Wild-caught salmon treats: what we can tell you

Wild caught salmon dog treats are treats whose fish was caught in the wild rather than raised on a farm. That is the whole definition, and it is our wording for the salmon in our pouch. Some bags hold imported wild-caught salmon. The pouch itself is freeze-dried in small batches by Sniff and Shift in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

What does wild-caught mean on a salmon treat?

Caught in the wild rather than raised on a farm. That is the plain definition and the only one we use. People also search for wild salmon dog treats, and on our pouch the two phrases point at the same fish. Wild-caught is the word we use on every page.

What the word does not do is change anything else on the label. The label's guaranteed analysis (66 percent crude protein minimum, 9 percent crude fat minimum, 10 percent crude fiber maximum, 11 percent moisture maximum) and its 3,020 kcal ME/kg energy line say nothing about how the fish was caught. Our guaranteed analysis guide goes through each figure. We also make no claim that wild-caught tastes different or does anything in particular for a dog. It describes how the fish was caught. That is all it describes.

Where does the salmon in our pouch come from?

Here is where our salmon comes from, in the words we stand behind and no others:

• wild-caught salmon
• some bags are imported wild-caught salmon
• freeze-dried in small batches
• made and shipped by Sniff and Shift in Malvern, Pennsylvania

You will notice what is missing. No country, no ocean, no region and no season. The species we do name: every bag is wild-caught pink salmon. We leave the rest out because nothing we can quote states them, and a short list we can defend beats a long one we cannot. Imported tells you the fish in those bags came in from elsewhere before it reached us. It does not tell you where, and we do not guess.

The salmon is raw before it is freeze-dried, so the bag's hand washing line belongs here. The bag says: "Wash your hands after handling it." The product page picks up raw handling from there, and your veterinarian answers for your own dog.

What does made in Malvern, Pennsylvania cover?

The listing's sentence is this: "Every pouch is made and shipped by Sniff and Shift in Malvern, Pennsylvania." Read it as a sentence about the pouch. The listing says the pouch is made there and shipped from there, and that we freeze-dry the salmon in small batches. Salmon treats freeze-dried in Pennsylvania is a fair description of what happens in Malvern, and it is the description we use.

A car can be assembled in one state from parts made in several others, and the badge on the trunk tells you about the assembly plant. Malvern is our assembly plant. The sentence does not cover the fish before it reached us; where the salmon was processed before it arrived is not stated, and the Malvern line should not be read as answering it.

If you want to know who we are and how the business runs, the about page says that in a few paragraphs. If you want to know who caught the fish, we do not have that line to give you, and we will not write one we cannot back up.

What does our listing leave unsaid about the fish?

Enough that it deserves its own section. Not stated anywhere we can quote: the fishery, the catch method past the word wild-caught, where the fish was processed before it reached us, and the bone content. Two answers we can now add: the pieces include skin, and each pouch is printed with a best-by date one year from production. The listing also says nothing about the freeze-dry process beyond the words small batches.

We print what we can stand behind and stop there. If a line is not on the bag or in the listing, it is not on this site, and the gaps above stay gaps until we have a source for them. What the bag does say is short and specific. The bag says: "Feed as a treat or meal topper." It also says: "Not intended as a complete diet."

How much of a day that treat should take up is your veterinarian's call. For a starting figure, type your dog's daily calories into the calculator on our product page. It is set to a 10 percent default and answers in salmon by weight, worked out from the label's 85.6 kcal per ounce, approximately; the default is a setting, not advice. The guides hub lists the rest of our pages, one question each.