[Cagdu] FW: [article on dog food ingredients

Mon Jan 21 20:05:53 PST 2008

Subject: article on dog food ingredients

Keep Your Clear Of The Next Pet Food Recall
By Susan Thixton 
Last year turned out to be the worst in history for pet food recalls. While
there is no way to be 100% certain that a pet food is not tainted or will be
recalled, there are some red flags to look for when selecting your dog's or
cat's food. Avoiding these common pet food ingredients can greatly improve
your odds in purchasing a healthy, safe pet food. 
Judging the safety or the nutritional value of a pet food starts by ignoring
the advertising, the price of the pet food, and ignoring the front of the
bag.
The real signs to the safety of a dog food or cat food lie on the back or
side of the bag or can in the 'Ingredient Listing'. Regardless of what
marketing
terms ('choice', 'premium', and so on) are on the front of the bag or can of
pet food, a pet owner cannot determine the quality or how safe the food is
unless they look at the ingredients. 
With dry foods there can be 90 different ingredients (or more), with canned
foods there can be 50 or more different ingredients. But don't panic...you
don't
have to understand hundreds of different pet food ingredients! You just need
to be aware of a few key ingredients...pet food ingredients that you do NOT
want to see in a dog food or cat food (or treats). 
'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These three ingredients
were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to
be
the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not
that glutens themselves are toxic to pets - these ingredients have been used
in pet foods for years. 
The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens - imported from
countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of
glutens
used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens
contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of
dogs
and cats. 
Not only is it important to avoid dog foods and cat foods (and dog and cat
treats) that contain glutens because of the possibility of dangerous added
chemicals,
it is important because they add no real quality nutrition to the food.
Glutens are used as a thickener AND as a source of protein in pet food.
Adult maintenance
dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods
must provide a minimum of 26% protein. 
If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein, glutens
are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food. The best
nutrition
for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food not from a gluten protein.
Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain 'corn gluten',
'wheat
gluten', or 'soy gluten'. 
'By Products'. By-products have never been the cause of a pet food recall,
but they are definitely ingredients you want to avoid feeding your pet. To
give
you an understanding of by-products, I'd like to compare this pet food
ingredient to pies - you know, the dessert! How many different types of pies
you
can think of? There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue
pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies (yuck!) - I think you get
my
point. Now imagine if you purchased yourself a prepared ravioli dinner at
the grocery and you looked at the ingredients and you see 'pie' listed as
the
first ingredient in your dinner. 
Hmmm, pie in ravioli - what kind of pie? You wouldn't know if it was apple
pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner
contained
'pie'. Considering 'pie' could be anything from apple pie to cow pie - my
guess is that you wouldn't be having ravioli for dinner. Same thing with
by-products
in pet food. 
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials, the organization
responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines
by-products
as "meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat,
derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs,
spleen,
kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature
fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does
not
include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in
animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond
thereto." 
So, with respect to pet food, a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name.
All left over meat materials from the human food industry are clumped into
one
ingredient name - by-product. There is NO certainty of what you are feeding
- one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next
batch of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. 
There is NO way of knowing what is actually contained in the pet food
ingredient by-product (the pet food manufacturers themselves couldn't tell
you exactly).
Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain By-products of any
kind...Chicken By-Products, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef
By-Product Meal, and so forth. 
'Meat Meal', 'Meat and Bone Meal', or 'Animal Digest'. These three
ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as
"the rendered
product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood,
hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except
in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices." 
Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used
for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients
(all
three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) - no way of
knowing what is actually in your pet's food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and
dog
and cat treats that contain 'meat meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal
digest'. 
'Animal Fat'. In 2002 the FDA tested many different brands of dog food (cat
food was not tested) for the presence of the drug pentobarbital. Many brands
of dog food tested positive to contain the drug. Pentobarbital is the drug
used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses. 
How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet food? The
answer - euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the end ingredients
are
placed in pet food. It has long been rumored that euthanized dogs and cats
(from animal shelters and veterinarian offices) is the major source of the
pentobarbital
in pet food. However no one has been able to prove or disprove this rumor to
date. The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) developed testing
methods
on two separate occasions to determine the species source of the drug. No
results have ever been determined. 
The pet food manufacturers adamantly deny they use rendered dogs or cats -
but NO clinical evidence has ever been released to confirm the pentobarbital
is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as they claim. 
However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their testing is
the pet food ingredient 'animal fat' is the most common ingredient to
contain
pentobarbital. In other words, if you are feeding a dog food or cat food (or
treats) with the ingredient 'animal fat' in the ingredient listing - you are
(more than likely) feeding your pet euthanized animals. 
Not every batch of pet food tested that contained the ingredient 'animal
fat' has proved to contain pentobarbital - but why would any pet owner want
to
take the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that
contain the ingredient 'animal fat'. 
'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin'. These pet food ingredients are
chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the entire
ingredient list
to find them. It is worth the look because there is plenty of clinical
evidence to associate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer
and tumors
(simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). 
All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve human
food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is allowed in pet
food.
Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat treat that contains 'BHA',
'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin' on the label. 
'Corn', 'Wheat', 'Soy'. While there is no scientific evidence that proves
these ingredients are dangerous to pets - they are potentially dangerous
ingredients
associated with recalls in the past (1995, 1999, and 2005). 
These grains are highly prone to a deadly mold (aflatoxin). It is suggested
(by AAFCO) that all pet food manufacturers test grains for the mold, but as
recalls of the past have proven - that doesn't always happen. I do not think
these ingredients are as risky as others mentioned above, but they are
ingredients
I avoid for my own pets. 
There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or cat than
avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a start - based on
pet
food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions, science and opinion of many pet
food experts including myself. 
There are many quality pet foods available that do NOT use the above
ingredients and that add health promoting ingredients to their foods and
treats. Continue
to learn as much as you can about what you are feeding your pet and ALWAYS
read the labels! 
======== 
Susan Thixton has worked in the pet industry for over 20 years helping
thousands of pet owners to enjoy their pets. She's produced an
internationally distributed
dog training video, authored the tell all book Truth About Pet Food, and
recently has begun publication of a one-of-a-kind pet owning consumer report
Petsumer
Report. For more information please visit
http://www.TruthAbo <http://www.TruthAboutPetFood.com> utPetFood.com 

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