The Good: Good for dog's dental health, Good ingredients, Generally responsible bulking
The Bad: My dog prefers every other flavors to these, Don't freshen breath
The Basics: A disappointing selection of Booda Bones, the Peppermint and Spearmint multipack is unenthusiastically consumed by my Mitzie!
In the attempt to both keep my dog, Mitzie, happy and to rise in the Pets category here the site I used to write for, my wife and I have recently purchased a ridiculous number of treats for our geriatric cocker spaniel, as well as for our two cats. I'm actually discovering that, while Mitzie is a picky eater, this can be an exceptional way to tell the overall value of any number of toys and treats. After all, when flooded with treats, what Mitzie picks tells us exactly what she prefers. And, despite my love of mint, Mitzie is not a fan of mint, at least not in the Booda Bone variety. I thought she might get a kick out of the Peppermint Booda Bones, but she only eats these when there is nothing else for her to enjoy. In other words, right now, she only eats them when I give her no other choice!
Peppermint Booda Bones are available exclusively in a multipack with Spearmint (reviewed here!). The multipack has eleven bones and I was initially pleased that mine was comprised of six Peppermint and five Spearmint, as I figured either way, Mitzie's breath would be wonderful afterward. This is, alas, not the case. And while our old dog might be unimpressed by Spearmint, she downright rejected the Peppermint until I gave her no other choices. Even so, when she had no other choices, she did eat the Peppermint Booda Bones and it's not like she spat it out. As a result, the multipack with Peppermint and Spearmint Booda Bones is not the worst investment ever, it's just not the best bones, at least for our dog.
But when I picked up the Peppermint and Spearmint Booda Bones, I figured that they would freshen breath Mitzie's breath. Mitzie does not have bad breath, but I figured that mint would help make her neutral dog breath actually pleasant. When the Spearmint flavor failed to, I turned to the Peppermint and I was unsurprised when that, too, fell down. It made me wonder what the point of the Peppermint flavor Booda Bones actually is, unless the company rightly figured that they couldn't get rid of these bones individually because dogs would reject them. In that case, the multipack is really smart on the part of the company!
Booda Bones, I learned in my tenure working at the same pet store as my wife, come in a wide variety of sizes for dogs and the little bones are intended for dogs less than 15 lbs. in size, so our old cocker spaniel still applies, but just barely (especially as the holiday season came to a close!). The Booda Bones are advertised as having dental benefits and given how Mitzie has a few each week and has very healthy teeth, this could well be part of her dental health regimen. Given that Mitzie continues to choose these treats, just not these specific flavors of them, I have to assume they taste good as well. If any of them might taste bad, I'd guess that Peppermint and Spearmint qualify because of how little enthusiasm she shows toward them and the metallic smell they have when I pull them out of the package for her.
The Booda Bones Peppermint flavor treat comes in a package with eleven free-floating Booda Bones, none of which are individually-wrapped. Instead, the bag has the bare bone-shaped treats, which are each three inches long by 7/8" wide (3/8" thick). This is the only way I've found the Peppermint Booda Bones. This is both environmentally and economically more responsible than most of the Booda Bones packs.
The white bone is designed to help fight plaque and tartar build-up by having a texture to it. The bone has bumps and the bumps agitate the build-up on teeth whenever a dog bites into them. Because the bone is too big to simply be swallowed, the Booda Bones effectively brushes the dog's teeth and tongue using friction whenever the dog bites into it to split it and swallows it, dragging the bolus across their tongue. This has had wonderful results with Mitzie, though because she has eaten so many Booda Bones of late, she hasn't had much in the way of build-up or even generally bad breath.
One of the other key selling points of the Peppermint flavor Booda Bones treats is that it is wheat-free. Apparently, wheat is used in a lot of dog products and it is not great for their digestion. For those looking out for their dog's diet, the Peppermint flavored Booda Bones treat is made up primarily of modified food starch, water and glycerin, though it is flavored with the "natural flavor" of peppermint. This is intended entirely as a treat, not a meal substitute or replacement. Mitzie has put on a little weight since she moved here from Michigan with my wife, but lately, we've reduced her diet some and are still able to reward her for good behavior with a Booda Bone every other day (on opposite days, she gets her Greenies treat - reviewed here! - , which she loves).
These treats are not bad for dogs and the package says that if there are any messes from the dog they clean up easily, but Mitzie not only ate the Peppermint flavored treats, when given no other options, she kept them down without any problems. Still, this is basically candy for dogs and the Peppermint flavor offers little to dogs that is either beneficial or a detraction. This treat has at least 1% crude protein and crude fat and no more than 6% crude fiber and 14% moisture, so those looking out for their dog's specific dietary needs, that might help.
Because Mitzie is more indifferent to both the Peppermint and Spearmint flavors and they did nothing for her breath, it became very easy not to recommend this multipack of Booda Bones. Even so, economically and environmentally, this is a more responsible multipack than buying Booda Bones individually and if your dog likes Booda Bones in general, they will likely eat these, even if only as a last resort.
For other Booda Bones flavors, please check out my reviews of:
Yogurt Booda Bones
Chicken Booda Bones
4.5/10
For other pet product reviews, please click here to visit my index page!
© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |
No comments:
Post a Comment