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Low and Slow: Why We Bake Our Treats and Bones the Way We Do.

Low and Slow: Why We Bake Our Treats and Bones the Way We Do.

Oct 27, 2026

By Eva Hagg, Co-Owner Boulder Dog Food Company  |  The Treat Beat

Two treats can start with the same cut of bison and end up with very different nutrition. How long and how hot they bake makes the difference.

At Boulder Dog Food Company, we've made single- and double-ingredient treats and bones from bison, lamb, salmon, turkey, and chicken in our own Boulder facility since 2002. Every treat and bone we make is baked low and slow: long hours at low oven temperatures. Here's what that means, why we do it, and what research says about how heat affects the nutrients in your dog's treats and bones.

What "Low and Slow" Means

Most baked dog treats are made like crackers or cookies: a dough goes into a hot oven, often 300–400°F, and comes out fast. That speed comes at a cost. High heat breaks down heat-sensitive vitamins like thiamine and damages protein quality, so much of the nutrition that went into the oven doesn't come out. We do the opposite. Our treats and bones bake at low temperatures for many hours, drawing moisture out gradually instead of blasting it out with high heat, so more of the natural nutrition stays in.

The result is a treat that's fully cooked and shelf-stable without artificial preservatives. Once the water is gone, the low moisture itself does the preserving, so most of our ingredient lists are a single word, like "bison." Our Bits line adds just one more: naturally derived mixed tocopherols, a form of vitamin E that keeps the natural fats fresh. Shorter bakes give a tender chew; longer bakes give a harder, crunchier treat or a long-lasting bone.

Why Low and Slow Matters for Our Bones

Low and slow is especially important for our bones. The long bake fully cooks the meat and marrow on every bone and dries it gradually instead of scorching it, giving your dog a long-lasting chew.

As with any bone, always supervise chewing, choose a size that's larger than your dog's mouth, and take it away once it's worn small or develops sharp edges.

How Temperature Affects Nutrition

Heat, time, oxygen, light, and water are what break down nutrients in food. Of those, temperature does the most damage, and the damage climbs quickly as the oven gets hotter. Keeping the heat low is the most effective way a baked treat can hold on to its natural nutrition.

What the Research Says About Heat and Nutrients

B Vitamins Take the Biggest Hit

B vitamins, especially thiamine (B1), are the most heat-sensitive nutrients in meat. USDA data show cooked meats commonly losing roughly 20% to 50% of their thiamine, depending on how hot and how long they're cooked.

Fats and Vitamins A and E Need Protection from Heat and Air

These break down through oxidation, the same reaction with oxygen that turns a cut apple brown or makes cooking oil go rancid. Heat speeds it up, so a low-and-slow bake protects them better than a hot oven, and airtight packaging keeps them fresh afterward.

Minerals Stay Put

Minerals like calcium, iron, and zinc aren't destroyed by heat. When water bakes off, they actually become more concentrated.

Gentle Heat Protects Protein Quality

The browning on baked treats (the Maillard reaction) ties up lysine, an essential amino acid, so the body can't use it. A Wageningen University study of 67 commercial pet foods found 3–15% of lysine was lost on average, and up to 23% in one high-heat extruded food. Less heat means less browning and less loss.

How Cooking Methods Compare

Among methods that actually cook the meat, the research points the same way every time: the lower the temperature, the more nutrition survives. Low-temperature baking and dehydrating retain more than high-heat biscuit baking, extrusion (how kibble is made), or retort canning. Within any method, lower temperatures, controlled bake times, and good oxygen-barrier packaging all improve retention.

Why We Cook Our Treats Instead of Freeze-Drying Them Raw

Freeze-dried raw treats are dried under vacuum without cooking heat. That keeps more of the most heat-sensitive vitamins, like thiamine, than any cooking method can. But it also means the process doesn't kill bacteria. Freezing and vacuum drying don't reliably destroy Salmonella or Listeria, so freeze-dried raw treats depend on a separate safety step such as high-pressure processing. In a two-year FDA study, 15 of 196 raw pet food samples tested positive for Salmonella and 32 for Listeria. None of the 190 jerky-type treats tested positive for either.

We chose a fully cooked treat. Baking low and slow gives our treats a real kill step while keeping the heat as gentle as it can be, so they're safe for your dog and for the people handling them, and they keep far more of their nutrition than a conventional hot bake.

One piece of perspective: the World Small Animal Veterinary Association recommends keeping treats under 10% of a dog's daily calories. A dog's complete diet is what's responsible for meeting AAFCO nutrient profiles, and complete foods are formulated with vitamin premixes to make up for processing losses. For treats, processing choices matter most for protein quality, freshness, and safety, not for covering a dog's daily vitamin needs.

How Other Treats Are Made

  • Traditional baked biscuits. A dough baked hot, around 300–400°F, often until very hard. Long shelf life, but the most heat exposure of common treat methods, and usually a long ingredient list.
  • Soft-baked treats. A dough baked at moderate heat for a short time, leaving 15–30% moisture. To stay soft without spoiling, they rely on humectants like glycerin, preservatives, and mold inhibitors, so they're almost never a single ingredient.
  • Extruded chews. Dough pushed through a die under high heat and pressure, the same way kibble is made, then dried or baked into uniform shapes.
  • Freeze-dried raw. Dried under vacuum without cooking, as described above. High vitamin retention, but no built-in kill step.
  • Retort (canned) toppers. Sealed and pressure-cooked to sterilize. Very safe, but intense heat costs the most B vitamins.

What to Look for in a Treat

  • A short ingredient list. One or two ingredients you recognize is a good sign the processing is doing the preserving, not additives.
  • A real cooking step. For meat treats, ask whether the product is cooked or how the maker controls pathogens.
  • Gentle heat. If a brand will tell you how it bakes, lower temperatures mean better protein quality and more vitamins retained.
  • Where it's made. A maker that runs its own facility can tell you exactly how every batch is handled.

We've been baking our treats and bones low and slow in Boulder since 2002, because it's the best way we know to make a treat that's simple, safe, and as close to the original ingredient as a cooked treat can be. Shop our treats and bones.

Sources

Eva Hagg

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