Letting kids hand out freeze-dried salmon bits

Kids and salmon treats come down to a split of jobs: an adult runs the setup and the child runs the handing out. The adult weighs the day's share, breaks the bits and keeps the pouch. The child hands the dog a few bits at a time. Once the bits are gone, every hand that touched salmon gets washed.

Can kids give a dog salmon treats?

That is a household decision, and the adult makes it. The bag and the listing are both silent on children, so this page is too. What it can do is lay out a setup where the grown-up does the preparing and the child gets the fun part.

We freeze-dry this salmon raw, so the bag's hand washing line covers every pair of hands in the family that touches it. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." We say nothing further about what raw means for a child or a dog. Your veterinarian is the person for that, and our product page covers raw handling as far as we go.

Think of the adult as the crew chief and the child as the driver. The chief decides what goes on the car. The driver gets to drive.

How should an adult set up the treats first?

Before any child is involved, do the grown-up jobs. They are all done before the dog is waiting.

1. Work out the day's share of salmon by weight, from your vet's number or the calculator on the product page, and set that amount aside.
2. Break the bits. The listing says: "Break the pieces small and the pouch goes further."
3. Hand the child a few bits at a time, not the whole share and never the pouch.
4. Reseal the pouch and keep it with you, out of the child's job.
5. When treat time is over, everyone who touched the salmon washes their hands.

Step one carries the weight of the whole plan. The share is set before anyone starts, so a child cannot hand out more than the adult put aside. It is a plain way to keep a family honest without anyone counting pieces.

What does the bag say about hands after handling?

One line, and it is short. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." The bag does not say whose hands, so in a house with children, read "handling" to include anyone who has held a bit. The adult who broke the bits washes. So does the child who passed them to the dog.

The bag has a second line that matters at treat time. The bag says: "Provide fresh water and supervise while feeding." That line is about feeding the dog, and we quote it as written. In this setup the adult is simply the one who is in the room to do it.

If you want to know what happens to the smell on fingers and pockets afterward, our smell guide covers that. We make no claims about it here.

How do you keep one count when the whole family treats the dog?

Keep the count in a container, not in anyone's head. The adult puts the day's share in one closed container, and every handout comes from that container. When the container is empty, treat time is done for the day, whoever is holding the dog's attention.

The share itself comes from arithmetic. The family's share starts on our product page, where the treat budget calculator works from your dog's daily calories at its fixed 10 percent and reports the result as grams and ounces of salmon. If your vet gives a different share, follow the vet's amount instead. For the longer explanation of the calorie method, see how many salmon treats a day.

The bag also says: "Not intended as a complete diet." Treats are a slice of the day, whoever is handing them out, so the day's share covers the whole family's treating together. A child who gives a bit at breakfast and a cousin who gives one at dinner are both spending from the same container.

One more small rule keeps it fair: tell the family where the container lives, and tell them it is an adult's job to refill it.

Our guides hub lists the other salmon pages, from storage to smell.