The wonderous nutritional value of pig’s ears as dog treats

Many owners swear by pig’s ears, but mostly because the occupy their dog for a while and they see the joy it gives their dog in ripping it apart.

What truly distinguishes this Long lasting Pork ear Dog Chews from the regular dog treat, is it’s a natural 100% single ingredient dog treat.

Simply put, cheaper dog treats have a lot of plant matter.  Grain and leafy vegetables compressed into a clump, as filler.  Some might have some vitamins or minerals, but are typically massively deficient in protein that the dog can use, or any other redeeming value.

I will now take you on a master class in specifically what is in pig’s ears, and why they make a useful addition to any dogs diet.

Let’s start with PIGS EAR macro ingredients

While we don’t always agree with aafco nutrient tables (because they massively understate the amount of bio available protein that a dog needs, and don’t even consider proper levels of Omega 3 or any joint support nutrition like shark cartilages can provide (glucosamine and chondroitin).

We do provide it as a base line that most people who buy commercial dog food should be use to.  As this American organisation (aafco) sets the global volunteer standards that are required by most countries for a ‘food’ to reach to be called dog good.

MACRO PIGS ear nutrients and DOG min requirements

This is a thought experiment, because of course you would never feed a dog exclusively on pig’s ears.  Or 100g of pig’s ears per day usually. That would be a very unbalanced diet.   But this first table gives some idea of what’s in it that is good for your dog.

Firstly, most tables give nutrient values for raw pig’s ears.  The source data for the above table for instance had a pig’s ear of 72% water.  And the total weight was adjusted to 100g (for ease of percentage calculations).

The typical pig’s ear has about 15% water in it, and weighs about 35 g.

So what is useful is to see how a single pigs ear (last column) compares to the aafco guidelines for macro nutrients for “DOG FOOD” for regular dogs.

You will see that a single pig’s ear, with 15% water has energy of about 181 calories.  The majority is from the fat. That is fairly high and might need to be taken into consideration by feeding your dog slightly less kibble when they eat an ear.

The next item is where pig’s ears really shine. Animal protein typically is much higher digestibility than most plant matter. So the AAFCO recommended minimum fat is 18% protein in dog food, and as you can see a single pigs ear at 17g of protein (out of 35g total weight) ALMOST covers the minimum protein required itself!

This is VERY good, because most dog food is majority plant matter, which with low protein, and low bio availability can struggle to reach that minimum percentage.  And since it’s not bioavailable the useable protein in dog food can fall short of this very poor minimum level they assign to ‘food’.

The table shows that per 35g of DRIED pig’s ear, that about 12g of it might be fat.  But its animal fat, the kind that carnivore dogs can use well for energy.

The ears have some carbs in them (less than most plant matter), and very low fibre (unless you get ones with hair on them) – but your dog will still need good semi soluble fibre from dog food to feed the good bacteria in its intestine.

PIG’S EAR dog treat PROTEIN levels are excellent

Because protein is so important to dog’s we will review this first.  Protein has 22 amino acids in it.  But of those 10 are called essential amino acids, because dogs can’t make these internally from other chemicals they have in their body.  THEY HAVE to get these from food they eat.  And without these the dog’s body cannot make specific proteins effectively.

The 10 essential amino acids are arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.

Not coincidently protein amino acids are the top table in the affco recommendations, because they are that important. And because they have to consume these, affco provides minimum levels of them they must eat to be healthy.

PIGS EAR dog treats essential amino acids V aafco recommendation

The middle number data column is the affco minimum recommendation of each essential amino acids by %.

The first number data column is equivalent to 100g of dried pig’s ears (15% water). This would be close to three actual regular sized pig’s ears, but we have included it, since using the 100g weight, each essential amino acid for the pig’s ear can be directly compared to the aaffco % requirement.  You will see except for Tryptophan (0g)  and Methionine, that pigs ears absolutely blitzes the bare aafco minimums.

You should note that MOST GRAINS used in dog food do not reach ANY of these essential amino acid minimums, and instead rely on any meat included in commercial dog food to reach the minimum.

The far-right column of the data table shows how much essential amino acid is in a SINGLE medium pigs ear (35g).  Remarkably it shows that even at this low weight that a single pig’s ear STILL provides the enough essential amino acids to cover what is required in 100g of dog food equivalent.

That suggests that by having your dog eat just one average sized pig’s ear that they will get a significant boost to the often low level of bio available plant matter in dog food, and make up for any short fall in essential amino acid required!

Pigs skin collagen

It is worth noting that pig’s ears have a high amount of Collagen type 2, a specific protein chemical that is the main type of collagen found in your dog’s cartilage tissue that cushions joints.

Pig’s ears also have glucosamine and chondroitin.  The combination of these chemicals are the main ones use to prevent and treat joint issues in dogs.

 Pig’s ears also have beneficial minerals and vitamins … but as this article is mostly about the benefits of pigs ear for protein …  as you can see, they are a real healthy powerhouse of nutrition !