Wellness Superfood Protein Bars & Treat Chaser Ball Review | Chewy.com
I am a lucky participant of Chewy.com‘s Blogger Outreach Program, meaning I get to try out a lot of different pet products in exchange for my honest reviews. The following review are the thoughts and opinions of yours truly, and no way am I paid to endorse the following product.
This month is extra special because I got sent, not one, but TWO items to review. Must be my lucky day. ;) I’ll be reviewing first: Wellness Superfood Protein Bars: Salmon & Whitefish w/ Pomegranates Recipe, and then second: Outward Hound: Treat Chaser, which is an entertainment toy for dogs.
I’ve actually never used fish-based treats before. It seems like a type of food that like people, dogs would be picky about, too. Some people like fish, others don’t; some dogs like fish, others don’t, but hey, everything’s worth trying at least once, right?
After opening the bag, the first thing I notice is PHEW, THE SMELL. These are probably some of the stinkiest treats that I have ever encountered. If you don’t like the smell of fish, you’ll definitely puke at the smell of these, haha. Almost didn’t want to use these, knowing that my hands would reek like fish for daaaaaays. Yes, that’s how bad it is. But hint*: usually the stinkier it is, the more pets love them. Weirdos.
Smell aside, here are some product shots to give you a better idea of what the treat looks like. On the back of the bag, salmon and whitefish are the two main ingredients with no by-products, which is good. Clearly, a high quality product. The actual treat itself is decent sized, They’re about the length of one of my business cards, and they have a pressed diamond-pattern on each of them. In terms of breakability, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being extremely soft and 10 being rock hard, I’d probably rate this a 5—the treats are breakable but require some decent force.
The next test, obviously, is to see what the subjects think about them. It turned out to be Olivia the Mastiff’s lucky day. See below for her cute face, happily waiting to get fed some delicious treat, as the drool starts to gather at her jowls. She LOVED them, almost better than the chicken treats that I normally use. Then again, I don’t know if she’s the best subject to test these treats on, as she normally loves all things fish in general. ;)
Conclusion: I might keep a bag of these on hand to mix things up. I don’t know if these would be my go-to, per se, since I’d still have to test these treats on more dogs for reliability (Update: As thought, not all dogs like these). There are also other treats I’m eyeing that seem like a better value (for example, these Triumph Jerky Treats, where it’s about $9 for 1.5 pounds). Overall though, these look to be healthy, nutritional, and you can break them into smaller pieces to make them last for some time.
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Next up, is the Treat Chaser review. (*Disclosure: I may already be negatively biased toward this product just based on how ugly it is)
To keep pets entertained, someone, somewhere, has the awesome job of coming up with toys that keep dogs and cats mentally occupied. One of them, is the Treat Chaser by the Outward Hound. The company describes their product as “Interactive treat-seeking doggy fun” and “Keeps your pup playing Longer”, all while “Made with durable food-safe plastic”.
On initial observation, I hate the colors. I don’t want to say I’m a design snob, but who picked them?! They’re so ugly. Maybe there’s scientific reasoning based on the color spectrum that dogs can see. Regardless, I would not buy this based on appearance.
Size-wise, it’s decent– larger than a tennis ball. As for how it works, there are no instructions, but it looks like you dump a bunch of kibble or treats into a hole (there there’s one on each side). I don’t see a way to control the size of the opening (which I’ve seen in other treat balls and is a good feature to have), so I can see future issues in controlling the rate of how quickly the treats are dispensed. Speaking of treats, I’m not even sure which ones I would use. The opening looks almost too big for regular kibble, and it seems like a pain to break larger treats into smaller pieces just to poke them through the hole one at a time.
I tested out the toy on my foster dog, and I think another fault with the design is the balance. It leans heavy on one side, making it awkward for a pet to move. Maybe that’s the point though. I don’t know.
Conclusion: Looks like I will be donating this to a local shelter. Maybe they will be able to get better use out of it.