Most people spend more time reading the label on a packet of crisps than they do on their dog's treats. But what's in those treats matters. Dogs eat them regularly, sometimes daily. And a lot of what's in cheaper treats is filler, not food.
Start With the First Three Ingredients
Ingredients on a dog treat label are listed in descending order by weight — the same as human food. In a natural, quality treat, you want to see a named meat source first: 'Chicken', 'beef', 'salmon', 'duck', 'venison'. If the first ingredient is 'meat and animal derivatives', 'cereals', or 'maize', that's a red flag.
Ingredients to Look For in Good Dog Treats
- Named meat proteins — chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, venison, duck
- Single-ingredient air-dried treats — just one protein, nothing added
- Sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot — natural vegetable sources with nutritional value
- Oat flour or rice flour — acceptable carb sources for binding
- Natural preservatives — mixed tocopherols (vitamin E), rosemary extract
Ingredients to Be Cautious About
- 'Meat and animal derivatives' — vague and low quality, can include beaks, feet, and other by-products
- Artificial colours — Red 40, Yellow 5 etc. serve no nutritional purpose
- 'Sugar' or 'sucrose' listed as an ingredient — dogs don't need added sugar
- BHA and BHT — synthetic antioxidant preservatives, best avoided
- Generic 'cereals' — nutritionally empty filler
Absolute Red Flags — Avoid These Entirely
- Xylitol — artificial sweetener that is toxic to dogs and can cause liver failure
- Onion or garlic powder — toxic in all forms, not just raw
- Grapes or raisins — can cause acute kidney failure even in small amounts
- Macadamia nuts — can cause neurological symptoms
The Simplest Rule
The best dog treats have short ingredient lists. Single-ingredient treats — air-dried beef, freeze-dried chicken, dehydrated sweet potato — are impossible to get wrong. The fewer the ingredients, the easier it is to know exactly what your dog is eating.
At Postman Pooch, we only stock treats where we're confident in the ingredient quality — named proteins, no artificial nasties, and nothing we wouldn't be comfortable handing over to a friend's dog.
