Input Costs of Grain-Based Treats vs. Single-Ingredient Treats in the Wholesale Dog Treat Market

Dog treats and the wholesale niche is one area where you don’t always get what you paid for.   Value is perception, and advertising by major brands can easily warp what true value is.

We take a look at what the input costs of basic wholesale dog treats is mainly with meat V plant-based treats. And in particular how end retail prices don’t often reflect the cost of manufacture.

Much of this goes back to basic kibble dog food.  Affco directions on the number of vitamins and minerals that have to be added to dog food, to call it dog food, commercially presents a significant barrier to entry for many smaller players wishing to do the natural (meat based) foods.

And because of that barrier, there is almost collusion between the big players to keep kibble prices (that are mostly grain or veggies) artificially high.  That enhances profit, but it doesn’t present true value to the dog owner (or dog).

This then has the spill over effect to allowing companies that make only biscuit and plant-based dog treats to charge a similar price for low quality nutrition that is grain based, to be sold at a similar price to meat-based treats, where input costs truly reflect the cost of manufacture.

This causes confusion in the market; it leads dog owners to thinking that meat and grain-based treats are equally good for their dogs.  And when some suppliers provide a massive discount on their plant-based treats (because they had a large margin to play with), and they can then move the treats in bulk, owners then wonder why meat-based treats can’t similarly be discounted.

A simple explanation should be available at your local supermarket for human food.  You can often see cakes and cookies at high prices, and the next week steeply discounted.  Yet the price of meat (unless its very close to use by date, rarely is steeply discounted.  And that is because its normal price is a true reflection of what it cost to make.

What are the costs of Grain V meat?

You can easily look this up on any government or industry website.  You will find that the bulk cost of most grain is typically around 10% or lower than the total cost for the same weight of almost any meat.

Chicken is typically the cheapest main meat given to dogs, and it’s the cheapest, but it will still cost at least 5 times the cost of equivalent grain weight like dried rice or wheat.

And this is why it can be very misleading that two pounds of composite dog treats (grain and wheat) can cost the same as 2 pounds of dried offal.  Now composite treats typically use the cheapest of grain and meat (MDM).

While offal, when 100%, is just offal in its purest form, it isn’t diluted and the vitamins and minerals are not the random cheapest.  The vitamins and minerals are actually natural that your dog can absorb.

You should also know that grain-based dog treats, like dog food, don’t have to have the percentage of meat printed on the packets.  They just have to have the order of the most plentiful ingredient by weight listed as first.  And with ingredient splitting it can appear that meat is the second ingredient, but it might actually be the third or fourth.

That is why, when you buy single ingredient meat dog treats in wholesale, you know you are getting the best meat or offal in pure form.  Not diluted and not an unknown percentage.

Meat and offal clearly cost a lot more to produce in terms of time, feedstock, animal management and water resources.  But when you love dogs as much as we do, you realise that they NEED animal products far more than any plant product.  Raw feeders know that dogs don’t need any plant products at all, except maybe fibre, if a dog is too young/ old or soft jawed to eat insoluble parts of animals that provide fibre.

You will also should know that most 100% single ingredient dog treat makers are relatively small in company size compared to the massive factories’ corporates use to great grain-based treats.  This means that grain is even bought in at cheaper than regular prices.  And given the small nature of every grain, the drying process is much cheaper and quicker.

To properly dry meat-based dog treats, even when cut into thin strips (that also costs extra money), the driers need to be very careful about their time and temperature process.  If meat is overdried it becomes crumbly and the nutrition is lessoned.  Not dried enough, and it can go moldy before it reaches a dog owner.

That said, the amazing thing about meat is that it is very high in protein (that dogs need) and animal fats (again important for dogs).  And when single ingredient dog treats are dried properly, they DON’T NEED PRESERVATIVE.  You will find that ALL composite treats that include plant material require preservative so that they don’t go off.  That can also present a risk to a buyer from dog treat wholesalers who don’t know the right amount of preservative to add, or store their product wrongly.

The main take away from this section on wholesale dog treats, is that while meat is vital to the health of dogs, and most dogs barely get the minimum level they require for protein and essential amino acids, the cost to produce quality meat and offal-based treats is very high (compared with plant fillers).

And with the rise in exports to far away countries, the cost of domestic meat pries has gone sky high for humans.  That also means that the cost of meat for dog treat driers has increased dramatically too – much faster than grain.  This coupled with meat already costing ten times that of most grains, makes it easy to see why meat-based dog treats are typically much more expensive than plant-based dog treats.

To make up for the higher wholesale cost of animal-based treats even though we have gone through the many obvious extra value of them compared to plants, some owners need a little extra something to let their value shine through.

This is where medicinal dog treats come into play. For instance, shark cartilage sticks have great benefits like: teeth cleaning, low calorie, occupier (for smaller dogs).  But they are also an excellent joint support treat. In fact, their high levels of chondroitin and glucosamine mean that they are a preventer of joint pain issues, and also help rebuild dog cartilage, such as in the legs.  That alone can save your dog much pain, gait issues, and expensive vet injections later in life.

And it also explains how plant-based dog treats can have very high margins, and allow for wholesalers to discount them a lot more (randomly) than they can meat-based dog treats.  If meat dog treats have a high fixed input cost, and exports of meat are increasing, then there is little room for wholesalers to discount meat dog treats at all.

CONCLUSIONS

To a non-dog owner, particularly small business operators who require only a small amount of dog treats on their counter, they are not going to get big discounts when they buy from wholesalers.

The nature of high retail price kibble, brought on by advertising by vets and the folklore that kibble with a few extra additives justifies the higher price, means that the price of plant-based dog treats can also be set at a high retail price.  But given the low input price of ingredients and the low manufacture cost, these can also be easily discounted on a whim by wholesalers.

This is why only truly dog devoted small business owners who want the best for their clients’ dogs, will entertain selling meat-based dog treats in their store.  They will rarely get a big discount on the relatively high buy price of animal-based treats, but by selling the treats in smaller bundles on their shelves, they can potentially tweak margins to acceptable levels.

We hope that you have enjoyed this insight into the competitive world of wholesale dog treat costs.