Crunchy biscuits with a minty smell and flavour served in a resealable 225g tube.
Ingredients: Wholemeal flour, Chicken gravy, Chicken, Peppermint oil,Rosemary extract
Analysis: Protein 13%, Oil 9.3%, Fibre 1.9%, Ash 2.4%
A complementary food for dogs.
Why baking is better than extruding
Both processes are different methods of achieving the same thing; a tasty cooked complete food for your dog to eat. The cooking processes differ greatly in their results. Baking is a much slower process typically taking 15-20min whereas extruding takes 2-3min. This speed is critical in terms of how the cooked food will taste. The high temperatures and friction cooking needed to extrude dog food remove much of the taste from the product. Manufacturers know this, and to make up for it they spray the products in an extremely tasty oily coating, which is why these types of product are very greasy to touch .
This is in contrast to baking which slow cooks the ingredients together – after all would you prefer oven roasted chicken to microwaved chicken? It’s the same with oven baking dog food – natural taste and natural aromas from the cooking process so there is no need to coat an oven baked dog food in fats to make it feed. A dog will be able to smell and taste the actual ingredients within the product itself.
Why Oven baking can make a difference to your dog?
1. Its Natural
We want to make the most natural and appetising food for your dog and we do this by choosing good wholesome ingredients, mixing them together and slow oven baking them. You could make our oven baked recipes at home! But we very much doubt you have an extruder in your kitchen and fat coating equipment!
2. Nuking Ingredients.
We all know that good tasting food starts with good quality ingredients. However if you microwave those ingredients, you know the taste will not be the same as oven baking them. If you cook ingredients at very high temperatures (or even friction cook them), you also know that the taste of these ingredients gets less. By slowly oven baking our ingredients, we can maximum taste for your dog without the need to add taste enhancers, flavours or preservatives.
3. Gluten
Its very difficult to bake anything without using the gluten properties of raw materials. In baking, we need to stick the ingredients together and this is why gluten in wheat or rice is important. Yes there is gluten in rice and barley and of course there is gluten in wheat!
4. Hypoallergenic
It is estimated that under 0.75% of all dogs have an intolerance to wheat gluten – it is NOT an allergy!
Yet many manufacturers call their products “Hypoallergenic” and claim they use ingredients that prevent “food intolerances” by not using certain ingredients. Many issues with skin and coat (and scratching) are due to allergic reactions to fleas, mites and not due to gluten intolerances. The only real way to find out if your dog has a food intolerance to certain ingredients is to undertake feeding an “exclusion diet”. These involves starting with a base diet of say rice and chicken and then if there are no problems with this, add other ingredients until the food intolerance ingredient is ascertained. This can take 6 to 8 weeks!
Most owners who believe their dog has a wheat gluten allergy will still feed a “flour/cereal based” treat to their dog with no effect on the dog!
This leads us to believe that although a very few dogs have wheat gluten intolerances there is more fear than fact put around by manufacturers about the so called “benefits” of their food.
5. Rice vs Wholegrain flour
Where does rice grow...? India, Asia, Africa. So consider this.... for all those people feeding a “rice diet” to their dogs, it comes from a long way away (food miles!) and probably takes food away from some of our less well off neighbours whereas we actually grow wheat in the UK.
One other point to consider – most breakfast cereals contain wheat and you will see the virtues of wholegrain (wholemeal flour) being extolled. Well actually, wholemeal flour is good for you and for your dog as it contains a natural pre-biotic which promotes good gut mobility.
Worth thinking about when you purchased your next Meat & rice diet!
With many years experience in pet food and human food production, the Betty Miller team are pleased to bring you some very special recipes for your pets.
Most manufacturers of pet food use extruders to make their pet food whereas the Betty Miller method of making top quality foods and treats uses ovens and bakes products just as you would at home.
We strongly believe that pets deserve the best foods and tastes in life. Just as you know, how good home oven cooked food tastes; we are making similar products for your pets.
Because we bake products, we can’t make thousands of tonnes of products as the do the large pet producers but then would you prefer your pet to be fed on “mass produced food” or lovingly baked at the Betty Miller bakery.
The Betty Miller bakery is built on 3 principles:
1. Quality – we only make the best pet food and treats and will not compromise
on quality or ingredients.
2. Value – we want our products to be affordable and good value for money.
3. Customers – you are important to us, we are small enough to learn and big
enough to listen.
If you want what’s best for your pet, then try Betty Miller baked products – we don’t think you will regret making the change and we are sure your pet won’t either
