If you're looking to give your dog a vegan or vegetarian treat, store-bought options can be a bit limited at times. You can always resort to making your own treats, of course, (our dog loves sweet potato treats) but that can be very time-consuming.
Enter Whimzees. I discovered these a while back, when looking for an alternative to Greenies, which contain gelatin (an animal by-product). Our dog is old, and can't really get the regular dental cleanings he used to receive (which require him to be sedated), so it's especially important that we have something he can chew on to help clean his teeth (and he sure loves them as well!).
Whimzees come in all sorts of whimsical shapes and sizes. The store I was at had some of their fun animal shapes, but I decided to start with the Stix to see if Max liked them. He most definitely did!
I went on their site, which says their products contain "no artificial ingredients, colors, flavors, preservatives, GMOs, gluten, or meat." Although it listed the ingredients as vegetarian-friendly, I know that companies sometimes ignore the use of animal by-products in these types of descriptions, so I contacted them myself. Here was their response: "Our WHIMZEES are made using limited, vegetable-based ingredients only, so all plant based. We do not use any animal products, animal byproducts or even plant by-products: in our efforts to create the healthiest, high-quality dog chews, we only use top quality, human food grade ingredients. The only thing we cannot confirm, is whether any non-vegetable fertilizers have been used when growing the ingredients for our WHIMZEES."
You can find Whimzees at Petco, Pet Supplies Plus, and Pet Valu, as well as many independent pet retailers (and, of course, on Amazon). They even make "toothbrushes" similar to the greenies--looking forward to getting those for our dog soon. And, if you want a more serious chew toy, they have some very adorable animal-shaped chews, and even make a veggie "ear"!
So check them out--your dog will thank you for it!
