Picking the first new protein for your dog to try

Which exotic dog treat to try first rests on three facts more than on taste: a household that keeps shellfish out, your willingness to handle a raw treat, and the size of your dog. Frog legs and quail eggs are the two bags with no shellfish in them. Every bag is one ingredient except Captain's Catch, which is five.

What separates the seven bags?

Five things, and all five are on the label or the listing: the ingredient, the shellfish question, how the bag was handled before drying, who it is listed for, and how hard it crunches. Six of the seven hold one ingredient; the seventh, Captain's Catch, holds five. Four of the six are shellfish. Five are raw and one is blanched. The pieces range from a scallop that runs small to a frog leg that is a medium-sized piece in the shape of a leg. The table lays it out, and the sections below say what each column changes for you.

Which bags are shellfish and which are not?

Four of the single bags are shellfish. Octopus, scallops and mussels are mollusks; shrimp is a crustacean. Captain's Catch is shellfish five times over, since squid and clam are mollusks too. That leaves frog legs, an amphibian, and quail eggs, an egg, as the two bags a shellfish-free household can open first. Which treats contain shellfish is a sort the labels settle for you. None of the bags prints a separate warning line, so the ingredient name is doing that work, and we write "contains octopus" rather than guess at wording the label does not carry.

Which bags are raw, and what does that change at home?

Scallops and shrimp are freeze-dried raw, and the quail eggs are raw with the shell on. The mussels are blanched, a brief heat step, before they are dried. For octopus and frog legs the listing does not say, so neither do we, and Captain's Catch is the same. A raw bag changes one thing at home, and that is the clean-up. For a raw bag the FDA's guidance is a hand wash, then cleaning and disinfecting whatever the food touched, bowl and counter included (FDA, raw pet food diets, opened 2026-10-16). If the raw routine is the deciding fact for you, the mussels are the one shellfish bag stated as not raw, though we would wash up after any of them. The octopus and frog legs sit in the not-stated column, and we wash up there too.

How do piece size and dog size narrow the choice?

The frog legs bag is listed only for medium and large adult dogs, which rules it out for a small dog, and the piece is a medium-sized leg rather than a molded shape. Scallop pieces run small, which suits a small mouth or a training pocket. Octopus pieces vary in size because each is a whole baby octopus with the tentacles intact, so you will be snapping some of them. Quail eggs are the odd one out on texture, with a crunch of 2 of 5 against 4 of 5 for the rest, and cracked shell and dust in the bag are normal. Captain's Catch pieces vary widely in size and shape and are not scored at all. This is the window sticker stage: read the sizes before the dog gets a vote.

How do you introduce the first one?

Slowly, with one bag open and a small first piece. On pace, VCA advises one new food at a time, a small piece to begin, and treats held to about 10 percent of daily calories (VCA, Dog Treats, opened 2026-10-16). How to introduce a new protein treat is the same for all seven. Break the piece down for a smaller dog and stay in the room while the dog works on it, with fresh water out. If your dog eats to a plan from a vet, ask your veterinarian before any of the seven. Whichever bag you open as a first novel protein treat for a dog, it is an intermittent treat beside a complete food, not a meal. For what "novel protein" means on a label, and what it does not, the novel protein explainer is the page to read. Our short how-to pages, this one included, are gathered on the guides hub.