Naw Lamb Trachea

Everybody reads the protein figure on a chew and almost nobody reads the fat one, which is exactly the wrong way round for something handed over daily. Protein is the number that sells a chew; fat is the number that quietly decides whether it suits a particular dog. On most animal-part chews neither figure is published at all, so the argument never comes up.

NAW publish both. This is lamb trachea and nothing else — no additives, no coating, gluten and grain free — and their analysis puts crude protein at 71.72%, crude fat at 11.45%, moisture at 7.28% and ash at 7.53%. It comes as a 1KG bag rather than a counted pack, and NAW's own case for it is the chewing itself: they say working at a lamb chew helps break down plaque, and that it gives a dog something to occupy itself with. They put the minimum age at 4 months.

• 1KG bag of 100% lamb trachea
• Crude protein 71.72%, crude fat 11.45%
• Moisture 7.28%, ash 7.53%
• No additives; gluten and grain free
• NAW put the minimum age at 4 months
• A complementary treat rather than a meal

On the fat. Trachea tends to be bought as the lean chew, and at 11.45% crude fat the lamb version is not the leanest thing in that part of the shop — which matters if your dog is on a fat-restricted diet or has had pancreatitis, and in that case your vet's view outranks anything on this page. NAW publish no calorie figure either, and no piece count: a kilo of trachea is sold by weight, so how many chews you get depends entirely on how the pieces came out. Give it with fresh water available and take it away once it has been chewed down small enough to swallow whole.

Who it's for: dogs that need something to work at rather than something to swallow, owners avoiding grain and gluten, and anyone who wants to know what is actually in a chew before handing it over.