we read about where companies fail to meet standards.

Upon making that discovery about the contents, I have ceased purchasing these little morsels, preferring to give her something more identifiable and perhaps wholesome. I also read the labels of other foods more thoroughly.

I usually keep a box or two of small Dog Treats on hand, along with the regular Milk Bones. But, upon learning that these treats contain some real substandard ingredients I don't think I will buy Milk Bone Original Dog Treats again.

Recommended: No