Dry Dog Foods

What's Really In This Stuff?

When people think of dog food the first picture in there heads are the big bags of dry dog foods. Some maybe canned food. For most of us it’s because that’s all we can remember feeding our pets. You get a dog and you buy a bag of dog food.

Bag's of dry dog foods and canned dog food has really only been around the US since World War 2. The term dog food has been so ingrained into our society that most people come into our store and tell us that they never feed people food to there dog.

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Well, I say, you kind of are. Dry Dog food is really highly processed people food. Albeit most commercial dry dog foods are composed of some nasty ingredients it’s still basically a meat, grains, vegetables, vitamins, preservatives. Most of the commercial food manufacturers use ingredients not fit for human consumption.

Before dry dog foods were invented, dogs survived and flourish quite well. They were mostly fed meat scraps, raw milk, eggs and such. A lot of dogs went out and found there own meals such as rabbits, small rodents, etc as well. The great depression of the 1930’s made meat scarcer. Grains started making there way into the dogs diet. That’s when opportunity seekers saw a market to utilize meat scraps from butchers, extra corn, wheat and other grains and formulate that into a dog food. Of course it was higher in grains because they were plentiful and less expensive. They were very resourceful at finding items not utilized for human consumption to put into there foods.

Mill operators and slaughter houses found a market to sell their by-products that were previously thrown away. Items such as diseased animals, grain hulls, floor sweepings, etc. They cooked the discarded meats and grains for long periods to kill all the bacteria and diseases. The mix was then broken up into smaller chunks and bagged.

The marketing for these growing companies made claim that there foods were better and more complete than a dog’s regular diet. The convenience of food in a bag sold it as well. People believed what they were told and the dog food manufacturers flourished. That was the beginning to the multitude of problems facing dogs today.

The pet food industry next worked on the veterinarians. They were able to convince them to market this food as a better diet for peoples dogs. They even went as far as proclaiming that table scraps were very harmful to dogs. You can see how this escalated into what is widely believed today.

Next these marketers utilized celebrities to indorse there foods. An all out campaign was implemented in the 1960’s to convince the population that processed dry dog food was more complete and much better for their pets and that table scraps were dangerous. This campaign enlisted radio, newspapers, magazines and television.

Different shapes, sizes, breed specific dry dog foods were introduced and marketed. It was easy for the public to believe that this was all that’s needed to care for your dog.

Prescription diets for various ailments made there way into the market and were only offered through veterinarians. This was another marketing ploy that would generate higher revenues through costly prescription sales and place the veterinarian in a role model for nutrition.

There were certain agencies that were developed to regulate the nutrition allowance for dry dog foods. This included The National Research Council whom developed protocols and feeding trials. The dog food industry formed their own group for regulating studies on commercial dry dog foods. This group was known as AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials). They decided to change the standards of the NRC testing procedures from feeding trials to just food analysis. These trials didn’t take into account freshness, palatability or digestibility.

Obviously this industry has gone through its own turmoil. Big grain companies and there marketers on one side and a few animal protection groups on the other. The government somewhere in between but not putting any tight regulations into place. The power of advertising and the enlistment of veterinarians as spokesmen for nutrition have placed the processed dry dog foods as a standard.

The public grew more confused about what to feed. The popularity of packaged dry dog foods grew so big that it out placed baby food in the supermarkets. The grocery stores were allowing huge isle space filled with dry dog foods. People would just start staring at the packaging not sure what one to pick, a marketers dream. If they made fancy bright colored packages and claimed that it was healthy and a complete diet, people would buy it.

Veterinarians still today recommend there processed dry dog foods. There offices are filled with high priced, dry, processed prescription diets. Basically these prescription diets are no more than regular dry dog foods with certain ingredients stripped out. It may help to alleviate one problem but usually at the price of another.

During the course of becoming a Veterinarian, they have a nutritional class that’s an elective. So basically they can go through school without any real nutritional training. If they do elect to take a nutritional class, it’s more than likely only one semester long.

If they do elect to take this class, it would be sponsored by non other than one of the big grain based dry processed food companies. So you can bet on what the curriculum would be like.

People believe that their Veterinarians are all knowledgeable about nutrition. This was ingrained in us long ago when they were enlisted as spokesmen for the dog food agency. There maybe a few that have continued there nutritional education after starting practice but they are the minority.

Veterinarians that have gone on and taken further nutritional studies that are a holistic in nature and not put on by the big grain companies are typically called Holistic Vets.

These vets know the medicine side of your animal plus they know the proper side of their nutritional needs. They most always recommend raw food based diets. The natural diet that heals and sustains your animal.

Dogs have never adapted to a cooked diet or dry dog foods. This in not in their nature, their DNA makeup, or in their best interest.

See our page on Raw Dog Foods for tips and techniques of feeding a raw based diet.

Also read the Dog Supplements page for additional supplements that are needed to balance out a diet.

Your pet cannot speak for itself. It’s up to you to learn proper nutritional needs of the dog and what's in your dry dog foods. They will eat just about anything as a survival mode.

I’ve seen many dogs come through our store and we have successfully transitioned many to a raw based diet. The comments we receive are not short of spectacular. They will come back in and show us how much better there dog is looking now. They say he’s acting like a dog again. They’ll tell us things have cleared up that were ailing them.

We’re always so happy to hear these comments. They will enjoy a longer, healthier more satisfying life together.

This is what it’s all about. Keeping them healthier and with us longer. That’s what we all want. There life span is so much shorter than ours we must do what we can to prolong it.

We’ve worked with people that had dogs with cancers or diseases that have just discovered proper nutrition after the fact. Some have prolonged the life way beyond wheat there vet said by altering there diets.

Be informed; learn what ingredients go into the food you feed. There can be a place for good premium dry dog foods in your diets. We use premium dry dog foods as a base in our pets diets. But they get the raw foods and supplements they need as well.

I’ll now talk about what goes into some of those commercial foods. Be warned, it’s not too pleasant of thought.

Commercial dog foods companies are not very regulated or I should say enforced as to what types of proteins goes into there dry dog foods. Lets look at some of the facts.

Ingredients must be listed in descending order of weight. While a chicken is very heavy because of its water weight, it can be listed first. But look further down the ingredient list and you’ll see by-products, corn-gluten meal, soy-meal, etc. It takes a big pile of this stuff to equal the weight of that chicken. That’s why we say most of the commercial dog foods are made of crap.

Animal protein when used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. About 50% of every food animal is left over after we take off what's good for humane consumption. What are left over are things like heads, feet, blood, intestine, lungs, spleens, ligaments, unborn babies, and others not fit for human consumption. These products are used for not only in pet food but in fertilizer, industrial lubricants, rubber, soap and other products. These are known as by-products and used in the dry dog foods.

These by-products vary in nutritional quality and therefore cannot meet any nutritional standards claimed.

The premium pet dry dog foods that we, along with most other natural foods stores carry do not use by-products in there ingredients. On the labels you will see the meat named. Like chicken, turkey, beef, etc. On most of the commercial foods you will see ingredients like meat, meat meal, by-product meal, meat and bone meal.

The use of many chemicals as preservatives has been added to commercial dry dog foods. These chemicals are taking their toll as well on our dogs. Chemicals such as BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propyl gallate, and propylene glycol. If you’re like me and not a scientist, you probably never heard of most of these. That’s the way the big companies want to keep it.

Ethoxyguin is known as a chemical preservative. It’s regulated by the FDA as a pesticide.

All these chemicals are not natural in your dogs diet but are used regularly in dry dog foods. They have been linked to causing many problems such as dry itchy skin, allergies, and more than likely many of the cancers dogs are experiencing. Dogs are just better off not having these chemicals in their diet. The smaller dry dog foods companies that we call premium brands, do not use chemicals in there ingredients. They use natural preservatives such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and oils of rosemary, clove, and other spices.

Many contaminants beyond our belief make their way into dry dog foods. Certain farm practices with dead, diseased animals, molds forming in the grains.

A bigger impact on this industry is raised because of the co-op of the packaging. Many big dry dog foods companies are actually manufactured by one company at one facility. The foods are all made with the same equipment and a lot of the time, the same ingredients. The different company labels are placed on the products and shipped out to distributors. This co-op packaging has led to the recent recalls spreading over many companies products.

So what are the sources of some of the proteins that go into these foods? Not only are the big companies getting the by-products from slaughter houses, they also receive their so called meat ingredients from rendering plants. These rendering plants receive all kinds of animals from all over. These include animal road kills, euthanized dogs and cats from humane societies and vet offices. Of course these euthanized animals still contain the Phenobarbital used to kill them even after processing. Zoo animals, animals from laboratories and testing facilities, etc.

Cancerous, diseased animals of all kinds find there way to these plants and then onto the commercial food producers. The cats and dogs get thrown in with there collars on and still inside the plastic bags they used to collect and send them there.

Every month major cities across the country send thousands of tons of animals collected from these sources to the rendering plants. They are then used in pet foods, fertilizers and many other places. None that is worse than thinking about them going into your own dog.

It’s not hard to see why we are so against the practices used by the big grain companies and their practices. But even the best dry dog food companies that use best practices with there ingredients are still not optimal nutrition for your dog. I feel a lot better serving them to our dogs but that’s not where there diet should end.

Please see our page on Homemade Dog Food for more information about proper diets for your dog.

There are many good dry foods out there. Seek the assistance of the small retail pet food store. Not the big chain pet food stores as they carry few if any premium foods. There employees are typically not trained in nutrition as well.