JR Pet Chicken Breast Jerky - 100g

JR Pet Chicken Breast Jerky - 100g is air-dried free-range chicken breast, sliced into a lean jerky.

Key Features

• Breast meat, not mechanically recovered scraps: JR use free-range chicken breast, which is the leanest cut on the bird. That is why it comes out high in protein and genuinely low in fat rather than just labelled that way.
• Tears easily into training pieces: Jerky pulls apart along the grain, so one slice becomes six rewards without needing scissors. Useful in a pocket on a walk.
• The safe starting point for most dogs: Chicken is the protein almost every dog has already eaten without trouble, which makes this the one to try first with a puppy or a cautious eater.
• Nothing but chicken: No grain, no gluten, no preservatives. JR list it from twelve weeks old.

How Much Is Too Much

• Treats want to sit at around a tenth of a dog's daily calories. Everything above that either comes out of the main meal or goes on as weight.
• Air-dried meat is dense, because the water has been taken out of it. A 100 g bag is closer to three or four hundred grams of fresh meat in what it actually delivers, so it goes much further than the weight suggests.
• For training, break them small. A dog works just as hard for a fingernail sized piece as for a whole stick, and you get ten times the repetitions out of the bag.
• On a day with a big chew in it, cut the dinner. That is far easier than trying to take the weight off afterwards.

Single Proteins And Exclusion Diets

• These are single named proteins with nothing else in them, and that is what makes the range useful for more than treating.
• If you are running an exclusion diet to find a food sensitivity, a single protein treat is the only kind you can give without undoing the whole exercise. A treat labelled 'meat and animal derivatives' tells you nothing about what the dog ate.
• The novel proteins are the ones a dog has probably never been exposed to: ostrich, kangaroo, goat, rabbit, venison, sea bass. A dog reacting to chicken and beef has usually never met any of those, which is why a vet will point you at them.
• Introduce one new protein at a time and leave a couple of weeks between them, or you will not know which one caused what.

Storing Them

• Air-dried rather than cooked, so they keep by being dry. Keep them dry and they last; let them get damp and they will go mouldy.
• Reseal the bag or tip them into an airtight tub, and keep them off a sunny shelf and away from the hob.
• That matters more in this climate than it does where they are made. A bag left open in a humid kitchen softens within days.
• Natural products vary. Piece size, colour and thickness differ from bag to bag, because these were parts of animals rather than something extruded to a spec.

Good To Know

• Chicken is also one of the commonest proteins for a dog to react to, precisely because so many dogs eat so much of it. If you are chasing an itch, this is the wrong treat and a novel protein is the right one.
• Lean and dry, so it is kind on a dog watching its weight.
• Keep treats away from children and wash your hands after handling dried meat.