Milk-Bone Original Dog Biscuits: Dog Food Review

The only reason Milk-Bones landed in our home was because they were a steal at a local Costcos. $8 for a 10 pound box. We figured there would be no treat that came even close to that when it came to price.
We heaved the huge box into our over sized cart and headed out the door. You see in our home there are 11 dogs. These dogs for the most part are all picky eaters, so the milk-bones were not for these dogs. The milk-bones were for our newest member Bully. We have been training him with treats, and no matter what the treat is, the dog has no problem chowing down.
The box read:
The hard crunchy texture of Milk-bone Original can help clean the teeth and freshen breath. As your dog chews, Milk-bone Original Biscuits help remove residual food particles from your dog's teeth, thereby helping freshen breath. See our web site at www.Milkbone.com for more calorie and health information.
It all sounded great, and for the price why not?
MILK-BONE ORIGINAL BISCUIT IN MEDIUM:
I remembered milk-bones right when I opened the box, and I also quickly remembered why we stopped buying them many years ago. They looked and smelled disgusting. The bone is in a cute dog bone shape with an old dehydrated brown look to it. The things just didn't look healthy. They smelled like cardboard, and I wondered if even Bully would eat them. Bully is like Mikey, 'he'll eat anything', but by the looks and scent of these milk-bones I wasn't so sure.
"Bully sit"
Bully will run up to you, sit, and then wait to be told to do a trick such as lay down or give paw. He did his trick with ease, and I handed him a milker.
"Chomp, chomp, chomp'. The medium sized bone was gone in 60 seconds. I was even surprised, he's not that big a dog yet, so seeing how quickly he swallowed the bone was pretty scary. He then got up, and sat, waiting to be told to do another trick so he could have another bone.
Yay! Bully likes them. Good, he was the dog we had in mind while buying the milk-bones. But there were 10 other dogs left wide eyed, wondering just what we had in the magical big red box.
One by one, they all came to collect a bone. Most of them though left them on the kitchen floor for Bully to come and sweep up. The ones that did eat them seemed content.
I was also content seeing how Milk-Bones are also good for their teeth. Chewing Milk-Bones will reduce tartar build up, and help freshen breath. Seemed good to me, the dogs overall seemed happy with their cardboard scented bones, so we were too.
THE NEXT DAY:
Oh, the dogs loved the bones, sure they did. But the next day we awoke to a bunch of not so pleasant gooey surprises. The dogs that ate the bones all got diarrhea. However we didn't quite put two and two together yet. We didn't even consider that the milk-bones were perhaps what gave the dogs the poops. So we gave it to them again.
Day 2 rolls around and it's the same story. By now, we brighten up to the situation. The Milk-Bones were the culprit! We right away discontinued use, and the dogs are now going to the bathroom like regular dogs again.
THINGS TO AVOID:
Milk-Bone original biscuits for puppies
Milk-Bones for small dogs
Milk-Bones for medium dogs, large ones and extra large ones.
Serving sizes range from 1-5 bones a day. However we were only giving the little ones one bone, and Bully chomped down about 3 or 4 of them. Basically it does not matter how many or how little they have, either way they are still going to get the runs.
It's all the same ingredients just in different size bones, and most likely the same ingredients that cause diarrhea. Don't get me wrong, your dogs will love them, but what do dogs know when it comes to having an upset tummy? They don't know the cause.
So whats in this stuff that may of caused this 2 day explosion of ...
Ingredients:
Wheat Flour, Wheat Bran, Beef Meal and Beef Bone Meal, Milk, Wheat Germ, Beef Fat Preserved with Tocopherols, Salt, Dicalcium Phosphate, Brewers Dried Yeast, Poultry Digest, Dried Cheese, Calcium Carbonate, Malted Barley Flour, Sodium Metabisulfite (Dough Conditioner), Vitamins (Choline Chloride, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, D-Activated Animal Sterol (Source of Vitamin D3)), Minerals (zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, ethylenediamine dihydriodide (Source of Iodine)), Natural Flavor.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein...Min...15.0%
Crude Fat.......Min....5.0%
Crude Fiber.....Max....3.5%
Moisture.........Max...12.0%
Calcium..........Min....0.8%
Calcium..........Max....1.3%
Phosphorus.......Min....0.8%
Copper...........Min....7.3mg/kg
Zinc.............Min..120.0mg/kg
Iodine...........Min....1.5mg/kg
Vitamin A........Min...5000IU/kg
Vitamin D........Min....300IU/kg
Vitamin E........Min.....50IU/kg
Riboflavin.......Min.....2.2mg/kg
Pantothenic Acid.Min....10.0mg/kg
Vitamin B12......Min...0.022mg/kg
Choline..........Min....1200mg/kg
Okay, so I can't figure out which ingredient may of caused the diarrhea, but it looks like its filled with all sorts of odds and ends. It is no wonder none of the dogs tummy's reacted the way they did.
OVERALL:
Milk-Bones got dropped by us about 10 years ago because the dogs wouldn't eat them. 10 years later they get dropped again, not because the dogs won't eat them, but because whatever the hell is in them is causing massive diarrhea in all of our dogs.
RECOMMENDATION:
No way. Keep these treats away from your dogs. It's like feeding them laxatives.