Treats Made in Louisiana!

[SARpartner]

With all the recalls we have all been looking for alternatives to give our dogs. I found one that I'm comfortable feeding and it is made in Louisiana with Louisiana sourced ingredients. It is from a small local business named Marsh Dogs.

Nutria are an invasive species that destroy the marshes in Louisiana. They are voracious eaters and reproduce quickly. They are ugly creatures that resemble an overgrown rat with big orange bucked teeth. Nutria are a very lean source of protein. Originally there was an attempt to market the meat for human consumption. It didn't catch on, probably because of them looking like a rat.

Now Marsh Dog is making a treat using nutria meat as the protein called Barataria Bites. All of the ingredients are from Louisiana except for the oat flour. Oat flour isn't produced in our state. If you go on their web site they list the farm they get each ingredient from. Because there are no presertaves added the treats only have a two month shelf life. The treats are hand made. Heck, the "use by" date is hand written on the package!

The treats are like little cookies. And the Cairns go crazy for them! We use them for bedtime treats. I wanted to share this info for three reasons. One it's IMHO a good treat that has locally sourced ingredients. Second it supports several small businesses, the people who make it and the farms. And last but not least, my dogs are eating a critter that is trying to destroy my home state!

My Cairns can't wait for UPS to bring their special box. I know Cairns are smart. Now the boys are starting to great the UPS man instead of sounding the Intruder Alert.

Here are the ingredients - copied straight from the bag:

Wild nutria meat, brown rice, brown rice flour, oat flour, sweet potatoes, eggs, sugar can molasses, garden parsley, and cayanne pepper.

Crude protein (min) 20%

Crude fat (min) 7%

Crude fiber (max) 2%

Moisture (max) 12%

Edited September 30, 2012 by SARpartner

[DemiSheep]

Do they have a website?

I wonder if dogs like aligator meat.. I know they've been hunting aligators in florida because their numbers have gotten too big...just a thought.

[bradl]

http://www.marshdog.com/MarshDog/Home.html

[jo_]

Wow...never even heard of a nutria. Kind of looks like a good ole Canadian beaver (other than the teeth and tail).

[SARpartner]

Nutria are not the most attractive animals. But my boys think they taste better than chicken.

[hheldorfer]

Good find! I'll be checking it out.

[Autumn & Lola]

The first time I heard of Nutria was in a Seinfeld episode, "It's a rat hat!"

Sounds like a good idea to me. I'll spread the word to my US peeps.

[SARpartner]

It's rather ironic. Last year Dusty killed a juvenile nutria in my yard. This year I am buying nutria treats. LOL

This is a nutria. The dogs say they taste better than they look. Yes, their teeth really are that color.

Okay, I think I got the picture added.

Edited October 6, 2012 by SARpartner

[Autumn & Lola]

Aww, they are kind of cute, except for the teeth. Those teeth remind me of my ex's.