JR Pet Dried Whole Sprats - 85g

JR Pet Dried Whole Sprats - 85g are whole air-dried sprats, as enrichment and as a high-value treat.

Key Features

• Whole fish, head to tail: Nothing removed and nothing added, which means the dog gets the skin, the oils and the small soft bones as it would eating a fish. Air-dried, so the bones stay soft rather than splintering the way cooked bone does.
• Better scattered than handed over: A handful thrown into long grass or a snuffle mat turns a thirty second treat into twenty minutes of sniffing. Scent work tires a dog out more than a walk does, and this is the cheapest way to set it up.
• Omega 3 and 6: Oily whole fish is the most straightforward way to get those into a dog, and coat condition is where you see it.
• One ingredient: Sprat. 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

• They smell strongly of fish, more than any other treat in the range. Many dogs will do anything for them and many owners keep them in the garage.
• A good novel protein for an exclusion diet, since few dogs have eaten much whole fish.
• Supervise a small dog with a whole fish, and break them up for anything tiny.
• Keep treats away from children and wash your hands after handling dried fish.