WHAT'S REALLY
IN THE DOG FOOD?
Several years ago I did an article for the Schipperke Club of America Bulletin on health. I thought I would start on what we feed our dogs...my theory being health starts on the inside, right? So I started researching dog food, never dreaming it would apply to me...I fed a "premium" brand of dog food, and had for years. The more I researched, the more appalled I was...this stuff was really in the dog food???????
As a breeder of 30 years, it is interesting to me how many diseases are now prevalent in purebred dogs...diseases like cancer, thyroid, etc. Years ago, you saw these diseases in a few purebreds...but not all of them like you do today. Seems to me if they were "genetic" in nature, that would still be true today. What if, however, they were "man made"? Then that might account for why we see the same problems in so many breeds. Then the question is... WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE WAY WE BREED DOGS TODAY OVER 20 YEARS AGO? And the answer? THE DOG FOOD WE FEED AND THE TYPE OF SHOTS WE GIVE.
SO WHAT'S REALLY IN THE DOG FOOD?
(The following is taken from a report done by the American Pet Institute.) Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, and all the wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need. These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through the media and advertising. This is what the $11 billion per year U.S. pet food industry wants consumers to believe they are buying when they purchase their products.
This report explores the differences between what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands -- the pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets and discount stores -- but there are many highly respected brands that may be guilty of the same offenses.
What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries. Pet food provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered "unfit for human consumption," and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts.
You may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a new bag of pet food -- what is the source of that delightful smell? It is most often rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans.
Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, is usually kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick up this used grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies.3
These fats are sprayed directly onto dried kibbles or extruded pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of these sprayed fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog or a cat to eat something she would normally turn up her nose at.
Of the top four ingredients of Purina O.N.E. Dog Formula -- Chicken, Ground Yellow Corn, Ground Wheat, and Corn Gluten Meal -- two are corn-based products ... the same product. This industry practice is known as splitting. When components of the same whole ingredients are listed separately -- such as Ground Yellow Corn and Corn Gluten Meal -- it appears there is less corn than chicken, even though the combined weight of the corn ingredients may outweigh the chicken.
In 1995, Nature's Recipe pulled thousands of tons of dog food off the shelf after consumers complained that their dogs were vomiting and losing their appetite. Nature's Recipe's loss amounted to $20 million. The problem was a fungus that produced vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin," a toxic substance produced by mold) contaminating the wheat. In 1999, another fungal toxin triggered the recall of dry dog food made by Doane Pet Care at one of its plants, including Ol' Roy (Wal-Mart's brand) and 53 other brands. This time, the toxin killed 25 dogs.
Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have diarrhea, vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more dangerous mycotoxins can cause weight loss, liver damage, lameness, and even death as in the Doane case. The Nature's Recipe incident prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to intervene. Dina Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of vomitoxin in Nature's Recipe wasn't much of a threat to the human population because "the grain that would go into pet food is not a high quality grain."3
Adding chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago with spices, natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the last 40 years, however, the number of food additives has greatly increased. Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are permitted at relatively low levels. The use of these chemicals in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied, and long term build-up of these agents may ultimately be harmful. Due to questionable data in the original study on its safety, ethoxyquin's manufacturer, Monsanto, was required to perform a new, more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996. Even though Monsanto found no significant toxicity associated with its own product, in July 1997, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine requested that manufacturers voluntarily reduce the maximum level for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per million. While some pet food critics and veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin is a major cause of disease, skin problems, and infertility in dogs, others claim it is the safest, strongest, most stable preservative available for pet food. Ethoxyquin is only approved for use in human food for preserving spices, such as cayenne and chili powder, at a level of 100 ppm -- but it would be very difficult to consume as much chili powder every day as a dog would eat dry food.
Contaminants
Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product meals are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be rendered until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate more than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce during their growth and are released when they die. These toxins can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins.10
Mycotoxins -- These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as vomitoxin in the Nature's Recipe case, and aflatoxin in Doane's food. Poor farming practices and improper drying and storage of crops can cause mold growth. Ingredients that are most likely to be contaminated with mycotoxins are grains such as wheat and corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.
The 100% Myth -- Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition
The idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a companion animal will ever need for its entire life is a myth.
Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore companion dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated.
Allergy or hypersensitivity to foods is a common problem usually seen as diarrhea or vomiting. Food allergies have become an everyday ailment. The market for "limited antigen" or "novel protein" diets is now a multi-million dollar business. These diets were formulated to address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods that animals have developed.
Many commercial pet foods are made with ingredients that have poor protein digestibility. Diets containing protein with less than 70% digestibility cause diarrhea in dogs. Some fillers and fibers used in these foods can also cause colitis, which is the inflammation of the colon. Most pet food companies do not publish digestibility statistics and they are never seen on pet food labels.
Urinary tract disease is directly related to diet in both cats and dogs. Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are often triggered or aggravated by commercial pet food formulas. One type of stone found in cats is less common now, but another more dangerous type has become more common. Manipulation of manufactured cat food formulas to affect acidity in urine and the amount of some minerals has directly affected these diseases. Dogs also form stones as a result of their diet.
History has shown that commercial pet food products can cause disease. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs was shown to be caused by a deficiency of an amino acid called taurine. Blindness is another symptom of taurine deficiency. This deficiency occurred because of inadequate amounts of taurine in cat food formulas. Cat foods are now supplemented with taurine.
Rapid growth in large breed puppies has been shown to contribute to bone and joint disease. Excess calories in manufactured puppy food formulas promote rapid growth. There are now special puppy foods for large breed dogs. But this recent change will not help the countless dogs who lived and died with hip and elbow disease.
There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats results from commercial pet food diets.11 This is a new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when canned food products appeared on the market. The exact cause and effect are not yet known. This is a serious and sometimes terminal disease, and treatment is expensive.
STILL WITH ME? READ ON!
(From Natural Pet, March-April 1995 issue)
(Read the whole report HERE)
by Ann Martin
Many nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based commercial pet foods. Some have occurred because the diet was incomplete. Although several ingredients are now supplemented, we do not know what ingredients future researchers may discover that should have been supplemented in pet foods all along. Other problems may result from reactions to additives. Others are a result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or other toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet food is understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that diets composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meat meals are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect for your cat or dog.
What do these proteins consist of and how
good are they? If you really want to know the truth read on ... if you're not ready for
it, you had better stop now.
Animal proteins consist of diseased meat, road kills, contaminated
material from slaughterhouses, faecal matter, euthanized cats and dogs, poultry feathers,
all prepared together as rendered material. Yes, these are the sources of animal protein
presently used in many commercial pet foods. Vegetable proteins, often the mainstay
of dry foods include ground yellow corn, wheat shorts and middlings, soybean meal, rice
hulls and peanut meal. All provide very little nutritional value and are nothing more than
sweepings and offal from milling room floors left over after processing. The removal of
the oil, germ, bran, starch and gluten from these grains eliminate the essential fatty
acids and a number of fat soluble vitamins and antioxidants.
The animal proteins used in these foods come from a number of
different sources. Dead stock removal operations provide the '4-D' animals: dead,
diseased, dying or disabled. Most have died or are dying from causes unknown and have been
treated with a wide array of drugs before their demise or have been given a lethal
injection of a potent drug to euthanize them. The animals are then delivered to a
"receiving plant" where the hide (sold to a tannery), skin, fats and meat are
removed. The meat from these animals can be sold for pet food after it is completely
covered in charcoal (to prevent ingestion by humans), and marked "unfit for human
consumption".
If the animal arrives at the "receiving plan" in a state of decomposition it is
transported to a rendering plant along with road kill which is too large to be buried
along the road side. Next we have the condemned material from slaughterhouses. Animals
that have died on their way to slaughter, diseased animals or parts, diseased blood,
extraneous matter, hair, feet, head, mammary glands, carpal and tarsal joints or any part
of the animal condemned for human consumption can be rendered for pet food. Before this
material leaves the slaughterhouse, it is "denatured" (doused with chemicals) to
prevent it from getting back into the human food chain when being transported to the
rendering facilities.
We now have animal protein classified as
"4-D's", road kill and condemned material from the slaughterhouses. Another source of animal protein, which the industry vehemently deny they
use, are rendered companion animals.
Dogs and cats euthanized at clinics, pounds and shelters are sold to rendering
plants, rendered with other material and sold to the pet food industry. One small
rendering plant in Quebec was rendering 10 tonnes (11 tons) of dogs and cats per week from
Ontario. The Ministry of Agriculture in Quebec, where a number of these plants are
located, advised me that "The fur is not removed from dogs and cats" and that
"Dead animals are cooked together with viscera, bones and fats in 115C (236F) for
twenty minutes." One large pet food company in the U.S., with extensive research
facilities, used rendered dogs and cats in their food for years and when the information
came to light "claimed no knowledge of it." The Food and
Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine, in the U.S., is aware of the use of
rendered companion animals in pet food and has stated, "CVM has not acted to
specifically prohibit the rendering of pets. However, that is not to say that 1he practice
of using this material in pet food is condoned by CVM." In a research paper
from the University of Minnesota, entitled "Facts of Sodium Pentobarbital in Rendered
Products", it stated that the barbiturate, sodium pentobarbital, which is used to
euthanize small animals, "survived rendering without undergoing degradation."
In the U.S., as in Canada, the pet food industry is virtually self-regulated. In the U.S.,
the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) sets guidelines and definitions
for animal feed ingredients including pet foods. It is up to each State to adopt and
enforce these guidelines. The AAFCO states that there are no
restrictions on the type of animals which can be used in meals, tankage, digests, etc...
Any kind of animal can be used including cats and dogs.
The sad scenario is that it is our pets who are suffering the ills of these inferior
ingredients, the lack of a nutritious diet. We have been brain washed by the industry and
some veterinarians, that in order to keep our pets healthy we must feed them a diet
formulated for dogs and cats. NO TABLE SCRAPS! We have pets suffering from cancer, skin
problems, allergies, hypertension, kidney and liver failure, heart disease, numerous
dental problems, to name but a few. These same individuals can find a myriad of reasons
why our pets are inflicted with these problems, the environment, lack of exercise and
stress, but never is it attributed to the inferior commercial foods we are feeding.
Before the pet food industry began to prosper, our pets ate what we did
and lived long, happy lives. Most died of old age.
SCARED?
Well, it was enough to scare me. For years we had feed Nutro Max...a "premium food which contained chicken by-products.) However, over a 30 year period it seemed things weren't getting any better. Not big things, just little things...bitches not coming into season until a year or older, litters not as big as before, coats sunburning, etc. Looking at my dog food bag, yes, Nutro contained "by products>"
I went on a quest to find a "good" dog food. We tried several before we settled on BIS Food. All human grade ingredients. IT WAS AMAZING TO WATCH THE DOGS DETOXIFY! But once all the poison was out of their system, coats came in GORGEOUS, SHINY AND BLACK NO MATTER WHAT THE TIME OF YEAR. Litter size has increased...our 6 month old puppy bitch from the last litter (raised on Max food I might add) has already had a full blown season. We are definitely sold!
Several years later, Nutro came out with an all natural food without the byproducts. Since we were having problems getting the BIS, we switched back to Nutro.
We supplement the Nutro kibble with the raw diet, by adding chicken wings and backs and fresh vegetables and fruits.
WHY FEED RAW? CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW.
THE
RAW DIET
THE BARF PLAN..(BONES ARE RAW FOOD, TOO)
a sample diet
The following is a basic description of how to prepare the BARF diet.
This is just an example to illustrate how easy it is to feed BARF. There are many
different methods to feed a BARF diet and you have to find the one that best suits you and
your pet.
Make the pet food in large quantities and then freeze the food in meal size quantities. We generally suggest feeding your pet 1/2 pound of food per 25 pounds of body weight.
GETTING
STARTED
1. Figure out how much BARF you need to make.
2. Find supplies: Call wholesale meat and vegetable outlets for economically priced, good quality meat and vegetable supplies. Try calling your local butcher (here you can get the meat pre-ground, organ meat and bone dust). Grocery stores have discount racks that have good quality cheap produce.
3. Go shopping: You will need the following - meat (lamb, chicken, beef, turkey - pre-ground or necks), vegetables (choose a variety - broccoli, turnip, celery, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, kale, sweet potatoes, cabbage, greens), eggs, bone meal or finely ground bone, honey, apple cider vinegar, apples, organ meat (hearts, liver,…), garlic, flaxseeds,….
PREPARATION
You have all the ingredients and are ready to make a batch of pet food.
What equipment do you have? I used my food processor and mixing bowls. The meat I used was pre-ground from the butcher. Please disinfect your counters before starting the preparation of the food. Use proper food safety techniques.
1. Set aside pre-ground meat
2. Put a variety of vegetables, apples and garlic in the food processor. Once all vegetables are juiced/pulped set them aside.
3. Put organ meat (hearts and liver) in food processor and blend them. Set aside.
4. Put eggs with shells in food processor. Blend until the eggshells are fine.
5. Mix meat, veggies, organ meat, and eggs together. At this time I have added honey, alfalfa, kelp, pre-ground flaxseeds, bone and Grapefruit Seed Extract to the mixture. Mix well. The Grapefruit Seed Extract kills any bacteria or toxins during preparation of the food.
6. After the food ingredients are thoroughly mixed, place weighed amounts in freezer bags. I generally put the amount per meal fed in a zip loc freezer bag.
7. Place bags in freezer to freeze.
SERVING
I generally take a meal out the night before to thaw.
I put it in the fridge and the next day it is ready for consumption.
Before serving, I add the following supplements : multi-vitamin/mineral, Ester C, digestive enzymes (necessary at the beginning of feeding a new (BARF)), probiotics, blend of oils (small amount), apple cider vinegar Occasionally, I give a B complex, zinc. Vitamin E and probiotics
OTHER FOODS
In between meals the dog can chew on raw meaty bones, which helps keep their teeth
clean, provides an array of nutrients and keeps them
occupied. They also gets table scraps, cottage cheese, yogurt, nuts, raisins, fruit,
cheese, milk during the day (not everyday but from time to time). Remember variety
is the key to feeding this type of diet.