Dog Treats? (POLL)

My friend and I wanted to start making dog treats to sell. We both work for the same company in different cities (a pet food store), although I JUST started there. She has a bit more pull with her boss and we were thinking of asking him, once the treats are ready, if they would be interested in launching the product there. If not, we have a few more leads we can go with. After the dog treats launch, we are going to monitor the progress and then possibly branch out into cat treats as well. 

I wanted to do a poll to see what people are looking for in a dog  treat. Please select all that are important to you and feel free to add something else in the comments. The poll ends next Friday at midnight. 

What got us started on this is that both of us own and know people that have dogs with allergies, intolerances, etc that can't have "normal" treats. The ones they can have start to get really expensive, some are almost $10 for a really small bag. We won't have a price point until we actually make some but since this is more of a hobby for us than an actual business we're going to keep our profit on the lower side so that the treats can be sold at a reasonable price. Our goal is to make a high quality treat at a Milk Bone price. 

Thanks for all your help!

Thanks for everyone that answered so far. We were talking tonight and came up with a few treats based on your suggestions. 

For jerky type treats, we're going to start with rabbit. I have not seen a rabbit jerky treat at all and given that it's so low in fat it should make a great jerky and healthy treat. 

For "regular" biscuits we're going to start with quail, rabbit and possibly bison. It will all depend on what we can get for a decent price in the area that's readily available. We're also considering venison and I'm going to check out the possibility of bear and moose when I'm up north this summer if things are going well. To start though, we will only have 2-3 different kinds. Bear and moose would be seasonal only and limited supply, it will also more than likely be a few dollars more per bag as we'd have to spend quite a bit more to get the meat. We are going to use tapioca flour to keep it gluten free. 

We are hoping to perfect our recipes within the next month and a half and hopefully be able to launch in three months at the store my friend works at and a few boutique stores in both cities. Hopefully our numbers will be good enough in a year or so where we can start to approach larger chain stores and grocery stores with the product. 

Good luck. If you get them to Cambridge, I will buy them. Maybe you could go on dragons den and make a deal. 

catlover19 said:

Good luck. If you get them to Cambridge, I will buy them. Maybe you could go on dragons den and make a deal. 

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Lol we were joking about that, but I don't think they'd like us. They never tend to really like the pet ideas, at least not in the episodes that we've seen, and they also won't like our margins, they're going to be low because we want to keep the cost as low as possible. 

nerdrock said:

Lol we were joking about that, but I don't think they'd like us. They never tend to really like the pet ideas, at least not in the episodes that we've seen, and they also won't like our margins, they're going to be low because we want to keep the cost as low as possible. 

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I've seen them like some. You have to be confident, have a good product and sales. If you went in there saying you were already in stores and looking to expand, they could possibly go for it. I would love to go on Dragon's Den, but have no business sense or any good ideas. 

I've got quite a few ideas but no cash flow to get them started, which can be a huge problem. I'm also not the type of person that can just go and spend a ton of money on something that I'm not sure will take off. I like this business idea though because if it fails, we'll just have a ton of treats to give to family and friends, and use ourselves. Positive outlook, eh? lol

Good luck, hope it works well for you. 

Thanks! 

My poll closes tonight at midnight, so anyone that has dogs that hasn't voted, please do so!