Castanet

I'm pretty confident in my choice of blue :) got my boxer on the large breed and my Boston on puppy :)

As a pet industry insider for more than 20 years I may have a unique perspective on pet foods.

This is a great discussion and there are alot of myths about pet food out there. The Dog Food Adviser web-site is a great web-site . Dr. Sagman does a very good job on rating pet foods based on the facts.

In general the first 3 to 5 ingredients in a pet food label make up 80%-90% of the weight of the food BEFORE processing. If your food is manufactured by a marketing company such as MARS or Proctor & Gamble they may use a few tricks to 'manipulate' the ingredient panel. Watch for words such as "fresh" on the label. The marketing companies use this trick to make us think that it is made with fresh ingredients since the ingredient panel is written up BEFORE the kibble is cooked. When they cook the kibble it removes the moisture and the actual 'fresh' protein that ends up in the kibble ends up way down the list.

Here's an example of a well known brand
Ingredients: Chicken, chicken by-product meal, brewers rice, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of vitamin E), dried beet pulp

Here we see Chicken as the first ingredient followed by chicken by-product meal. Why do they need to use two types of chicken? This is only for marketing purposes and I bet that they use the words 'made with fresh chicken' in their ads. You won't see them mentioning that they have 3 types of grain in the top five ingredients in those same ads. This is known as ingredient splitting. They use this to trick the consumer.

Fortunately the guaranteed analysis is calculated after the cooking process. If you take the percentages and add them up them subtract that number from 100 you will find the rough percentage of carbohydrates your food has. Some people consider this number to be fillers. Of course protein quality should be your number 1 concern here.

I recommend that any pet parent shop at an independently owned pet store and talk to the staff. They are trained to help you and your pet. Go in armed with this basic knowledge of pet food labels and you will walk out with a proper diet for your little guys.

I highly recommend the following site for a blunt observation of the pet food industry.

http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/

proudpetparent wrote:As a pet industry insider for more than 20 years I may have a unique perspective on pet foods.

Interesting points however the link you provided is to a USA based consumer group and although probably very informative on a general basis would not necessarily be relevant to the laws and regulations in Canada.

When you say pet industry insider, exactly what do you mean by that? Were you employed in the industry? If so in what capacity?

Hi Crazyoleme. Nice to meet you!

I would like this to stay on topic and not become about qualifications. But since you brought it up I have been in the pet industry since the late 80's and have held several positions in the industry in retail, wholesale, and manufacturing. I also was consulted on the development of a popular western Canadian manufactured pet food line.

The web-site linked was just for information only. Just because it is a "USA based consumer group" doesn't mean it isn't relevant as most pet food recalls are initiated by the FDA not the CFIA.

As long as you are buying a premium pet food that isn't all grains you are on the right track. We can all agree that we owe that to our pets.

hugs

Welcome to Castanet proudpetparent

Any views on Superstore's new dog food?

WeatherWoman wrote:Any views on Superstore's new dog food?

We have been using that since it came out , seems like pretty decent food ( by reading the label ) and sure cant beat the price and the pups love it . Also , Costco PREMIUM brand , is pretty decent as well .

Amarow121 wrote:We switched to Acana 2 years ago and we really like it. Our dogs and cat enjoy it and never leave a crumbly behind! I like that it smells good, and I like that it's made in Alberta.

Prior to that I'd just buy whatever was on sale at the grocery store. Dog didn't seem to mind so I figured it was okay. Decided to switch to Acana after someone recommended it to us.

We used to buy Orijen ( same food as Acana ) but they priced themselves out to lunch . It was getting to be 90 bucks a bag at Buckerfields . Good food but how much better then then most other NON corn filled , no filler types ?

I stay away from any pet food who's ingredients list includes the word "meal". i.e. chicken meal, salmon meal, lamb meal...... etc..etc

GordonH wrote:I stay away from any pet food who's ingredients list includes the word "meal". i.e. chicken meal, salmon meal, lamb meal...... etc..etc

Nothing wrong at all with a quality meal , its the by-product meal that is not good. A quality meal is at least 60% protein whereas 'fresh' ingredients are almost all moisture.

GordonH wrote:I stay away from any pet food who's ingredients list includes the word "meal". i.e. chicken meal, salmon meal, lamb meal...... etc..etc

xjeepguy wrote:Nothing wrong at all with a quality meal , its the by-product meal that is not good. A quality meal is at least 60% protein whereas 'fresh' ingredients are almost all moisture.

I looked at their ingredients list of their dry food, I would rather see Chicken, Salmon, as main or first on the list and if meal is used much lower on the list (if at all). Also no grains
Also for both dogs & cats getting their fluids (hydration) from their food is much better for them, as I posted earlier.
For this reason I feed mostly wet to my pets.

I'm quite curious why local vets around here promote Royal Canin so much? We had our kids on it since its what the breeder used as well, but we've since switched to this brand ... http://www.horizonpetfood.com/ ... thanks to recommendations from friends as well as research online and in strores. Awesome food, great ingriedients, great reviews and about half the price of Royal Canin.

My mom actually cooks food for their dog, makes big portions of various meats, barley, veggies and rice, freezes it and thaws out the daily portions and serves it with a bit warm milk and water.

I came across a very good article today from Animal Wellness magazine about 10 pet food secrets.

http://www.animalwellnessmagazine.com/a ... formation/

It confirms most of the information shared here and adds a few new talking points.

A big part of knowing whether you are feeding the right food is also just by looking at your dog - does he go to the bathroom regularly, nothing too soft, nothing too hard? His coat, is it shiny and soft or does it smell and feel "sweaty"? Does he itch or have hot spots? Having one or some of these can indicate an allergy or a missing of something they need. It has taken me many trials of dog foods (raw to kibble) to find not only a good quality one but one that also works for MY dog.

Bumped
Over the years some well liked dog food brands have been bought out by questionable companies.
Mars (grocery brands) owns Nutro
Smuckers owns Natural Balance
General Mills owns Blue Buffalo

Maybe at one time these brands meant something, now they are likely no better then garbage grocery brands (meaning the crap sold at grocery store i.e Safeway, Walmart, Save-on etc... etc

Be good to your pets check out food you feed to them.