Natural Pet Health & Wellness | Tips for a Healthier, Happier Pet

JR Pet Products — What They Make, Why We Stock Them, and What to Buy

There is a short list of brands where I don't have to do much work to justify stocking them. JR Pet Products is on that list. They were founded by Jonathan and Rebecca — the JR in the name — two people with a straightforward idea: make treats from a single named ingredient, process them as minimally as possible, and don't add anything else. That's it. No proprietary formula, no patented process, no special science. Just: here is the animal this came from, here is what we did to it, here is the bag. I'm aware that sounds like it shouldn't be a differentiator in 2026. It is. The labelling problem UK pet food labelling law allows manufacturers to declare ingredients using category names rather than specific sources. 'Meat and animal derivatives' is a legal declaration. So is 'oils and fats', 'sugars', 'various sugars.' These categories can include anything that fits the definition. They don't have to tell you which animal, which part, or what percentage. This isn't obscure small print. It's the standard across most of the pet treat market. Brands use it because it gives them flexibility — they can change the protein source when supply or price changes without reformulating the label. The dog eating the treat has no idea. Most owners don't either. JR doesn't use category declarations. If it's beef, it says beef. If it's ostrich, it says ostrich. If it's lamb tripe, you're getting lamb tripe. This matters practically, not just philosophically. In ten years running a dog daycare, the dogs I saw with the most persistent skin, coat and digestive issues were almost always on diets with unclear ingredient sourcing. Not always — there are dogs with genuine medical conditions and those are a different conversation. But a surprising number improved when owners switched to treats where they could verify the protein source. Single-ingredient treats are the simplest diagnostic tool available. If you don't know what's in the treat, you don't know what you're ruling out. What JR actually makes The range splits into three broad areas. The Pure range is training treats: Beef Sticks, Beef Coins, Chicken Coins, and variants. Small, soft, single protein, nothing added. These are the ones I'd reach for if I were back at the daycare. They work for recall, for calm settling, for any repetition-based training where you need something the dog will take consistently without getting bored of it or having their stomach turn over after twenty repetitions. The chews are where JR's ostrich specialisation becomes relevant. Ostrich is a lean, novel protein source — genuinely useful for dogs who have been on chicken, beef, and lamb their whole lives and have started showing reactions. Novel protein works because a dog that hasn't been exposed to a protein source hasn't had the opportunity to develop sensitivity to it. The Ostrich Bone, Ostrich Knuckle, and Ostrich Long Bone are all long-lasting, digestible, and from a source that most UK dogs haven't encountered before. The softer chew options — Lamb Tripe, Goat Ears, Rabbit Ears without hair — sit in a different category. Lower fat, easier to digest, good for older dogs or dogs with known digestive sensitivity. The Goat Ears in particular are something I recommend to people whose dogs can't manage the richer chews without it showing up at the other end. The pâté range — Pure Pâté for Dogs in various proteins — sits slightly apart. These are useful as a food topper or for dogs who need higher-value incentives without the richness of a fatty chew. The 80g tubes travel well and are a practical way to add variety to a dog who's gone off their food, which happens with age and stress more than people realise. Where JR sources from Jonathan and Rebecca source from European suppliers — they've been transparent about this publicly. The processing is air-drying for most of the range, which removes moisture without high heat, preserving more of the nutritional content than conventional baking. There are no artificial preservatives because the drying process makes them unnecessary. The shelf life comes from the process, not from additives. I'm not going to make claims about the therapeutic value of specific nutrients in air-dried treats — that's not what this is. But the absence of artificial preservatives is meaningful for dogs who react to additives. And the sourcing transparency is meaningful for owners who've been round the loop of trying to identify what's causing a problem and discovering the ingredient list doesn't actually tell them. If you want to understand any ingredient on any pet food label — not just JR's — use Decode the Label, our free tool. Enter the ingredient, get the plain-English explanation. What to buy if you're starting out If your dog doesn't have known sensitivities and you want a good general training treat: Pure Beef Sticks or Pure Beef Coins. Reliable, consistent, every dog I've seen take them has taken them well. If your dog has sensitivities and you've already worked through the common proteins: Ostrich Training Treats first. Cheap enough to use in volume, novel enough to be worth trying. If your dog is a serious chewer and you want something long-lasting that isn't rawhide: Ostrich Bone. Rawhide is still widely sold. It is also not digestible in the way the packaging sometimes implies. The Ostrich Bone lasts similarly long and doesn't carry the same risks. The full range is in our JR Pet Products collection. If you're not sure where to start, the training treats collection is a good first step — JR features heavily.