The Puppy Experiment

WARNING! The following contains material unsuitable for sensitive readers.  Read on at your own risk.

We did some research on why the big brand pet food sold in pet stores, grocery stores, and wholesale chains across America is just so bad for our dogs.  Like most other processed foods, the big brands use horrible, no-quality ingredients and unregulated manufacturing methods that result in the poorest, unhealthiest substance that you can feed your pet.  The most atrocious offense by big brand pet food is their source of the “protein”.

What is the source of this so-called “meat” that is listed as “crude animal protein” and “by-products”?

1. “Rendered companion animals” - DEAD PETS. They use dead pets as a source of meat. Includes shelter animals (cats/dogs/etc), strays, lab tested animals, etc. Unless cremation is specifically requested by the owner, dead pets are used in rendering plants.

2. “4D animals”: dead, dying, diseased, or disabled animals. Includes farm animals.

3. Roadkill.

In Food Pet’s Die For, Ann Martin writes on the pet food industry:

Rendering is a cheap, viable means of disposal. Pets are mixed with other material from slaughterhouse facilities that has been condemned for human consumption – rotten meat from supermarket shelves, restaurant grease and garbage, “4-D” (dead, diseased, dying and disabled) animals, roadkill and even zoo animals…

In 1990, John Eckhouse, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a two-part exposé on the rendering of companion animals in California. While the pet food companies vehemently denied that this was happening, a rendering plant employee told Eckhouse that “it was common practice for his company to process dead pets into products sold to pet food manufacturers.

Animal slaughterhouses strip the flesh and send the remains – heads, feet, skin, toenails, hair, feathers, carpal and tarsal joints and mammary glands – to rendering plants. Also judged suitable for rendering: animals who have died on their way to slaughter; cancerous tissue or tumors and worm-infested organs; injection sites, blood clots, bone splinters or extraneous matter; contaminated blood; stomach and bowels.

At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, restaurant and supermarket refuse (including Styrofoam trays and Shrink-wrap), dead-stock, roadkill and euthanized companion animals are dumped into huge containers. A grinding machine slowly pulverizes the entire mess. After it is chipped or shredded, it is cooked at temperatures between 220 F and 270 F for 20 minutes to one hour. The grease or tallow that rises to the top is used as a source of animal fat in pet foods. The remaining material is put into a press where the moisture is squeezed out to produce meat and bone meal.

It’s a Dog Eat Dog world.  For real.

By looking at the ingredients of your average big name dog food, and you’ll find that there is no real meat – only meat by-products, fillers, flavoring, preservatives, and vitamin supplements.  So, in addition to them eating ground-up dead dog, your dog may be eating chemicals, hormones, drugs, diseases, and additives that can lead to serious health consequences such as cancers and tumors.

Let’s take a look at the main ingredients in a typical major brand pet food for example:

Pedigree For Puppies Original Chicken Flavor Dry Dog Food

Chicken By-Product Meal (everything BUT the meat)
Rice   (filler carbs that can lead to obesity)
Corn Gluten Meal   (filler source of protein and carbs that are prone to contamination)
Animal Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Source of Vitamin E)   (fat from what animals?)
Natural Poultry Flavor   (skimmings from boiling 4-D chickens)
Wheat    (more filler grain, which many dogs are allergic to)
Potassium Chloride  (used as a preservative and also for executions by lethal injection)
Wheat Flour  (pre-processed grain by-product stripped of nutrients)
DiCalcium Phosphate (dietary supplement added to dog food products)

Here are some of the most problematic ingredients in dog food:

1. Chicken by-product meal is NOT chicken.
“Chicken by-product meal consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.”

2. Corn Gluten Meal.
Contaminated Corn Gluten Meal imported from China for use in dog food was the reason for the massive recalls in 2007.

“The presence of corn products – particularly if they are high on the list of ingredients – may indicate that corn has been used instead of a more expensive alternative.  About 25% of the corn produced in the U.S. today is genetically modified.  Corn is more difficult to digest either by humans or dogs.

Corn gluten meal is a concentrated source of protein that can be substituted for costlier animal protein.  In many bargain dry dog foods, corn gluten meal provides a large proportion or the total protein in the food rather than more digestible forms of protein such as meat.”

3. Brewer’s Rice.
Brewer’s Rice, wheat flour, and rice flour are cheap by-products of the alcohol manufacturing industry used as filler.

4. Natural Poultry Flavor.
Additional flavoring is unnecessary in products that contain actual meat, and is added purely for taste.

5. Food Coloring and Preservatives: FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).
There is absolutely no reason to add food coloring to dog food except for presentation to the pet owner. Preservatives such as propylene glycol (antifreeze) are used to lengthen the shelf life.

These ingredients are not a recipe for a healthy dog food.
They are intended to fill your dog’s stomach with carbs – basically like feeding your dog meat-flavored cereal.  The food is chemically formulated to just barely meet the minimum basic requirements and guidelines outlined by vets and the FDA to be considered fit for sale.

How to select a pet food:
1. Meat such as chicken should be listed as the first ingredient.  Look at the order of ingredients.
2. Look at the guaranteed analysis to see that the protein level is at 30% or more.
3. The fat content should be at 18% or more.
4. There should be a wide spectrum of ingredients such as omega fatty acids and Vitamin E.
5. There should be NO FOOD COLORING!

Brief History of Previous Pet Food Recalls (from Wikipedia):

1995: Nature’s Recipe – fungus contaminated wheat causes dogs to vomit.

1999: Doane Pet Care, including Walmart Ol’ Roy – another fungal toxin kills at least 25 dogs.

2005: Diamond Pet Foods – deadly toxin, Aflatoxin, kills at least 100 dogs.

2007: One of the wost years in pet food history.  A list of over 25 big name brand pet foods were recalled due to contamination of ingredients.  See the full list here on the FDA’s site here.

2008: Pedigree has made TWO recalls on both dry and wet dog food within a two-month span, due to Salmonella contamination. See the long list of recalled Pedigree products on the Mars Pedigree site here.

What are the alternatives?

1. High Quality Pet Food Brands

There are too many choices for dog owners out there.  There are “holistic” options that take all aspects of a dog’s health into account, typically using organic ingredients.  Most of the higher quality dog food manufacturers use real meats, a variety of vegetable ingredients, and no additives such as food coloring or flavoring.  Some even use ingredients fit to be eaten by humans.

The general rule of thumb is that the more expensive the food, the better the quality.  Some high quality dog food brands include: Innova by Naturapet, Nutro, Life’s Abundance, and many more.  These are NOT at grocery stores and huge pet store chains like Petco.

2. The Raw Meat and Bones Diet, aka the Raw Meaty Bone Diet.

There is a big debate about whether dogs should be fed manufactured dog food or whether they should be fed a diet of raw meat and animal organs.  The commercial dog food industry has only been around for less than a hundred years, as an offshoot of the human food industry (Mars owns Pedigree for example). However, dogs and their wolf cousins have been eating raw meat for thousands of years.  In this diet, dogs are fed meat straight off the bone, such as a chicken quarter leg or a T-bone, in addition to organs such as beef liver and heart.  Dogs gnaw on raw bones (not cooked, which will splinter internally) to sharpen and strengthen their teeth as well as for a source of calcium. Visit www.rawfed.com.

3. The BARF Diet.

No, it’s not bullimia for dogs.  BARF stands for Bones and Raw Food. The difference between this diet and the Raw Meaty Bone Diet is that this diet includes the addition of certain vegetables and fruits and mineral supplements, as part of a holistic approach towards dog health. Visit www.barfworld.com.

Our Choice?

Our goal is just to give our girl the best, longest life she can have with us.

We’re not totally convinced yet that there is enough scientific proof that either the Raw Diet or the BARF Diet is healthier for dogs.  There is huge controversy surrounding whether dogs are carnivores or omnivores, and dogs are highly adaptable making it difficult to prove.  We’re definitely considering both diets, even though we’re pretty happy with our results using Innova brand (See our post about her poop on Pedigree vs Innova).  The foods in the BARF Diet are essentially the same ingredients in Innova and other high quality brands, but served raw.  Fresh is usually best, so both the Raw Diet and the BARF Diet seem to make sense.  We’re also considering the no-grain aspect of the raw diet, since studies show that carbs were not a part of a wild dog’s diet. We just bought a huge 20-lb bag of Innova, so we’re probably going to wait until she finishes it to make our decision.  Keep you posted.

Stop buying big name brand pet food!