Pet Foods and Nutrition
Beginning at the age when pet food manufacturers started, the pet food industry has been an ever changing industry over the years, but the most drastic changes occurred March 15, 2007.
Hundreds and thousands of bags, cans, pouches, and meaty packets of food were recalled a year ago. The general public would race home to check the latest date given out from the FDA on recalled food as animals were dying from kidney failure and complications to an unknown substance. Not only were these food discarded in homes, but millions of stores were discarding these harmful products into the dumpsters nationwide. The FDA found that vegetable proteins, specifically glutens, were being imported into the US from China were tainted with melamine. Melamine, a plastic material, was put in foods to make the raw ingredient cheaper. The companies who sold these tainted ingredients made more money by diluting the original product purchased.
Currently, the FDA is more involved with pet food it’s ingredients, and how they are tested. The ingredients must meet more rigorous standards and pass quantitative and qualitative tests before they enter the manufacturing process; companies who do not have quality control standards will be fined and have products removed from shelves and circulation.
With more awareness in the pet industry, many foods have been scrutinized; foods are now labeled premium or grocery brands.
When looking at ingredients there are several key factors to keep in mind. First, we need identifiable name of ingredients. We would like to see Turkey, Chicken, Buffalo, Wheat Gluten, Rice, and Brown Rice. Using the exactly name of the ingredient allows the public to know that no additives, body parts, or grain parts are used. What we don’t want to see is tallow, grain, rice, meat, or meat by-products. This vague identification leaves a lot of room to companies to add things into the ingredient. We the public are left guessing what is in our pet food. For example, meat meal is from the slaughtering of healthy animals as well as rendered animals. This includes all trimmings, condemned carcasses, livers, lungs, and bone. Beef meal is animal tissues without blood, feet, hair, or viscera. This is true for all meat meals.
Now look at the first five ingredients, if you see whole chicken or turkey do you look for turkey or chicken meal. Why? Well, let’s take a step back and look at the composition of chicken or turkey as a whole. This ingredient is composed of 85% water. So, if we have 100 pounds of chicken and we dehydrate it, we will be left with 15 pounds of chicken meal. If you have whole chicken with the water followed by three to five grains, vegetables, fruits, or other non-meat ingredients, your dog or cat food when it arrives to you on the shelf no longer has the first ingredient as chicken! The weight of the first ingredient included the water yet your food is only 15% water in the bag when you are feeding it to your dog or cat. Now, let’s put chicken/turkey with the water first followed by the 2nd or 3rd ingredient as chicken/turkey meal. Now, when the food arrives to you in the dry form, meat IS the first ingredient.
Grains are not all bad! Most people think that grains are the allergen culprit when in fact only 10% of allergy problems are grain or food caused. Many allergies are actually food intolerances. There are many things that we (humans) eat that a dog cannot tolerate in their system; such as, onions and raisins are toxic and milk products which are not digestible by dogs and cats. There can also be intolerance to the quality of products used in our animal’s foods, low versus premium quality. A good comparison would be if you went to the store and bought a prime steak and your neighbor bought ground beef. Ground beef is a lower quality ingredient, yet still perfectly edible and passing all standards. If a low quality ingredient is used, an animal may have an allergic reaction to that ingredient. This can include a by-product meal, whole ground corn, ground wheat, or ground rice to list a few. Each ingredient must be tested to determine how “good” this raw ingredient is for the food to be produced. With high quality ingredients, the bioavailability of the ingredient also increases in digestibility for the animal. The animal is able to use more of that ingredient rather than letting it flow through the intestinal tract with low absorption. Hence, adding more fecal matter to the yard for owners to pick up.
How are different grains helpful to us? Rice is a grain that provides carbohydrates, protein (gluten), and fiber to the diet. It is easily digestible and typically has a low allergen potential. Gluten is protein from a grain.
Diagram from North Dakota State University.
It is a protein that is useful to animals, humans, and other animals. Gluten’s are the center most part of a grain and are very useful to adding to protein content to a feed without increasing ash content, vitamins/minerals, or fats. These are highly purified parts of the grain and typically extremely expensive. But, these ingredients are only used in small amounts when compared to whole meats or meat meals. Using these glutens can keep our cost of the product in the end form a bit lower in cost as compared to an all meat diet. While the all meat diet is preferred (more like what is found in nature), it is also realized that some cannot afford the high meat, high protein diet. Foods that contain gluten’s are not necessarily lower quality diets either. This again is another huge misconception.
So, what kind of diet SHOULD you feed your pets? If your current diet works for your animal and it is of good quality, there should be no reason to change the diet your pet is currently eating. If you are feeding a grocery brand, Iams, Kibbles & Bits, Alpo, Purina ONE, Caesar, or Dog Chow, these are not high quality diets. In the lifetime of the animal, you will end up feeding more, spending more, and ultimately your animal’s health could be compromised. Animals that are fed grocery brands typically do not have the high absorption rates of important proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Referring to the Whole Pet Journal, there is a large list of ‘holistic’ dog and cat foods that are deemed high quality. Below is a list of excellent quality foods; however this list is not inclusive of all premium foods to consider.
Natura Products
- Evo
- Innova
- California Natural
- Karma Organic
- Eagle Pack
- Nature’s Variety
- Instinct
- Precise
When feeding any of the foods listed above, a pet owner will not feed the same quantity to their pet. Less will be fed to the animal as the food has a higher bioavailability due to the quality of ingredients and manufacturing used to manufacture your pet’s food. Pets will also create less waste for the owner to pick up in the yard.
Knowing what our pets are eating now and for their lifetime will make us happier pet owners with happier pets!
Erin L Webster, BS,MS