Pig ears are one of the most popular dog treats on the market today, and there are many dog owners that are opting to provide their dogs consumable chew treats like dog ears instead of using traditional chew toys. But what are pig ear dog treats made of? How and in what conditions are they exactly made?
So, what are pig ear dog treats made of? As you can tell from the name itself, pig ear treats are primarily made of pig ears and, at times, some seasoning for extra flavor. To be more specific, the treat undergoes a process of being baked at a high temperature for long duration of time, creating a beef jerky-like product at the end.
However, are there any safety concerns that you should be aware of during this process? Can you trust industrially produced dog treats in terms of nutritional levels and overall health for your dogs?
How Exactly are Pig Ear Treats Made?
To be specific, pig ear treats are made in factories that are not in the most sanitary conditions. Usually, they undergo the same process that beef jerkys or other jerkys would:
- They are dried
- Seasoned
- Covered in chemicals that are not necessarily the best for dogs
As such, pig ear treats can cause a lot of health problems. Due to the chemicals involved in the process of producing these chew treats as well as the social stigma around pig ears and how it is thought to be okay to produce them under suboptimal conditions, dogs can become victims of digestive and general health issues!
Are There Any Pig Ear Health Concerns?
Yes. Here are 3, for starters:
1. Production Environment
Yes, you can trust pig ear treats. After all, they are made out of animals and not much chemical processing is involved in the process of producing these treats.
However, what you should be aware of is the conditions in which these pig ear treats are manufactured. This part is where you can’t really trust pig ear treats.
Pig ears, to humans, are nothing more than a part of the slaughtered pig that is thrown into the waste bin with other parts of the pig that most of the customers do not really purchase like its intestines.
For this reason, pig ears tend to be mixed with other parts of the pig that might not have been properly sanitized. This is exactly where the risk of bacterial infection lies for these pig ear dog chew treats.
Raw meat is known to contain lots of pathogens; that is why we opt to cook our meat instead of eating it raw.
No matter how clean the pig ears are and how well sanitized they are, once they come in contact with unsanitized regions of the pig, they immediately become a health risk. The best example of this would be the salmonella outbreak that occurred precisely for this reason.
In 2019, the United States government ended up releasing an official statement mentioning how the citizens of the United States, more specifically dog owners, should be careful of pig ear dog treats. It turned out that numerous strains of salmonella were discovered under the microscope.
Though situations and sanitary conditions might have improved from the past, we believe that pig ear treats will always be at the risk of being a health concern due to bacterial infections from its poor environments.
2. Airway Blockage
As much as your dog loves pig ear treats, it also needs to know the common risks of dogs: airway blockages.
Because these pig ears are so tasty from the dog’s perspective, it is part of its instinct to finish it all very quickly.
To a certain extent, this is completely fine. Your dog’s digestive system should be able to handle most of the food that your dog swallows. However, the thing about the first case is that it isn’t about digestibility.
Instead, you are looking at respiratory issues, or cases where your dog swallows a piece that is too large for its own good. If such pieces are swallowed, most will end up lodged in your dog’s throat, making it start to choke.
In this case, you will have to perform the Heimlich maneuver, where you:
- Create a fist with one hand and wrap it with your other hand.
- As you push the fist into your dog’s stomach, you should add an upward motion to it as if to push the lodged object out of your dog’s throat.
- If it doesn’t work, resort to holding your dog by its hind legs and try to shake the stuck pig ear out.
To determine whether or not your dog is choking, you can tell by your dog’s actions. If it seems to be gagging on something or is pawing its mouth as if to pull something out of its throat, you should probably be concerned and call for professional help.
3. Intestinal Blockage
This is more of a digestive issue that your dog might have to suffer from if it consumes pig ear dog treats.
Because of how tough the snacks are, swallowing it might pose a choking hazard, but if it doesn’t, then it might pose digestive issues.
Intestinal blockages tend to cause dogs to experience extreme digestive pain.
Due to such cases, many dogs fail to meet the daily nutritional requirements as they can no longer eat properly. Most dogs that suffer from intestinal blockages end up refusing to eat and start living a very lethargic lifestyle.
What Can You do?
When it comes to living with a dog, it is impossible to not do something that your dog wants so much. In cases where dogs constantly feel the need to chew on something for anxiety relief, there are alternatives that you can take.
Moreover, the health concerns listed above are just risks that owners have to take. As long as they do everything they can to reduce those risks, the dogs are unlikely to contract sicknesses. We only recommend that you abandon pig ear treats if your dog feels indifferent about it; as a dog owner, you never want to stress your dog out by taking away something that it loves.
With that being said, here is our advice on what you can do:
1. Be Cautious
You can continue providing your dog with pig ear treats as long as you are careful enough.
First, we recommend that you look into exactly what conditions these treats are produced in.
More importantly, however, make sure that the products are licensed and are popularly used among other dog owners with proven track records.
Moreover, in order to prevent bacterial infections, never touch your face or have your dog eat the treat before thoroughly sterilizing it.
In terms of blockages, unfortunately, there is not much you can do. It is helpful to keep an eye on your dog at all times when it is enjoying its pig ear dog treat.
2. Find Alternatives
If your dog isn’t too enthusiastic about pig ear treats that it will be fine without it, you can easily find alternatives in the market.
The first one that might come to mind is the chew toys that are available in most pet shops. We know that chewing is a part of your dog’s instincts and the act of chewing has been proven to help dogs relieve anxiety.
Therefore, the act of chewing isn’t necessarily unhealthy. For this reason, chew toys can work great as dogs are not necessarily consuming anything in this case, and as long as the toys are made out of dog-friendly material, you shouldn’t be putting your dog at any health risks.
If you are looking for consumable chew treats like pig ears, we do not recommend Rawhide treats, the classic bone shaped dog chew that many people believe to be iconic.
Instead, look into Greenies, a product that helps not only with your dog’s chewing instincts but also with making sure that your dog’s teeth stay clean. The best part about this is that these are produced as consumables for dogs, meaning they do not contain as much chemicals as pig ear dog treats are.
Related Questions
As of now, we don’t recommend that you provide pig ear treats for your dog. There is a risk of bacterial infection and other health concerns that you can easily avoid by providing it alternatives like chew toys or healthier consumable chew treats.
Usually, yes. However, it is very difficult for dogs to digest pig ears. For this reason, there are cases of intestinal blockages that, at times, can be fatal for certain dogs.
They usually bake them for a long time (around 6 to 10 hours) in order to get them completely dried out. The result is something like a beef jerky. You can check out more information on how they are made here.
One pig ear per week is recommended. Any more than that, your dog would already be consuming too much fat per day, throwing off the nutritional balance that you should always strive for as a dog owner.
