Most soft chews for dogs start as a dough that gets pushed through an extruder, a screw-driven machine that builds up heat as it shapes the dough. Others are baked or cooked. A cold-processed chew is shaped without those heat steps, and brands use "cold" for different things, so it's worth reading what each one says it actually does.
Everhound Hip & Joint is made with the Everhound MadeCold™ process: no heat, no added water, never cooked, and never extruded. Below is how soft chews are usually made, what the words on the bag mean, and what MadeCold does and doesn't change.
How most soft chews are made
A soft chew usually starts as a dough: dry ingredients such as flours, flavors, and any active ingredients, blended with oils, liquids, or binders. What happens next is where products differ. WikiVet, the veterinary education wiki, describes three common ways pet chews and biscuits get their shape:
- Extrusion. The mixed dough is pumped into an extruder, then pushed out in shape and cut.
- Baking. A dough made with flour, water, flavors, and preservatives is cut into shapes and baked in an oven.
- Molding. The mixed ingredients are injected into a shaped mold and released once they've cooled.
For soft chews in particular, extrusion is the workhorse. A Bayer patent filing on chewable dosage forms for animals states that edible soft chews are typically manufactured by blending and extrusion, with the premixed ingredients fed into an extruder barrel that has a screw inside it.
What extrusion does to a chew
Extrusion works through pressure, friction, and heat. The same Bayer filing notes that the heat generated during extrusion can exceed the melting point of many compounds and can affect the stability of heat-sensitive actives.
In pet food more broadly, extrusion is the standard. A 2024 review in Animals notes that dry pet food has been produced by extrusion cooking for about 70 years, with ingredients going through high temperatures and high pressure.
Heat isn't simply good or bad. It's a trade-off. A review in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture lists benefits of extrusion, such as better palatability and better digestibility of starch and protein, alongside drawbacks: Maillard reactions that can lower protein quality, reduced palatability in some cases, and loss of heat-sensitive vitamins. A Journal of Animal Science abstract on vitamin stability adds that how much a thermal process like extrusion affects vitamins depends on temperature, time, pH, and moisture. These are general findings about how pet food and chews are manufactured, not measurements of any particular joint chew, ours included.
Heat also builds flavor. The Animals review describes the Maillard reaction, the browning reaction favored by heat and low moisture, as something manufacturers seek out for the flavor compounds it creates.
Cooked vs extruded vs cold-formed chews
You'll see "cold-pressed," "cold-formed," and "cold-processed" on different products, and they don't all describe the same step. Here's what each term usually points to, and what to ask.
| Term on the package | What it usually describes | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked or baked | The dough is heated in a cooker or oven to set its shape and texture | At which step is heat used, and how hot? |
| Extruded | The dough is forced through a screw barrel and a shaped die, building heat from pressure and friction | How hot does the dough get on the way through? |
| Cold-processed or cold-formed | The chew is shaped without a cooking step | Is heat used at any step? Is the dough extruded? Is water added? |
| Everhound MadeCold™ | No heat, no added water, never cooked, never extruded | Answered on the label and product page |
What MadeCold means for Everhound Hip & Joint
MadeCold is the name of our process, and it comes down to four things: no heat, no added water, never cooked, and never extruded. The chew is made in the USA in an SQF-certified, FDA-registered facility, with globally sourced ingredients, and contains no corn, soy, artificial flavors, or gumming agents.
We chose a cold process for two plain reasons: we wanted the chew made without cooking, and we wanted the chicken flavor to still smell like food. Taste matters for anything a dog gets every day. A 2022 review of chewable dosage forms in Pharmaceutics notes that dogs prefer animal-based proteins such as chicken, pork, and beef, and that chewables play a bigger role in veterinary medicine than in human medicine partly because animals are willing to eat them.
What MadeCold doesn't do is change what the chew is for. The daily joint support comes from the eight actives and the amounts printed on the label: glucosamine HCl 200 mg, MSM 100 mg, vitamin C 75 mg, chondroitin sulfate 65 mg, organic turmeric root powder 50 mg, dried yucca schidigera extract 15 mg, egg shell meal 10 mg, and vitamin E 25 IU per chew. The research on those ingredients is on our science page. The process is about how the chew is made and how it tastes. We don't claim it leaves more of any active in the finished chew, or that it makes the chew work better for joints.
Why the way a chew is made matters at home
A daily supplement only helps if it ends up in your dog rather than left in the bowl. That's part of why chewable formats are so common for pets: the Bayer filing notes that animals tend to resist swallowing hard tablets or capsules, and that an edible format can increase acceptance.
Format is one part of that decision. If you're choosing between a chew, a powder, and a liquid, our comparison of joint chews vs powder vs liquid walks through the trade-offs. Everhound Hip & Joint is given daily with food, from one chew for dogs under 25 lb up to five for dogs over 100 lb, and the full chart is in our guide to giving joint chews with food.
How to find out how any chew is made
- Read the brand's own description. Look for the words cooked, baked, extruded, or cold-formed on the package or product page.
- Ask the company. Three questions cover most of it: Is heat used at any step? Is the dough extruded? Is water added?
- Read the label. The ingredient list tells you what's in the chew, though not how it was made. Our guide to reading a dog joint supplement label covers what to look for.
- Ask your vet. However a chew is made, your veterinarian is the one to say whether it suits your dog.
Curious about the MadeCold chew itself? See the full label and how it's made.
FAQs
Are cold-processed dog chews better for joints?
Not because of the process. What a joint supplement offers depends on its actives and their amounts, and the research looks at those ingredients. We make our chew cold for how it's made and how it tastes, and we make no joint or potency claim for the process itself.
Is an extruded chew bad for my dog?
No. Extrusion has been the standard way to make dry pet food for decades, and it has real benefits, such as better digestibility of starch and protein. It's a process choice with trade-offs, and an extruded product can be a perfectly good choice for your dog.
Does "never cooked" mean the chew contains raw meat?
No. The Everhound Hip & Joint ingredient list has no raw meat: chicken and duck appear as natural flavors, alongside oat and rice flours, oils, and the eight actives. "Never cooked" describes the process.
What does "no added water" mean?
It means no water is mixed in while the chew is made. In soft-chew manufacturing, water added to the dough stays in the finished chew, as the Bayer filing points out. Everhound Hip & Joint is still a soft chew; "no added water" describes the recipe, not the texture.