Top 4 Mistakes Pet Parents Make When Choosing Dog Treats

Introduction

Treats play such an important role in a dog’s life: they motivate during training, strengthen the bond between human and animal, and can even deliver functional health benefits. But treats are also one of the easiest places for unnecessary calories, additives, and poor-quality ingredients to slip into a dog’s diet.

Pet parents often put great care into selecting the right food, but the same scrutiny isn’t always applied to treats. A biscuit here or a chew there may not seem like much, but over months and years, these choices add up. The wrong choice of treats can contribute to weight gain, digestive stress, inflammation, or simply undermine the balance of an otherwise carefully chosen diet.

Why does this matter?

According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, an estimated 59% of dogs in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Treats are one of the most common hidden contributors. (Source: APOP)

The challenge is that packaging rarely tells the full story. Labels emphasize convenience or flavor while downplaying how the product was sourced or processed. Understanding what really sets a healthy dog treat apart means looking beyond marketing claims and considering nutrition, ingredient quality, and production methods.

Here are four of the most common mistakes pet parents make when choosing treats — and how to avoid them:

Mistake 1: Ignoring the Ingredient List

What should you look for in a dog treat label?

The ingredient list is the most important part of any pet treat packaging, yet it’s also the most overlooked. Marketing claims on the front can be misleading — the truth lies on the back.

Many biscuit-style treats found in pet shops and supermarkets contain:

• Artificial colors and dyes (such as Red 40, Yellow 5, or Blue 2) that are unnecessary and can act as allergens.
• Artificial preservatives like BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, which extend shelf life but carry safety concerns.
• By-products and vague protein sources — for example “meat meal” or “animal derivatives” — that lack traceability and may vary from batch to batch.
• Cheap fillers such as corn, soy, or wheat gluten, which add calories but no meaningful nutrition.

If the ingredient list looks more like a chemistry set than a recipe, it’s not the kind of nutrition your dog needs. A natural pet treat should be made from identifiable ingredients — salmon, mussels, pumpkin, beef liver, etc. — not a long list of synthetic additives.

Mistake 2: Overlooking Nutrient Balance and Calorie Content

How many treats are too many?

Even though treats are small, they can significantly affect overall nutrition. Too many empty-calorie snacks quickly add up and can contribute to weight gain, obesity, and metabolic issues.

Key points to remember:

• Calories add up quickly: Treats should not exceed 10% of daily calorie intake, unless they are included in your dog’s diet formulation.
• Functional vs. filler treats: Healthy dog treats can provide omega-3s, glucosamine, or antioxidants. Processed biscuits provide mostly starch and sugar.
• Metabolic health: Extra calories from poor-quality treats put strain on the body, especially in senior dogs or predisposed breeds.

Question for you: Do you know how many calories your dog’s favorite treat contains? Many pet parents don’t check until weight gain has already started.

Mistake 3: Not Considering Processing Methods

How a treat is made directly affects nutrient retention, palatability, and even safety.

• Freeze-dried treats retain nearly all their original nutrients — the gold standard for natural dog treats.
  
• Gently dehydrated and air-dried treats maintain more nutrition than baked products, though some heat-sensitive compounds are lost.
• Baked treats often use high temperatures that destroy delicate nutrients and rely on starches as a base.
• Heavily processed biscuit-style treats sold in pet shops and supermarkets are often made with feed-grade ingredients, fillers, flavor enhancers, and colorants. Nutritional value is minimal, while processing focuses on shelf appeal.

A minimally processed freeze-dried salmon cube delivers far superior nutrition compared to a colorful supermarket biscuit.

Mistake 4: Forgetting About Sourcing and Quality

Ingredients are only as good as where they come from.

• Human-grade vs. feed-grade: Human-grade treats are made of ingredients suitable for human consumption and processed in facilities inspected to human food standards. Feed-grade allows lower-quality inputs and weaker regulations.
• Organic: Reduces exposure to pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers which can add to the body’s toxic load and cause health issues.
• Traceability: Traceable sourcing (“Beef liver from New Zealand”) is safer than “meat by-product.”
• Sustainability: Responsible sourcing supports both your dog and the environment and wider ecosystem.

A limited-ingredient natural pet treat that is human-grade, organic where possible, and fully traceable provides assurance of quality and safety.

Conclusion

The wrong choice of treats can undermine your dog’s health. The biggest pitfalls are ignoring the ingredient list, overlooking nutrient balance, neglecting processing, and disregarding sourcing and quality.

By choosing natural treats made from clean, traceable ingredients and minimal processing, you ensure that treats complement your dog’s diet instead of working against it.

Food for thought: Next time you reach for a treat, ask yourself — Is this fueling my dog’s wellness, or just filling a craving?

Quick Takeaways

• Read the ingredient list. Avoid additives, dyes, vague by-products, fillers.
• Watch calories. Keep treats <10% of daily intake and choose nutrient-dense options.
• Check processing. Freeze-dried > air dried > baked > heavily processed biscuits.
• Know the source. Human-grade, organic, traceable = safer and higher quality.