My pup, Glia, and I are on a quest to find the tastiest and lightest weight (maximum calories per ounce) dog energy bar to pack for our long day hikes and overnight backpacking trips. Last month, I scoured the internet, reading reviews and comparing and contrasting ingredients lists and calorie counts. This research led me to the decision to find and acquire a Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar to bring with us on our adventures.
What is a Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar? Kronch is the brand name, and Pemmikan is the product name. This bar is a food supplement, not a meal bar and bar contains an impressive ~182 calories/oz. Below is the companies description of the dog energy bar.
(The) Kronch Pemmikan bar is a food supplement which looks and feels a bit like a thick chocolate bar. It is divided into 8 easy to snap off segments. It has an unusual smell which dogs don’t seem to mind and has a slightly granular texture. Reduces the stress dogs encounter in dog shows and in other similar situations, maximizes performance throughout the day for training or trialing, makes dogs more attentive and responsive, an excellent supplement for underweight dogs, and a great addition to any pet travel kit.
https://www.kronchusa.com/products/5
The Kronch Pemmikan bar is the first dog energy bar that Glia and I have tried, and we were impressed. Read on to find out what we loved (and a few things we didn’t love) about this dog energy bar.
Please note, we did contact Kronch prior to this review, and the company provided the Kronch Pemmikan bar to us. We did not purchase this energy bar ourselves.
Why We Chose the Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar
Our primary purpose in finding a good dog energy bar was to provide more calories for Glia during backpacking trips. I typically just pack kibble for her, but that can be bulky and heavy. Glia only carries up to 4 pounds no matter how much gear we bring. The rest I carry, and a big portion of the weight in my pack is food and water.
So we chose the Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar for our first dog energy bar review as it contained the highest amount of calories per ounce of any of the dog energy bars we found online. With an impressive 182 calories per ounce of the bar, the Pemmikan bar beat the next bar on our list by 50 calories per ounce.
The next highest calorie/ounce ratio we found was the OUT Bar with around 130 calories per ounce. Below is a table containing the data for some of the best dog energy bars we found during our online search. For reference, Glia’s daily dog food (Purina ProPlan Sensitive Skin and Stomach) contains about 90 calories per ounce.
| Weight | Calories/Bar | Calories/oz | Meets AAFCO? | |
| TurboPup | 2.20z | 210 | ~95 | Yes |
| Ruff Bar | ~1 oz | ~84 | ~84 | Yes |
| OUT Bar | 2.5oz | 326 | ~130 | Yes |
| PowerBark | 4 oz | 380 | ~95 | Yes |
| Kronch Pemmikan | 14oz | 2,558 | ~182 | No |
Of course, as anyone who knows much about food understands, the type of calories matter as much as the quantity. Because the Kronch Pemmikan bar is not a meal replacement bar, it doesn’t have to adhere to AAFCO ratios of nutrients for balance dog foods. Instead, this supplemental bar can be packed with ingredients, like fat, that that help provide energy to your dog quickly.
This makes the Pemmikan bar a true energy bar and a great option to help your dog fuel a long, multi-day hike. And this high-fat content is the second main reason we chose the Kronch Pemmikan Bar for Glia to snack on during our backpacking trips.
This high-fat content is part of what makes the bar so popular among hunting and sporting dogs. In fact, these bars were originally made on commission from the Danish government who needed a high-calorie portable food for Greenlandic sled dog expeditions. These dogs burn a lot of calories for multiple days in a row during certain periods of the year. And if it works for them, I hoped that it would work for Glia on the trail.
Many of the bar’s Amazon reviews (where the bar currently receives a 4.4 /5), support the bar’s popularity in use for dogs who truly work – in addition to sled dogs and hunting dogs, this bar is used for dogs at agility trials, dogs who run marathons with their human, and other performance dogs.
Interested in reading the Amazon reviews yourself, this link will take you to Amazon in a new tab. (I am an Amazon Associate and earn with qualifying purchases).
How does the Kronch Pemmikan bar provide energy to dogs?
Fun Fact: Historically, pemmican was a type of “energy bar” eaten by indigenous people in certain parts of North America. It was made from a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and dried berries. The word pemmican comes from a Cree word that was derived from the word for fat or grease.
With that history in mind, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the first ingredient on the Kronch Pemmikan ingredient list is lard.
Ingredients List
- Lard
- Vegetable Fat
- Fish Meal
- Dextrose
- Corn Barley
- Brewer’s Yeast
- Rice
- Sugar
- Garlic
The Kronch Pemmikan Bar is 24% Crude Protein and 59% Crude Fat.
This might be a good point to mention that this energy bar should absolutely NOT be fed to dogs with a history of pancreatitis. If you are in any doubt as to whether a high-fat supplement is a good choice for your dog, check with your veterinarian prior to feeding.
More information about the ingredients in the Kronch Pemmikan bar can be found on the Kronch UK site.
Why is Fat Important in a Dog Energy Bar?
Unlike people, dogs get most of their energy from fats, not carbohydrates. All active dogs need fat to fuel their muscles as they move around and exercise. Feeding a dog a high-fat food helps increase his or her capacity to burn fatty acids and perform at a higher level.
Purina has a nice overview article on the importance of fats for dogs, which includes links to some great research articles.
How to Feed this Energy Bar to Your Dog?
Remember that this energy bar is for working dogs and is not meant as a daily supplement for a spayed/neutered house dog who is at a good body weight.
The feeding instructions on the label state that a dog weighing 55 pounds should receive 100 to 200 grams of this bar per day (depending on activity level).
Based on my kitchen scale, one square is approximately 24 grams (0.8oz). So a 55-pound dog would need 4 to 8 squares per day.
Glia weighs about 40 pounds and isn’t working as hard as a sled dog or a hunting dog when out on full-day hikes. So she only needs 1 to 2 squares per day. This means that one pack of the Kronch Pemmikan bars lasts us 8-16 days.
I have placed the extra bar in the freezer in between hikes to help keep it fresh for use throughout the summer. The bar is supposed to keep for up to 12 months in the freezer. The bag the bars come in is resealable/ziplock, so that also helps make freezer storage easy.
The effects of the bar set in after about 30 minutes and will reach peak effect about 90 minutes after feeding. So keep in mind when your dog will need the energy boost the most as you supplement them with this energy bar.
Review
Overall, Glia and I were both happy with the Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar and will be bringing pieces of it with on a variety of our hiking and backpacking trips this summer.
My thoughts
Our Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar arrived in a padded Amazon envelope. Despite the padding, unfortunately, part of our bar was broken on arrival. I was mostly able to piece it back together to ration out for feeding. (And when in doubt a kitchen scale works great to help figure out how much to feed.)
I was planning on only packing a couple of squares for our backpacking trip anyway, so I had a small ziplock bag ready to put the broken squares into. It was just a little messier than if the squares had been intact.
The complete squares were easy to dole out for a mid-day treat along the trail or as an additive to her meals. And honestly, since Glia only needs 1 or 2 squares a day, the broken squares worked just fine too. Then I could feed 1/2 a square at a time to spread the energy boosts more evenly throughout the day.
The texture of the bar is a little oily, which is to be expected when the first ingredient is lard. It didn’t leave much residue on my hands but just felt a little greasy to touch.
Glia’s Opinion
Glia thought the bar was super tasty and didn’t understand why she couldn’t eat the entire energy bar in one sitting. She walked into the room with the packaged bar and immediately sniffed it out excitedly. When I offered her a piece, she ate it happily.
I have seen a few reviews online of dogs who didn’t like the flavor, but Glia didn’t hesitate to eat this supplement. She is not a picky dog and eats most items offered to her. That being said, she has been extra enthusiastic about this energy bar every time it was offered to her.
Since this energy bar provides twice as many calories per ounce compared to her dog food, it is an excellent addition to our backpacking trips. Typically, I increase the amount I feed her for each meal when we backpack together, but that increases the weight of my pack. Adding a couple of squares of this energy bar is a nice lightweight option that adds plenty of extra fat to her food, which is what she needs for a long day of hiking. And she seemed content with this solution on the trail.
Overall
Overall, the Kronch Pemmikan Dog Energy Bar is a tasty supplement to offer your dog on active days when they are burning more calories. Feed a piece with breakfast to help provide energy in the morning, and then give another piece when you stop for lunch. Dogs use fat for energy, so this high-fat energy bar is a great solution for giving your active, high-performance dog the energy he or she needs to sustain activity all-day long
.Interested in trying this energy bar with your dog? Here is a link to Amazon.
I am an Amazon Associate and earn from qualifying purchases.
It has also been shown to overcome and prevent the effects of hypoglycemia in dogs working in extreme conditions. The effect of Kronch Pemmikan sets in after about half an hour and reaches its peak after about an hour and a half. For this reason, it may be advantageous to divide the daily ration into many smaller portions. This allows your dog to give his best all day long.
Amazon is out of stock, I have searched for days trying to find some for an event we have coming up. My friend shared these with me a few weeks back, thought I had enough until my daughters dog got into my training bag 🙁