With the New Year upon us I have once again made a
resolution to focus on my heath, specifically my eating habits. This inspired me to write a few posts
about healthy food choices for our pets.
Last summer I had the great opportunity to visit the Hill’s Pet Nutrition
Center in Kansas, my first post about my time there can be read by clicking here. As a follow up let us
focus on the ingredient list and the misunderstood phrase “by product”.
Many pet food companies will make a big deal of stating on
their label, in big letters “No by-products”! When you look at what a by-product actually is I don’t really
mind my pets eating them. The
exact definition of a by-product is “anything produced in the course of making
another thing.” I feel that using
by-products actually honors the animal that gave its life to feed us since we
make use of the entire animal and not just its skeletal meat.
So in regards to a chicken, the by-products are feet, undeveloped
eggs, necks, and organs; feathers and beaks are excluded. This sounds really gross and I
certainly wouldn’t want to eat anything with those ingredients but I am quite
sure my dogs would have no problem.
In reality organ meat is a source of high quality protein and actually more
nutrient dense than skeletal meat.
When you see “chicken is the #1 ingredient” this is also a
clever ploy by pet food marketing teams.
Chicken is listed first because it is 80% water and the heaviest of all
the components that make up the diet.
This doesn’t equate to a diet that is mostly chicken skeletal meat that
one would pick up from the grocery store. If something is listed as “meal” on the label that just means
whatever it was has had the water removed. So “chicken meal” is dehydrated chicken backbone, skin and
bits of muscle – basically whatever is left over after the chicken has been
processed for human consumption.
That is not to say all by-products are equal, as with any
product there are varying degrees of quality. One must know the other aspects of their pet’s food in order
to ensure they are feeding a high quality diet.
For example:
- · Is there a veterinary nutritionist consulting on the makeup of the food
- · What other safe guards has the company put in place to make sure the diet is safe
- · Have feeding trials been done to see how the food affects actual animals
- · Is the company willing to give out their exact nutrient profile (they should be!)
- · Where are the meat and other ingredients sourced from
- · Where is the product made
There is so much that goes into making a quality pet food,
it can be amazingly overwhelming to choose one. I encourage you to speak with your veterinarian and use the
above information to research the available diets out there. I hope knowing the right questions to
ask will help you sift through all of the clever labels and marketing tools pet
food companies throw at you.
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