Hollings Cows Ears

Almost nothing in a pet shop tells you who should not have it. Hollings do, in one line on the back of this pack, and it is easily the most useful sentence printed on it: not suitable for puppies, dogs with poor teeth or elderly dogs. Everything else about a cows ear follows from why that line has to be there.

What it is, is beef and nothing else - the composition reads Beef (100%) - dried until it is firm enough to take real work from a jaw. That firmness is where the chewing time comes from, and it is also exactly why a mouth that cannot cope with it should not be handed one. The analysis is protein 84%, fat content 2.5%, crude fibre 0.8% and crude ash 4.5%, at 383 kcal/100g. Hollings note the cartilage in an ear as a natural source of chondroitin. There is no rawhide in it, no grain, and no added colours, flavours or preservatives. Ten to a pack.

• 10PK of dried cows ears
• Composition: Beef (100%)
• Protein 84%, fat content 2.5%
• Crude fibre 0.8%, crude ash 4.5%
• 383 kcal/100g
• No rawhide, grain free, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives

Hollings rule out three kinds of dog, and they mean it. Puppies, dogs with poor teeth and elderly dogs are all named as unsuitable on the pack, because a chew this firm is a risk to a mouth that is not up to it. Two other things worth saying. These are a natural product, so they vary in size from ear to ear, and Hollings ask you to check each one is a sensible size for your dog before handing it over. And 383 kcal/100g is not a small figure for something eaten on top of dinner - Hollings' own advice is to trim the main meals slightly on a day one gets given, to supervise the chewing, and to do it somewhere a stain will not matter.

Who it's for: owners of a healthy adult dog with good teeth who want a long chew that is one ingredient, and who would rather buy ten at once than one at a counter.