Through trial and error with different training treats, I discovered that Luna responds much better and faster when I was using high protein treats during crate training and learning new tricks. I loved this discovery! What I didn’t love was how hard and difficult it was to break the store bought chicken jerky into smaller pieces. Not to mention the few seconds it took in efforts to break the chicken jerky in the moment.
Luna already loved the peanut butter and salmon dog biscuits that I was making her. I wanted to make the chicken dehydrated treats that she loved, but thinner so that it'd be easy to break, delicious, and all natural. Up to that point, I had never made anything dehydrated before, so it was definitely a new adventure. I knew the steps involved to dehydrate chicken, but it hadn't occurred to me how the thickness of the raw chicken breast would be after dehydration. Would it shrink 20%, 50%, 75%? A happy accident / discovery resulted when I sliced the raw chicken breast into thin slices. As it turned out, the dehydrated chicken were thin as a “potato chip".
Luna is a picky eater and I was concerned that she wouldn’t eat it due to the difference in texture and size, but she ate them immediately and wanted more. Phew! What a relief! A tough food critic is satisfied! Because the “potato chip” thin jerky was so thin and crunchy, I loved how easy it was to break into smaller pieces. I was happy that I could give her more rewards with less, and Luna was happy that she got more rewards. Win win for all!
Where did the name come from? In trying to describe the product, I kept referring to them as “chicken potato chip jerky” and shortened it to “chicken chips” over time. I should also say that I love potato chips and I eat them non-stop. Human friends know the crinkly sounds of a potato chip bag can summon any dog friend immediately. That’s no different for Luna. When I open a bag of Chicken Chips, she always comes running. Human friends eat potato chips, and dog friends eat Chicken Chips.
