What's in a food?

All dog foods are created equal.
What is good for one dog must be good for another.
If it costs more, it must be a good quality food.
100% complete and balanced!

Yikes! Look at all the artificial coloring, it holds no nutritional value for our dogs.

These are some of the most common pet food myths that will be touched upon today. Nutrition is such a vast subject and is a topic of great debate and extensive conversation. I will touch on the key components of nutrition as it relates to our dog and get you started on understanding what is on a dog food label.

Extensive research has been done on the diet of wolves, coyotes and foxes. Dogs and wolves are biologically the same. The dog descended from the wolf and shares some of its similarities. For instance, wolves are carnivores. Their primary diet consists largely of meat with minimal fruit and grasses. While our dogs are not wolves, it is still evident that they require large amounts of protein. In fact, it should make up the bulk of their dog food.

When you look at the ingredient list on your dog's food, it is mandatory for the manufacturer to list the ingredients in order of descending weight. That means the first ingredient in the list weighs the most. Because dogs require protein, it is encouraged by many, those who have done extensive research in canine nutrition, that within the first 5 ingredients there be at least 2 protein sources. For instance:

Innova Large Breed Adult (first 5)
Turkey, Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Grain Barley, Whole Grain Brown Rice

It is pretty evident what Turkey and Chicken are, the birds, no confusing words around it. What about Chicken Meal? What is the meal component? According to the AAFCO, (Association of American Feed Control Officers - they regulate what goes into dog foods), a meal is the protein source free of all moisture content. It is pure protein. When you look at something like turkey or chicken, the bulk of the weight is actually water weight. Similar to humans, aren't we about 70% water weight? While a whole protein source like chicken is good, chicken meal is almost better in the sense that if it is first that weight is all protein not protein and moisture. Now, what about some of the other protein sources. There are some companies that opt to use by-products. Here are some of the definitions food companies need to abide by when selecting their ingredients.

Definitions: 
Meat: is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and is limited to that part of the striated muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve, and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.

Meat By Product: is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meats, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes but is not limited to, lungs, spleens, kidneys, brains, livers, blood, bones, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissues, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. it does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animals food. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.

Poultry By-Product - must consist of non-rendered clean parts of the carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as heads, feet, viscera, free from fecal content and foreign matter except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidable in good factory practice.

Poultry By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines, exclusive of feather, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

Why would a company use by-products? They are often a cheaper substitute for the real thing. There may be some that claim by-products have their place and are very high protein sources. This may be partially true but the "high proteins" are often in a form that a dog can not easily digest, therefore, not getting the appropriate nutrients from it.

Here are two ingredient lists, one which I would consider a high quality food and the second, one you would get at your grocery store, a place that typically carries the lower quality dog food.



http://blog.barknpurr.com/2012/11/14/brand-profile-orijen/

There is such a difference between these two food. One uses "people" food, whole vegetables and fruits and the other a variety of synthetic flavors and artificial coloring. One is likely to be more expensive than the other but there are other low quality brands out there that are quite costly. Why? They need to make money somewhere for all the marketing and commercials you see. Often the higher quality foods aren't as well known as some of the lower quality foods and this is likely due to the fact that they take the marketing money and put it towards the higher quality ingredients.

Also the cheaper food actually end up costing you more than the higher quality food. What goes in must come out. The cheaper foods have more waste so you need to feed more to actually get your dog a reasonable amount of the nutrients. The higher quality food has less waste within the kibble so you can feed less because more is absorbed. So of the above examples, food A you may only need to feed 3 cups/day and the food B you would have to feed 6 cups/day.

Things to look out for in ingredient lists - vague descriptions. In the bargain brand food listed, it doesn't specific what meat is used for the meat and bone meal or what animal fat is being used. This leaves wiggle room for the company to always be able to shop for the cheapest ingredients while staying "true" to the ingredient list. As noted about, avoid artificial colors, as well as preservatives BHA and BHT, these are known carcinogenic preservatives used in foods, human food too, and in packaging.

It is a continuing debate on what is good for dogs. Your dog may do just fine on a lower quality food but that doesn't mean that is what is best for them. Think of yourself or your child. Just because they survive and can live on McDonalds doesn't mean they should eat it every day forever, does it? Eventually you are going to notice health problems.

The thing with dogs and puppies, are that they are relatively resilient. You may not see problems until they are big problems. For dogs it may be fatty tumors, cancerous tumors, organ failure, or joint problems to name a few. Feeding a higher quality food can help prevent the onset of some of these
problems. Your dog will develop better physically and mentally. Provide your dog with a high quality food and supplement with fresh whole fruits and vegetables and you will add a lot to their commercial dry dog food.