How to Package Pet Treats: Formats, Speeds & Machine Selection

The type of pet treat and its characteristics — soft chews, baked biscuits, freeze-dried raw, jerky strips, and functional toppers — determine which packaging format and machine type hold up under real production conditions. This guide walks through each major treat category, the best packaging formats for each, realistic throughput benchmarks, and the machine specifications that matter most for pet treat production.

Why Pet Treat Packaging Is More Complex Than Kibble

Dry kibble is relatively forgiving, with uniform particle size, good flow characteristics, and simple bag formats. Treats are harder. The category spans sticky soft chews that bridge and clump in hoppers, fragile freeze-dried bits that shatter under excess handling, irregular biscuit shapes that challenge the accuracy of volumetric fill, and jerky strips with variable geometry. Selecting the wrong packaging machine for a treat product leads to costly downtime, fill weight variance, and damaged product.

Getting it right starts with characterizing your product, then matching that characterization to the appropriate machine configuration.

Packaging by Treat Type

Soft Chews & Gummies

Soft chews (supplement chews, dental chews, and functional gummies) present the most challenging filling characteristics in the treat category. They’re tacky, tend to stick together, vary in density, and can bridge or clump in fill hoppers.

• Recommended format: Premade stand-up pouch with resealable zipper

• Why: The stand-up format protects the product geometry during filling and transit; the zipper allows the consumer to reclose the bag without compromising the integrity of the seal. Premium brands typically run flat-bottom pouches for maximum shelf appeal.

• Recommended filler: Counting/feeding systems or vibratory bowl feeders designed for tacky product; multihead scales with specialized hoppers for higher-volume runs.

• Throughput benchmark: 20–60 bags per minute on a Simplex configuration, depending on piece count per bag and product characteristics.

• Key machine spec: A gentle, low-drop filling path to prevent product damage; anti-stick surfaces in product-contact zones.

Baked Biscuits

Baked pet biscuits range from small training treats (pea-sized) to large bones (several inches long). The packaging approach depends on whether you’re packaging multi-piece bags by weight or count or individually wrapping single biscuits.

Multi-piece bags (by weight or count):

• Recommended format: Premade stand-up pouch or VFFS gusseted bag
• Recommended filler: Multihead combination scale
• Throughput benchmark: 20–60 bags per minute
• Note: Multihead scales handle irregular biscuit geometry well, hitting accurate target weights even when piece sizes vary

Individually wrapped biscuits:

• Recommended format: Horizontal flow wrapper
• Throughput benchmark: 80–150 units per minute
• Notes: Flow wrapping is ideal for individually portioned, shelf-stable treats with defined geometry. Works best for formed biscuits with consistent dimensions.

Freeze-Dried Raw Treats

Freeze-dried treats are fragile — they break easily under mechanical stress and are expensive products where giveaway from breakage or overfill is costly. Many freeze-dried brands position heavily on premium quality, which makes an appealing bag presentation critical.

• Recommended format: Premade flat-bottom or stand-up pouch

• Why: Flat-bottom pouches maximize retail shelf appeal for premium products; stand-up pouches are the standard for mid-tier freeze-dried. Both formats protect the product better than pillow bags.

• Recommended filler: Keep the feeding gentle — vibratory or belt-based systems only, no aggressive agitation. Volumetric cups work well for uniform pieces; for irregular sizes, a multihead scale set up for fragile products is the better call.

• Throughput benchmark: 20–40 bags per minute (product fragility and careful filling limit speed).

• Key machine spec: Minimized drop height from filler to pouch; vibration-isolated filling path; gentle pouch-opening mechanism.

Jerky Strips & Meat-Based Treats

Jerky strips vary significantly in geometry — thickness, length, and curl all affect how they fill and how they lay in a bag. High-moisture content and meat-derived products also introduce more demanding sanitation requirements.

• Recommended formats:

  • Flow wrap: For consistently sized individual strips or multi-piece portion packs

  • Premade pouch: For multi-piece resealable bags, especially in premium positioning

• Recommended filler (multi-piece bags): Weighing systems or volumetric systems configured for strip geometry; some operations use manual assist feeding for highly irregular products.
  
  

• Throughput benchmark: 20–60 units or bags per minute depending on format and piece geometry.

• Key machine spec: Stainless construction throughout; drainage surfaces; IP65 minimum electrical rating. Meat-based products have more demanding cleaning requirements than dry treats.

Functional Toppers & Meal Mixers

Pet owners are increasingly looking to customize what goes in their pet's bowl — and functional toppers, the dry or semi-dry mix-ins sprinkled over food, have grown quickly as a result. These products are often positioned at premium price points and targeted at engaged pet owner audiences.

• Recommended format: Premade stand-up pouch with a zipper reseal.

• Why: The consumer’s expectation for this category is resealable, premium packaging. Single-serve packets (stick packs) are also growing for this format.

• Recommended filler: Auger filler (for powder/granule products), multihead scale (for flake or irregular texture products).

• Throughput benchmark: 20–60 bags per minute on a Simplex premade pouch machine.

Powdered Supplements & Nutritional Additives

Powdered pet supplements — joint support, digestive enzymes, vitamins — are single-serve or multi-serve products that often command high margins and have precise dosing requirements.

• Recommended formats:

  • Stick pack: Single-serve; 400–800 units per minute at multi-lane configuration

  • Premade pouch: Multi-serve resealable; 20–60 bags per minute

• Recommended filler: Auger filler for powder dosing; servo-driven auger for high accuracy.

• Key spec: Fill weight accuracy is critical for compliance and consumer trust; servo-driven fill heads deliver ±0.5–1% variance vs. ±5–10% on manual operations.

Which Machine Is Right for You?

What to Ask Before You Buy

Before specifying a machine for pet treat packaging, have answers to these questions:

1. What are your product’s bulk density and flow characteristics? Tacky or sticky products behave very differently in hoppers and fill heads than free-flowing dry products.

2. What is your target fill weight or piece count? This determines the filler type and the accuracy spec you need.

3. How many SKUs do you run, and how frequently do you change over? If you run eight treat products on the same line, changeover time is a primary economic factor in machine selection.

4. What are your sanitation requirements? High-moisture, meat-based products need more aggressive wash-down capability than dry treats.

5. What are your downstream integration requirements? Does filled product need to flow to a checkweigher, metal detector, X-ray, cartoner, or case packer? Integration planning should happen in parallel with machine selection.

Frequently Asked Questions

What machine do I need to package dog treats?

It depends on the treat format. Soft chews and multi-piece baked treat bags are typically best handled by a rotary premade pouch filling machine with an appropriate fill head (multihead scale or feeding system). Individually wrapped treats use a horizontal flow wrapper. Powdered supplements use an auger filler with either a premade pouch machine or stick pack machine.

Can one machine handle multiple treat formats?

Yes — premade pouch machines are designed for format flexibility. With tool-free changeover, you can run a stand-up zipper pouch for soft chews in the morning and a flat-bottom pouch for freeze-dried in the afternoon. Confirm format compatibility with the equipment supplier during the application review.

How fast can treat packaging machines run?

Throughput varies by product type and bag format. A Simplex premade pouch machine runs 20–60 bags per minute; a flow wrapper handles 80–200+ individually wrapped treats per minute. Manual treat packaging typically runs 5–15 bags per minute — automation commonly delivers a 4–10x throughput increase.

Do I need different machines for wet and dry treats?

Not necessarily different machine types, but different machine specifications. Wet or high-moisture treat products (jerky, soft chews) require more demanding wash-down ratings, stainless construction throughout, and sealed bearings in product zones. Confirm your facility's sanitation requirements early in the machine selection process.

What fill head should I use for pet treats?

For irregular, mixed-size treat pieces: a multihead combination scale. For uniform small pieces: a volumetric cup or counting system. For soft, tacky product: a specialized vibratory feeding system designed for tacky product. For powders: an auger filler. Application engineers at Viking Masek can evaluate your specific product before recommending a fill head.

Read the Complete Guide to Pet Food Packaging Automation