By Daniela Caride Publisher

I have been a vegetarian for three years. I don’t want to eat animals. I wish my pets could be vegetarians, too. But I know dogs and especially cats rarely adapt to diets without meat. So, I won’t force them to eat a diet that is not natural to them. (At least not until someone proves me it’s healthy.)

Lola eating her Nylabone Healthy Edibles Vegetable Bone (Daniela Caride photos)

I try my best to avoid meat, though. I use veggies to treat my dogs when I train them or leave them home for a few hours.

Frieda, Geppetto and Lola get bananas, apples and lots of baby carrots as treats. And if I want to keep them entertained longer, I give them Nylabone Healthy Edibles Vegetable Bones, which carry a mix of carrots, peas, spinach, celery and tomatoes (see ingredients below).

The veggie bones haven’t stained my carpets and rugs. My dogs break them and eat the smaller pieces. When I used to give them rawhide and bully sticks, my carpet was always dirty because the dogs chewed them into a soggy, sticky mass.

Nylabone Healthy Edibles Vegetable Bones.

The veggie bones smell less and better than bully sticks, and are way safer than rawhide. Frieda choked on rawhide last year.

The Nylabone Veggie Bones come in five sizes: petite (3 ¾”), regular (4 ½”), wolf (5 ½”), souper (7 ¾”) and giant (8”). My dogs (who weigh around 100 pounds each)devour the giant ones in five to ten minutes. The bones have no added sugar, salt, plastics or artificial colors. Also, Nylabone claims they help fight plaque and tartar buildup.

And — the best part — my dogs love them. If they see me open the cabinet where I store the veggie bones, they immediately sit and get on their best behavior. They make that abandoned-dog face that they know will break my heart unless they get a Nylabone.

And I, of course, give them everything they want.

Nylabone Healthy Edibles Vegetable Bones

Ingredients: Wheat Starch, Glycerin, Cellulose, Lecithin, Potato Starch, Carrot, Peas, Spinach, Celery, Tomato, Natural Flavor, Oat Fiber, Calcium Carbonate, Soy Flour, Rosemary Oil. Vitamins: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin B-6, Folic Acid, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Biotin, Choline, Inosital, and PABA. Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Ferrous Carbonate, Magnesium Oxide, Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Chloride, Zinc Oxide, Copper Oxide, Manganese Oxide and Sodium Molybdate.

Guaranteed analysis Min. crude protein 1% Min. crude fat 0.5% Max. crude fiber 8% Max. moisture 15%

You can find Nylabone Bones at Amazon.com or buy wholesale at PetEdge.

* I bought the bones I gave to my dogs.