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Dog food by-products

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Elmer-n-Button 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I know that there was discussion of this topic a while back, but I had a specific question. Does anyone have any of the details on the supposed reformulation of Hill's Science Diet? Last night a friend told me that around 8-12 months ago, they reformulated their food, and that before, they were not using any by-products, and now they are. I was just wondering if anyone had heard this too.

Thanks!

Tracey
 
#2 ·
Hi everyone,

. Does anyone have any of the details on the supposed reformulation of Hill's Science Diet? Last night a friend told me that around 8-12 months ago, they reformulated their food, and that before, they were not using any by-products, and now they are. I was just wondering if anyone had heard this too.

Tracey[/b]
UM food with by-products are often more nutritious than those without. Keep in mind most of those decrying by-products are in it for the hype and not the truth.

The Pet Food Ingredient Game
Are By-Products Evil?
In the processing of human foods there are thousands of tons of by-products that cannot be readily
sold to humans. Does that make them useless or even inferior? No. Such by-products could include
trimmings, viscera, organs, bones, gristle and anything else that humans do not desire. Should these
perfectly nutritious items be buried in a landfill? As I mentioned above, while Earth's resources continue
to decline and people starve around the globe, should we feed our pets only human grade foods and let perfectly edible and sometimes even more nutritious by-products go to waste? How is that
conscionable or justifiable for either the consumer or the producer?[/b]
Dog Foods - Help in making the choice easier
A lot of foods have by-products which are usually heads, necks, stomach contents, organs, etc. That turns some people off though I've yet to see a dog not eat that stuff if they come across a carcass in a field. Frankly, to me its everything people feeding their dogs a raw diet would give and I don't see the big deal if say, chicken by-product meal, is included in a dog food's ingredients. Watch a nature program with wild dogs and wolves and you'll see them eating these parts of the animal. I would make sure the by-product meal was specific such as chicken or lamb by-product meal and not just listed as "poultry", "meat" or "animal" by-product meal.

...I read this somewhere and thought it described by-products perfectly:

It's not meat, but the organ matter from the chicken, the guts, liver, heart, brains, intestines, stomach etc. I think this is a human thing, because those organs are always the first to be eaten by wild canids, wild felines, and pretty much any other. They don't go for the 'meaty haunch', they go for the gut and pull out all that gooey stuff and eat it.

Meat byproducts in dog food by law do not include hair, horn, teeth or hooves, feathers or manure. It does include organs, including the lungs, spleen, intestines, brains, kidneys and liver, and in the case of chicken byproducts will include the head and feet. About 50 percent of a slaughtered cow will not go for human use, most of this leftover goes into the pet food industry, not because it's unhealthy. How many of us rush out to the grocery store to eat a daily meal with tripe (stomach), chitlins (intestines), and scrambled brains? Believe it or not, while organ meats are gross to think of eating to humans, they are also extremely high in natural vitamins and minerals.
[/b]
 
#3 ·
UM food with by-products are often more nutritious than those without. Keep in mind most of those decrying by-products are in it for the hype and not the truth.

The Pet Food Ingredient Game
Dog Foods - Help in making the choice easier [/b]
Interesting and informative. What concerns me with the by products is the concentration of harmful ingredients like antibiotics, pesticides, etc which are in very high proportions in a commercial animals organ meat. The liver and kidneys are the bodys filters for contaminants are they not? Beef liver is like tuna these days in that many drs warn women not to eat it during pregnancy because of the possible effects. I have even read of some vets recomending owners not feed their dogs real bones because the concentration of lead in commercial cattle bones is so high.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for all the info! I have decided to give Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato a try. It's manufactured by Old Mother Hubbard, and is supposed to be human grade food. Whitefish, etc.

Hopefully not the same fish as those that were fed the "diverted melamine laced feed". :unsure:

They really seem to like it a lot; and hopefully the sweet potato will help with Elmer's smelly anal glands. P - U!
I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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