Dehydrated vs Freeze Dried Dog Treats: Which Is Better?

If you're anything like me, walking into a pet store and looking at the dog treats is a bewildering experience. The variety! The marketing! It's almost oppressive, the way there are so many different products, of so many different types, all claiming they're the best for some reason or another. They can't all be right, so how do you even know what's what?

Then you buy something, bring it home, and find your fur baby turns their nose up at it anyway, and it's back to the drawing board.

Well, that or it doesn't matter, because your pup is a vacuum with a fur coat and will hoover up anything you throw their way, no matter what, makes no difference to them.

Ah, the dichotomy of dogs.

In any case, there are all kinds of dog treats, but on top of that, there are different ways of preserving them. Since a lot of us pet parents are concerned about preservatives, there are a bunch of different brands making treats you have to store in the fridge, for example.

Not everyone wants to deal with perishable dog treats like that, though, which is why many treats are still preserved in some shelf-stable way. Two of the big options are through dehydration and freeze drying.

And yes, those are different things. In fact, that's a great place to start!

Dehydrated vs. Freeze Dried: What's the Difference, Anyway?

I've talked to a lot of people over the years, and it's surprisingly common to just not know that freeze-drying and dehydration are two different processes. Maybe you understand that there's some difference; apple and banana chips are pretty different from astronaut ice cream. But how do these two processes work, and what do they do to food?

Looking At Dehydration

First off, dehydration. Dehydration has been used for millennia as a way to preserve food. There's evidence of dehydration used as far back as 12,000 BCE! The simplest and easiest way to dehydrate food was just to leave it out in the hot sun, where the heat would slowly bake it, and the movement of the air would pull moisture away.

In fact, a lot of modern dehydrated foods are still made this way. Sun-dried tomatoes are still made that way, a lot of raisins are too, and all sorts of herbs are dried that way. Sea salt is also sun-dried.

Commercial dehydration is done with big machines for most foods these days. These are basically big ovens with fans in them, set to a fairly low temperature (around 105-140 degrees or so), where they can be warm to release moisture, and the air can pull the water away.

How does this keep food safe? Well, the main culprits behind food spoiling are moisture and enzymes. Enzymes are naturally present in foods, and moisture is obviously in just about everything. When you suck the moisture out of the food, the enzymes shut down, since they need moisture to work. And, bacteria and other microbes that cause spoilage also can't live without water.

What you're left with is the food, without the moisture.

This does change the texture of the food, sometimes quite a bit. Banana chips are a lot harder and crunchier than bananas ever are, jerky almost has more in common with leather than a steak, and so on. Some foods also change in flavor. Plums and prunes are pretty different experiences, right?

Now, I've heard some feedback from customers wondering if dehydration is good for their dogs. Dehydrating food does change the nutritional profile a little, but a lot less than you might have heard. The big macronutrients of protein, fiber, and carbs are preserved. Minerals survive too, since they aren't really impacted by water or heat.

It's really only a few vitamins, like C and a couple of the B vitamins, that can be broken down or damaged by the heat of dehydration. Even then, it's only some of it. It's not like the food suddenly becomes unhealthy!

Just a tip: if you've seen the same TikToks I have that try to scare you about dehydrated food and then sell their alternatives, they're probably not telling the whole truth.

Dehydrated dog treats can be given to your pooch as-is, something they can chew on and enjoy as it rehydrates in their mouth. Or, you can rehydrate it in some water (or broth!) to make an extra-decadent treat.

Looking At Freeze-Drying

Now, what about freeze-drying?

First of all, freeze-drying is not the same as freezing. Freezing is part of the process, but there's a lot more to it. You don't have to keep freeze-dried food in the freezer like you do with frozen dog treats, for one thing.

To talk about how freeze-drying works, we need to go back to physics. You know that there are three states of matter, right? Solid, liquid, and gas. Most materials go from solid to liquid and liquid to gas, and don't skip around. You have solid water (ice), you apply heat and melt it into liquid water, and you apply more heat to turn it into gaseous water (steam).

Other materials, like CO2, sublimate. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide, but when it heats up, it doesn't melt; it turns into a gas directly.

Physics comes in here. And yes, bear with me; it's been a long time for most of us, and this isn't information you're using day to day.

Freezing and melting, boiling and condensing, these are all affected by atmospheric pressure, too. Higher or lower pressures can change how different materials function. You can actually make liquid CO2, but you need a very high-pressure vessel to do it.

Well, water can also be forced to sublimate. All you need is a vacuum to bring it down to a very low pressure.

Freeze-drying works like this. First, the food is frozen. Then, it's put in a vacuum container and taken down to extremely low pressure. Then, it's warmed up, just enough for the water to be pulled to the surface of the food and sublimated off into gas. A refrigerated surface collects that gas and condenses it back into ice. You're left with a food that has essentially no water in it.

Freeze drying actually pulls more water out of a food item than dehydration. It also leaves the food with a very different texture, something light and crispy instead of dense and chewy. Freeze-dried fruits, in particular, are light, crispy bits of fluff that quickly turn into bursts of flavor when you eat them.

Freeze-drying also doesn't really impact the nutritional profile of a food. Heat is what denatures vitamins and proteins, and freeze-drying uses the opposite of heat.

Like dehydrated food, you can give freeze-dried treats to your pup directly, or rehydrate them first. Rehydrating them only takes a few minutes, so it's a lot faster than dehydrated food.

Which is Better For Your Dog: Freeze-Dried or Dehydrated Treats?

So, which is better?

Personally, I think it's not an easy decision to make. I also think a lot of the marketing out there makes claims that aren't really substantiated.

For example, I've seen people say that freeze-dried foods retain the same texture as before drying, unlike dehydrated food. Yeah, no. Once you rehydrate it, maybe, but you aren't always going to be rehydrating it for your canine companion, right? You don't need to.

And sometimes, you want the dense, chewy nature of dehydrated treats. Bully sticks and various other organic chews (as opposed to synthetic chew toys) are meant to be chewed on slowly and serve as an edible chew toy. Maybe you want your dog occupied with chewing for a while instead of gulping down whatever you've given them.

I think there are valid reasons to use both kinds of treats, so let's talk about when.

When Dehydrated Dog Treats are Better

Dehydration has a few big advantages here.

One of the biggest is the cost. Dehydrated dog treats are usually less expensive than freeze-dried treats, by 20-40% on average. That can change if you're comparing a premium dehydrated treat to a low-tier freeze-dried treat, but when you're comparing apples to apples, it's a clear difference.

I already mentioned the longevity of a dehydrated treat, too. These aren't going to be little bits of kibble you're handing over; they're usually larger pieces meant for your dog to chew on and gnaw, so being something resilient is better.

That's also great for your dog's dental health. A dehydrated treat can serve as a makeshift toothbrush to scrub tartar from your pup's teeth.

Dehydrated treats also hold together. One of the biggest issues with freeze-dried anything is that it's prone to crumbling to dust if you let it, so it's impossible to cleanly store a handful in a pocket on a walk without having your pockets smell like treats later. Not a problem with dehydrated treats!

Dehydration is also a form of cooking, even if it's not necessarily the same kind of food safety you think of in your kitchen. That kills off bacteria and contaminants, so dehydrated foods tend to be pretty safe. Freeze-dried foods, if they're contaminated when they're dried, can still have that contamination when they're handed over to your pup.

I haven't run into it myself, but I had a couple of friends who had a minor panic when they heard about a couple of big recalls on freeze-dried treats. Fortunately, their fur babies were fine.

When Freeze-Dried Dog Treats are Better

So, when are freeze-dried treats coming out ahead?

The biggest is their shelf life. Freeze-dried treats, as long as they're kept away from moisture, can last a very, very long time. There's a reason the technology is used by NASA for space missions! They can literally last for years in the pantry when sealed.

Some pets also prefer freeze-dried treats, usually for one of three reasons.

• The color. Dehydrated foods end up looking kind of brown, but freeze-dried stay vibrant, and some pets are picky that way.

• The texture. Occasionally, you'll run into a picky pupper that doesn't like the tough and leathery treats and prefers the crunch of a freeze-dried treat instead.

• The scent. Dehydrating tends to break down the volatile scent compounds in a food, while freeze-drying preserves them. This is especially strong when rehydrating the treats; the freeze-dried version will be way stronger.

Texture also makes a difference for using treats as a reward for training. Freeze-dried treats are a quick bite of reward, while dehydrated treats can be a distracting chew.

They rehydrate better across the board, in my experience.

So, that's my verdict; they're both good, in different ways!

Preserved Dog Treats FAQ

As usual, let's wrap things up with a couple of quick questions and answers.

Are freeze-dried treats better, nutritionally?

Technically, yes, but very slightly. We're talking about micrograms of vitamins here. You're not going to be paying that close attention to the nutritional balance of every bite your dog eats; no one regulates it that much. Realistically, I wouldn't worry about it.

There's also some discussion of enzymes that are destroyed by dehydration but preserved with freeze-drying. It's true that enzymes change that way, but is it important to your dog? Probably not. Your dog already produces the enzymes they need to digest food, and the enzymes in the food aren't as important.

Plus, we're talking about treats here. If your dog's whole diet was either dehydrated kibble or freeze-dried food cubes, then yeah, freeze-dried would be better. But if you're feeding your dog a healthy diet, including the occasional raw foods, the difference in enzymes in their treats is minimal.

Can you make freeze-dried or dehydrated treats at home?

Yes to both, but one is significantly harder than the other.

Dehydration can be done in your home oven, or you can buy a dehydrator for under $100. It's time-consuming, but easy.

Freeze-drying requires a special machine that is capable of both deep freezing and pulling a vacuum, and that costs upwards of $1,000 for a low-end model. You can do it, but most people aren't going to.

Do you have other questions? Let me know in the comments!