Jumbone - more sugar than meat (Pedigree Jumbone)

Member Name: skittle

Product:	Pedigree Jumbone
Date:	02/11/07 (130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dogs love them

Disadvantages: They've got more sugar in than meat

Before I begin to tell you about Jumbones, I think it’s only right that you get to meet with the girls who really know what Jumbones are all about. I’m pleased to introduce you to Skittle, she’s a ten year old black and white Border Collie who’s been my little girl since she was 7 weeks old. Mokee is going to be nine this month, she’s a black and white Collie cross. We know she’s part Staffordshire Bull Terrier and Labrador too, but the rest is pure guesswork. Asha is the newest addition to the family, she’s another Border Collie, but this time a blue merle. She’s going to be 11 in a few days although you honestly wouldn’t know it from the way she behaves. Finally, Bonnie, a 13 year old black miniature poodle belonging to my mother in law is an honorary member of the pack, she spends a lot of time with my three and they all get on very well.

Now that we’re all acquainted, I’ll get on with the review.

I first came across Jumbones years ago when Skittle was a youngster. She adored them from the first time she tried them, and the others have loved them straight away when they’ve been offered Jumbones too, apart from Bonnie, but more on that later. Now I do have to admit that they also adore most every other Pedigree treat I’ve offered them, Rask, Dentastix, Rancho, Markies, Gravy Bones, etc. But Jumbones are most definitely the favourite – closely followed by Rasks and Dentastix. Still, this review is about Jumbones, so let me tell you a little more about them.

Jumbones are sold in a plastic pack in the usual Pedigree colours of mustardy yellow and orange. They’ll be dead easy to spot in your local supermarket, just check out the pet food aisle – the Pedigree snacks will be on the shelf at eye-level in the ‘dog treats’ section. They come in various different sizes and flavours, the original flavour was Beef, but they are now available in Chicken & Rice flavour too, with Turkey flavour generally making an appearance around this time of year just in time for Christmas.

The 210g original Jumbone is for larger dogs, though to be quite honest my Collies can easily manage one of these each in a couple of minutes. However, they don’t get the chance – I buy them medium Jumbones. These come in a packet of 2 at 200g, so 100g per chew. Jumbones are also available in a pack of 4 small bones, at 180g. This is the only size Jumbone that Bonnie, the poodle, can eat. The others are all far too big for her to get her little chops around. That is, apart from the Jumbone bites, and the whole pack love these. Jumbone bites are slices of original beef Jumbone cut across the width of the Jumbone into slices and sold in a 185g pack. I’ve usually found about 12-14 slices per pack. They’re on sale in my local Asda at around £1.27, but you can also get most of the sizes at most supermarkets and pet shops, though prices vary. Another bonus is that Jumbones are often on special offer, Wilkinson’s had them on buy two get one free recently, so I tend to snap them up when I see them cheap.

The bumf on the packet states that; ‘Pedigree Jumbone is the perfect longer lasting treat for your dog. The clever combination of a hard chewy outer that he can really get his teeth into with a deliciously meaty centre that tastes fantastic, gives him the great treat he so deserves.’ The first thing that irritates me about this statement, is that pet food manufacturers always insist on calling dogs ‘he’. Why do they do that? But that’s beside the point. Calling Jumbone a longer lasting treat is something that I would dispute. Yes, it’s longer lasting than, say, a gravy bone. Longer lasting even than a dentastix (what exactly is the singular of dentastix anyway?). But it’s still not what I’d call particularly long lasting. All four of our dogs can chomp through one of these in under two minutes, even the poodle, and she’s practically a pensioner.

We’ve got a bit of a Jumbone ritual going on in our house, to be honest. My dogs all love grocery delivery day because they know that means its Jumbone day. They all sit in various states of patience whilst I put the groceries away, waiting desperately for me to finish so that we can all sit down, me with a nice relaxing drink and them with a Jumbone each. Honestly, the time it takes me to put away my groceries is the only time I can absolutely guarantee complete and instant obedience from the Mutts.

The Jumbone packets are easy to open once you’ve got the knack. They provide an easy tear place on the outer packet, but I tend to rip them from the hole for the hook at the top of the pack, works every time like that. The first thing you notice when you open them is that they don’t really smell like dog food, in fact, they don’t really smell of much to me at all – but they certainly do to my dogs – by this time I’m always surrounded by four expectantly impatient faces, one of them usually drooling onto my knee (thanks Asha).

I always put the treat on the floor in front of the dogs until they all have one before letting them eat, just to prevent any friction or fighting. But the minute I give the dogs permission to eat they just go mental and fall on their Jumbone like they haven’t eaten since the last one.

I’ve never had any problems feeding these treats to my dogs, but if I ever did there’s a number on the side of the pack that I’ve never noticed before, called the careline. The number is 0800 738 800 and it’s open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. I’m glad I’ve spotted that, to be honest, because I’ve just noticed something else on this packet of Jumbones (empty, of course, otherwise I’d not be able to type for the pack of hungry hounds gathered around my feet) that I’ve never been aware of before. Whilst Pedigree proudly proclaim on the front of the packet that each Jumbone contains vitamins and minerals, and is less than 2% fat – what they don’t say is that the main ingredient, after cereals, is Sugars. Now, personally, I don’t see what on earth Sugar is doing in a pet food anyway, but for this treat to have more sugar in it than vegetables or meat, well, quite frankly I’m appalled.

I was about to go on to say that I don’t feed tinned meat products to my dogs, and that this is probably why they all have great teeth, but that the Jumbone may have helped as it encouraged chewing. Since I’ve checked the ingredients I’m actually amazed they have any teeth left at all.

Right now, I’m really trying not to get cross, but what I certainly am going to do is call Pedigree’s careline number on Monday and find out exactly why they’re putting sugar in a dog treat anyway, and how much each Jumbone contains. I’ll let you know if I get a decent answer from Pedigree or not, until then, the glowing review I was going to give them will just have to hang in limbo.

*** update *** update *** update ***

Well, it took me a day or two longer than I'd expected, but I did finally ring Pedigree's careline number yesterday, and they really put my mind at rest. The very nice lady I spoke to assured me that all of the sugar in Jumbones is naturally occuring sugar from the other ingrediants, mainly the cereal, in the treats. Pedigree add no extra sugar to this product at all. So that's me upgrading this product to a full five stars, and I'm impressed with the Pedigree careline too for a polite, friendly and very fast response.

Summary: I'm a happy bunny now