Air-Dried Food Topper Kit
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Air-dried food is the easiest kind of topper to keep in a cabinet. It is soft, it is dense, and it needs no water, so there is no soaking step and no five minute wait with a dog watching you from the kitchen doorway. This kit is one air-dried bag to crumble over a bowl, a soft treat in the same format, a shallow tray to serve it in, and the strongest smelling bag we make for the evenings when the dog has stalled.
Soft, dense, and no soaking
Freeze-dried mixers usually want a splash of liquid to soften. Air-dried does not, which is the practical difference between the two and the reason people end up here. You open the bag, break a piece off with your fingers, and scatter it. No measuring jug, no waiting, nothing to wash afterwards except the bowl. If you want to compare formats side by side first, our protein sampler starter kit is built for that, and the rest of the kits are indexed on the bundle guides hub.
The bag that goes on the bowl
Addiction describes this Wishbone recipe as an air-dried dog food from Addiction Pet Foods USA, made with New Zealand hoki, lamb, liver and tripe. Addiction says it is grain free and legume free, gently air-dried rather than cooked at high heat, and that it comes in one 454g bag. In this kit it is a topper rather than the meal, so a 454g bag lasts a long time at the quantities you will actually use. Four ingredients you can name is the other reason it is the one we picked, because a dog that reacts badly to a topper is easier to work backwards from when the list is short.
The treat that matches the format
Beef Meaty Bites are here so the dog is not being asked to accept two new textures in the same week. Addiction describes Beef Meaty Bites as soft dog treats made with grass-fed New Zealand beef as the main ingredient, with a moist, soft texture for training or daily treating. Addiction says the recipe is made without grains, gluten or soy, and sells them in a Pack of 1, a Pack of 3 or a Pack of 6. Buy the single pack first. Soft treats do not keep as long once opened as freeze-dried ones do, and a pack of six is a commitment to a texture your dog has not tried yet. Addiction Pet Foods USA items are sold and shipped by Addiction Pet Foods USA through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift.
Shallow, because soft food smears
SodaPup describes the Garden Design eTray as a shallow slow feeder bowl with a botanical, floral pattern across the surface. SodaPup says it is made of TPE in light green, about 8 inches across, 1.25 inches deep, holding 2.25 cups of food. According to SodaPup, that shallow depth suits flat faced breeds, puppies, senior dogs and fast eaters. The depth is why it is in a topper kit rather than a deep maze bowl. Soft food pressed into a deep groove stays there, and you end up scrubbing at it with a brush; a shallow carving rinses clean under a tap. SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC items are sold and shipped by SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift.
The bag for a stalled dog
Freeze-dried tripe is the strongest smell we make. The only ingredient is beef tripe, freeze-dried in small batches in Malvern, in 1.5, 2 or 4 ounce sizes. It is genuinely unpleasant to stand near, and that is the entire point: a dog that has walked away from its bowl twice this week will come back for it. Crumble a piece over the air-dried layer on the nights you need to. Our freeze-dried treats are made in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania and ship from us, and the rest of the aisle is at freeze-dried treats.
What we left out
No broth and no second bag of air-dried. The broth is a genuinely useful thing and it has its own kit, but pouring liquid onto air-dried food undoes the reason you bought air-dried in the first place. As for a second flavor, the Wishbone lamb recipe is the alternative in the drawer if fish is wrong for your dog, and Addiction describes it as an air-dried dog food made with New Zealand lamb, lamb tripe and liver. The Venison Meaty Bites sit there too, and Addiction describes those as a soft, single protein treat made with free range New Zealand venison as the leading ingredient. Use Explore to filter our own range by protein and format if you are working around one ingredient.
Two weeks, weighed
- Weigh the base meal first. Everything below is a swap rather than an addition.
- Days one to three: take a small amount of the base out, crumble the same weight of air-dried over the top, serve in the tray.
- Days four to seven: same, and use the Meaty Bites for training in the same week so the soft texture is familiar in two places.
- Second week: keep going, and add a crumble of tripe only on the nights the bowl comes back half full.
- Rinse the tray straight after each meal.
Air-dried is dense for its volume, so a scoop that looks small is not. Weigh it rather than eyeballing it, and reduce the base meal to match, which is the discipline this whole category lives or dies on.
What it replaces
A jug, a kettle, five minutes of standing about, and the bag of rehydrated mixer that goes off in the fridge because you made too much. One bag, one tray, and a treat in the same format covers two weeks of testing without any of that.
Questions
Can I feed this as the whole meal instead
Addiction sells it as a food, and that is a different decision to the one this kit is about. Here it is going on top of what the dog already eats, in small amounts, with the base reduced to match.
How long does an opened bag last
Seal it properly and keep it somewhere cool. Air-dried holds up better than fresh and not as long as freeze-dried, so buy the size you will get through rather than the size that looks like better value.
My dog will not touch fish
Then start with the lamb recipe instead. Addiction lists it as New Zealand lamb, lamb tripe and liver, with no hoki in it.
Related guides
Everything in this category is grouped under mixers and toppers.
