Dog treats that are small and healthful

[F, Calla & Luca]

Calla has had a problem with tartar. PetzLife, which I have discussed before, has helped a great deal. But she still has some tartar and inflammation of her gums. I know some of this is an individual thing since she and Luca get the same diet and his teeth and gums are much less affected and he never has had bad breath. In the mornings I give the dogs evening primrose oil followed by a small number of craisins. Since the cranberries are good for urinary tract health and have lots of antioxidants I felt pretty good about this but now I'm thinking that since they also have lots of sugar , they may not be so good in terms of tartar build up. Does anyone know of really tiny training treats, even smaller than Zuke's, with good ingredients, preferably no carbs?

[Marta Gibbs]

I use Fromm's small treats.  Maddie loves the liver/cranberry treats.  The are small and easy to bite into.  

[F, Calla & Luca]

Sadly these have carbs.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The Zuke's minis are the smallest treats I've seen. The only thing I can think of offhand would be freeze-dried liver treats, those are small and maybe could be broken up even smaller. No carbs or anything else, just liver.

The other thing would be Ziwi Peak. The food is kind of shredded-up dehydrated raw, very small shreds. They make treats too, which I haven't seen, but they're supposed to be the same as the food, just not nutritionally complete (i.e. with added vitamins & minerals). The food is very pricey, but if you were just using bits of it for training, it might not be too bad. Most stores that sell it have samples.

http://www.ziwipeak.com/products/treats-family/good-dog-treats/

[F, Calla & Luca]

Doggiefood.com has these and the price for a pound of treats is not bad.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh, there's also Pure Bites, which could probably be broken up, too. No carbs:

http://www.purebites.com/

[F, Calla & Luca]

These don't seem to have made it to doggiefood.com yet but they look good.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You can get them on Amazon, and there are also several other on-line sources if you do a search. Plus, Petco and Pet Supplies Plus carry them.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Thanks Karen. We are planning a Petco trip later today : ) I also found a site where Acana is a bit less expensive in my roaming the net, but they are out of stock of the Acana I but. It's always something. Do you think the craisins may be part of the problem, BTW? She eats her Acana directly after the craisins so I thought the kibble would sort of clean any craisin residue off her teeth.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think they might be contributing to the problem. Dried fruit is very sticky. I'm not sure the kibble has enough of a scrubbing effect to remove the residue, and many dogs don't even chew the kibble.

A lot of the people who give the dogs craisins mix them into something else, like yogurt, in which case there's less chance of the dried fruit bits sticking to the teeth then if they eat them plain. I wonder if wetting the craisins would help them stick less.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Calla does chew the kibble but it is a rush job : ) I think I'll try different treats and see how we do. Of course Costco craisins come in gigantic bags and last forever : (

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I had to stop giving the craisins.  I used to use them as a special treat sprinkled on the yogurt, and they loved them.  Then after Guinness's episode I started looking at everything they ate and got concerned about the sugar.  Apparently they are soaked in a corn syrup solution to eliminate some of the tartness....as least that is what I saw online.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I know they have lots of sugar since cranberries are tart/bitter plain.