Finding a training reward with no chicken in it

To find training treats without chicken, read the whole ingredient line rather than the front of the bag, and look for chicken under every name it goes by, such as chicken meal, chicken fat or poultry broth. Our cheddar bag lists pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt and enzymes.

Where can chicken show up on a treat ingredient line?

Not always where you would look first. A treat with chicken in it usually says so plainly, but the ingredient line has more than one way to mention it. When you read a line for chicken, these are the forms to look for:

• Chicken on its own, or with a descriptor such as chicken meal, chicken fat or chicken broth.
• Poultry in any form, as in poultry meal or poultry fat. The word is wider than chicken and can cover other birds, so a line that says poultry has not told you which one.
• Broth or stock with no animal named. Ask the maker which animal it came from.
• Natural flavor or flavoring that does not name a source. The words say a flavoring is present. They do not say what it was made from.

A line that names none of these has not named chicken. A line that includes one of them without saying what it came from leaves the question open, and the maker is the one who can close it.

Why read the ingredient line and not the front of the bag?

The front of the bag names a flavor. The ingredient line names what is inside. Those are different jobs, and they do not have to match. A bag can be marked with one protein and carry another further down the line, and the front will not mention it.

It is a bit like a car. The badge on the hood tells you the model, and the parts list tells you what is under it. If you care about what is under it, you go to the list.

A few habits make the reading quick:

1. Read the whole line, left to right, not only the first few items.
2. Look for the names above, including the wider word poultry.
3. Note any flavoring or broth that does not say where it came from.
4. Write down the name of anything you are unsure about, then ask the maker.

Do this once per treat. It takes a minute, and the answer holds until the maker changes the recipe, which is a reason to glance at the line again when you open a new bag.

What does our cheddar ingredient line say?

The bag says: pasteurized milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes.

There is no chicken on that line and no poultry, no broth and no meat of any kind. It also lists no grain. That is what the line says, and we are not claiming more than that. The cheddar itself is from New York State, freeze dried in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The cheese treats guide goes through the other things worth reading on a cheese treat label.

One more line belongs here. The cheese contains dairy, and our listing sends anyone unsure how their dog takes dairy to a veterinarian. That is where we leave it.

What should you ask before switching training treats?

Start with the person who set the rule. If a vet told you to keep chicken out of your dog's food, ask that vet about any new treat before it goes in the pouch, and bring the ingredient line with you. They can read it against what they know about your dog, which we cannot.

After that, switch one treat at a time. Changing the treat and a handful of other things in the same week makes it hard to tell which change did what. Our guide to introducing new treats lays out a slow way to do it.

Two smaller questions are worth asking the maker. Does the flavoring or broth come from chicken? And has the recipe changed since the bag you read last? Neither takes long to ask, and the answers are better than guessing from the front of the package.

The listing for our cheddar bites frames the cheese as a treat or reward rather than a full diet. That goes for any training treat, with or without chicken.