Zuke's Z-Ridge and Z-Bones

Back in July I wrote a short post about the chews made by Zuke's which happens to be my favorite dog treat company.
Zuke's has since discontinued the Z-Ridge line in favor of the newer Z-Bones which come in a plastic wrapper instead of cardboard and feature two different flavors than before.  The Z-Ridges came in fresh breath, carrot and cranberry.  The Z-Bones come in apple, carrot and cherry.  Conker's favorite by far is the apple so I can't complain too much about the change.

Anywho, onto the review.

Box of Z-Bones surrounded by Z-Ridges

Apple Z-Bones

Ingredients:
Potato Starch, Tapioca, Vegetable Glycerin, Apple, Alfalfa Concentrate, Cellulose Fiber, Spinach, Lecithin, Turmeric, Natural Flavor, Parsley, Ground Clove, Rosemary Extract, Fennel Seed Powder, Vanilla Extract, Chlorophyll, Calcium Propionate, Zinc Propionate.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein:  not less than 1%
Fat:  not less than 1%
Fiber:  not more than 2%
Moisture:  not more than 20%


Original Fresh Breath Z-Ridge

Ingredients:
Potato Starch, Vegetable Glycerin, Cellulose Fiber, Alfalfa Concentrate (a source of chlorophyll), Natural Flavor, Lecithin, Whey, Vanilla Extract, Clove Powder, Parsley Powder, Nutmeg Powder and Fennel Seen Powder.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein:  0.4% min
Crude Fat:  1% min
Crude Fiber:  6% max
Moisture:  16% max

Both are grain-free so if you're into that, these should be fine.
The ingredients are not too terribly different but I think a better side-by-side comparison would best be done with the carrot flavors (I'll get around to that soon).
One of the reasons why I like Zuke's is that even though the first ingredient on both of these chews is potato starch, Conker does not react adversely to it.  Potato, in it's whole form, sets him off no matter how it's cooked if he has too much. Fortunately neither of these chew do that.

Reused image from July post

The Z-Bones are, as I suspected they would be, around .50 cents to $1 more for the same size of Z-Ridge.  I don't like this at all, which is why I bought the bigass box of apple chews since it would save me $6 to do that.  But other than the price increase and addition of plastic wrap, I like these chews.
The apple flavor smells quite nice and Conker finishes all he's given.  With the old Z-Ridges he would sometimes leave it and Sasha would sneak in and steal it.

Digestion wise, like with any new item I give Conker, is fine if I gradually increase the amount.  Things do turn a bit green, red or orange respectively, but I find that they digest just fine.  No chunks of the chew come out intact.
Since I bought the box of large sized chews I ended up hacking each one into three pieces that would be about the same size as the mini chews.  The regular size Z-Ridges I would normally buy for Conker I would allow him to chew about half then give the rest later, so it equals to the same amount that way.

Anyways, the Z-Bones are pretty good in my book. While they don't really clean teeth as good as a nice bone or hard bully stick, they do make Conker's breath smell nice which even though it doesn't smell like anything to begin with, is a plus.