November 23, 2009 • 43 mins
In this episode of The Pampered Pooch Christine and Vicki share insightful information on What's Really in Pet Food. With permission from the Animal Protection Institute (API), they discuss the common misconceptions of what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting. Christine and Vicki share information from API to help you determine exactly what is in the food you give your dog. They go over how pet food is made, some pet food secrets like co-packing and some of the marketing magic designed to trick consumers. Using the information from API, they discuss ways to help evaluate pet food using label basics, comparing dry food to wet food, all about pet food ingredients (protein, fat & additives). They discuss some of the potential contaminents as well as nutrition related diseases. This episode is full of information you surely do not want to miss! We also talk about The Pampered Pooch of the Week, Cow, a 160 lb. Newfoundland / Great Pyrenees mix. Listen in!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to the Pampered Pooch on pet Life Radio. I'm
your host, Christine.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Latham, and I'm your co host, Speaking Nixon.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Today we are talking about what's really in pet food.
It's going to be a serious topic, but we'll try
to make it as fun as possible. But we want
to make sure that your pet is truly papered, and
it can be a papered pooch if you're feeding it poorly. Correct.
We will be back after a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
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St Hi, This is Pia Salvani, your host.
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Speaker 2 (02:57):
Welcome back to the Pampered pooch Amber. Pooch of the
week is MoU Cal McDowell and his nickname is Cal
for short. His dad and owner is Ian McDowell, thus
the name Cal is a Newfoundland Great Pyrenees mix. He's
one hundred and sixty pounds of fun and Cal just
(03:20):
turned four in March. Besides Cal, some of his other
nicknames are Bubba and Sweetpea, and his arrival story with
Ian is basically Cal was part of an accidental breeding
at the Borders. His dad is a prize winning Great
Pyrenees and his mother is a beautiful Newfoundland that was
(03:41):
in heat when she was born, except nobody realized it
until a few weeks later. Ian came over to take
pictures of the puppies every week and instantly fell in
love with Cal. Kyle loves going to Doggy Day here
and ann Arbor, Michigan. He loves to go to a
meet up group called the Troy All Dogs Playgroup, which
has been pretty terrific for both Cal and for Iroan.
(04:05):
Cal loves to go swimming in lakes and he likes
to play with his dad in the snow. His favorite
toy is a little black and bear and skunk stuffed
animal that Iron got for him, and his favorite food
is pretty much anything with peanut butter, occasionally a burger
off of the Girl and Cal is a cheese fiend.
(04:27):
He loves cheese. His favorite activity is going out in public.
He loves all of the attention that's showered upon him
with a dog like that. I'm sure he gets a
lot of attention to a big dog and they see him
coming through and everybody wants to pettymum. Sure his best trick.
He's very good at doing, you know, a poll or
shake and he gets lots of pamperine. He goes to
the groomer once a month, Iron brushes him daily, gives
(04:50):
him lots of hugs. I'm sure lots of other ways
at the pampering, especially if he's getting louts of cheese,
right Yeah. One funny story that Iroan wanted to share
is that when he was boarding at the dog daycare
one night, Ian was out walking two dogs out in
the front and col On, two of his greyhound friends,
were in the office, and they managed to get into
(05:11):
the kitchen area and proceeded to woof down his pizza
dinner that he had not touched yet. When Ian called
back the pizza place and reordered another, the guy asked
if Cal had ate the pizza. He guessed that it
had happened before. So, you know, cal sounds like a
great dog. He's very cute. Check out our blog or
(05:31):
our MySpace just check us out for the Pampered Pooch
you can see a picture of him. And also Ian
McDowell is a dog photographer. You can check out his
website at www dot fetch it photo dot com. You know, Vicky,
we're we're gonna spend today talking about what's in commercial
(05:53):
pet foods. When you go to the store, you can
buy buy a line, et cetera, basically just any kind
of food that you're not making a home.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
It's a big question for a lot of people, and
it's been a lot of controversy since there's been pet
food recalls and people are concerned what's going on with
the pet food where does it really come from?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So I think this is a good issue to address.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Today, absolutely, and with our show topic of you know,
pampering your pooch, it's really the basic place to pamper
your pooch.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you know, one of the things that I just
wanted to mention is a lot of the commercial advertising,
the manufacturers are really wanting to you to believe their
food has like the best ingredients, you know, like cold chickens,
it's the best cuts of beef, grains, all that kind
of inttition. But an article by API, Annimal Protection Institute,
(06:50):
is where we're getting our information from and they will
give you a you know, really great information. You can
find their website at the UWWAPI the number four animals
dot org and they've given us permission today to use
this article and we just want to know, thank the
Animal Protection Institute for this source of material. So again,
(07:14):
like the manufacturing, you know, they're in the advertising, they
want you to think that no matter what the best
ingredients are in the food that you're buying. It's a
fifteen billion dollar per year pet food industry. Of course
they're gonna want you to think the best. Yes, the
report we're gonna talk about explores the differences between what
consumers think they are buying and what they're actually getting.
(07:37):
What most consumers don't know is that pet food industry
is an extension of the human and agricultural industries. Basically,
pet food provides a convenient way for slarta, house and
other things that are considered unfit for human consumption and
other similar waste products to be turned into a profit
through pet food ways can include intestines, otters, heads, hooves,
(08:03):
and possibly disease and cancerous and all parts. That's not
what I want to feed my dog.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
No, definitely not, you know, Christine, I believe that everything
begins with nutrition for ourselves most importantly and for our pets.
If there is something that is not human grade ingredients
that I would not eat myself, why would I feed
it to my pets?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Absolutely, with all the by products and everything else that
goes in.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
There, you know, speaking of the byproducts. The Pet Food Institute,
it's the trade association of pet food manufacturers, it has
acknowledged that the use of byproducts and pet food, you know,
is basically an additional income for the processors and farmers.
I mean, if they're going to admit that, there's no
getting around that. Absolutely. One of the basic things we
(08:52):
want to start talking about is to look at a
label and be able to read the label and know
exactly what you're getting. More the food that you're buying,
the first indication is the name of the food is
basically the first thought of what's gonna be inside, what
the food content is. Some terms could be like all
(09:12):
or one hundred percent cannot be used if the product
contains more than one ingredient. There's a lot of times
they're using the ninety five percent rule. Unless you're excluding
the water, then that's gonna be supposedly ninety five percent
of whatever ingredient. That's pretty uncommon nowadays too. Basically, what
you're looking at more now is whenever the word dinner
(09:35):
is used, it's usually about twenty five percent of an ingredient,
and that usually excludes the water. If you're gonna probably
put it all together, it's gonna be about ten percent
of the dry weight. And I'm saying that because when
you think about and you're looking at and you're just
gonna say, oh, I'm feeding my dog chicken right, well,
depending on the word that's used with that chicken, you
(09:56):
might be, you know, actually feeding them ten percent chicken.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
When you think when you're thinking of a whole chicken,
or if you made it yourself, would be a whole chicken.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Absolutely. Now, whenever you see the word like recipe, plat
or entree formula, those are gonna be combinations of ingredients.
It could be as little as three percent of the
actual product weight.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So it could be three percent protein, right. Three percent
chicken out of one hundred percent is not a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So when you think you're being just chicken or you know,
maybe a few other things, you really need to look
at the wording a lot of times, like the word flavor.
That is again that doesn't mean there actually is beef.
It's just like something that tastes like beef. So you
gotta watch that. Also, the ingredient list, that's really an
important thing. The ingredients must be listed in descending order
(10:47):
of weight. You also have to think about that is
sometimes like if it's a when they have like a
chicken breast and it's heavier than a lot of powder,
that could have been like a ground up into powder.
Really like the content that weight of powder is going
to be a lot less than that piece of chicken.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So it's a little deceiving when you go by weight
as well. So that's just something to think about. You
might want to look on the label though, have a
guaranteed analysis. It's a very general guide to the composition
of the food. It's hard to specify exactly what that's
going to mean for your dog, but it's a general
guide only.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Christine there's also pet food standards and regulations. There's different
ways to do analysis. One is a standard chemical analysis
and that's used to make sure the food meets the
profiles for complete and balanced food. They also do chemical analysis,
but this does not address the digestibility, how good the
(11:47):
food tastes, the biological availability, or the nutrients in pet food. Therefore,
it's unreliable for deciding whether a food will provide an
animal with sufficient nutrients and pet food it kind of
exists in a bit of a regulatory vacuum. There are
laws on the books, but enforcement is a total different
(12:09):
story as far as as far as the pet food
is regulated.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And I think the recalls that we all know about,
yeah pretty attest to that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
One thing people need to know a little bit about
is how pet food is made, because if you're going
to make a wise decision on what kind of food
you want to give your dog, you need to understand
a little bit about how it's made, because knowing that
will help you determine what you really want to pick
for your food. Like dry food, dry food is mostly
(12:41):
made with the machine called an extruder. They put a
bunch of materials in and you know, mix it all up.
It goes through these like screws basically have an extruder
and depending on how the product's supposed to be made
into know, like the size or shape or whatever, everyone's
(13:03):
through those screws and nozzles kind of like a deck,
like a cake decorating, you know, when you have like different.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Tops.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Different, Yeah, so like different kinds of And if a
manufacturer is making all kinds of different foods and they're
gonna use the same equipment, so you might think you're
going to have you know, one like this is what
you're buying agin you know, baked food, let's say, right,
But if they're making at the same location like this,
(13:34):
really you know, bad food, it's gonna be made most like,
I mean, organic could be a little bit different because
with organic terminology they have to be like they have
to follow a little bit more specific roles. But we'll
just say something that's it's called natural or premium or whatever.
You know, it's made with the same equipment. I'm sorry,
but no manufacturing facility is going to have that equipment
(13:57):
completely clean out before they switched to you a different brand.
So it's something that people need to think about and
although like the dog food is going through those machines
and they're gonna get cooked. The cooking kills bacteria and
the ingredients themselves, but the final product can pick up
more bacteria during like the drying, the coatine, and the packaging.
(14:21):
Some experts worn that getting dry food wet can actually
allow the bacteria on the surface to multiply and make petsick.
They recommend do not mix dry food with water, milk,
canned food, or other liquids. I never do that until now.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I mean, how many people I know that wet their
dog food with water, that add canned food to their
dry dog food. I mean, the fact that it could
really increase the bacteria is frightening.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Absolutely. You know, this article goes which can go online
again and find it goes a little bit more into
how wet food is made. It's it's actually a little
bit better than how dry food is made. So that's good.
We're not gonna go real far into that right now.
We're gonna also talk a little bit about comparing like
the food types here. When you're actually comparing the food types,
(15:12):
that means you want to compare your dry food to
your wet food. You might look at a bag of
you know, dry food and say, okay, well says you
know this like ten percent protein, and the canned food
says five percent. Email us or check out our blog
and you email us at Pampered Pooch at petlife radio
dot com. We can give you a calculation that's going
(15:35):
to tell you with that wet and dry food, you
can't just take It's not apples to apples, right, So
we can give you a calculation, or you can go
online to this article and that'll show you how you
can compare apples to apples. So it could actually be
that the five percent canned food has a better protein
source than that ten percent dry food.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
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Speaker 2 (19:00):
Okay, now we're basically asked. The most important part, in
my opinion is the actual ingredients in the food. Well,
a lot of people might not know. When I found
this out, I was completely grossed out. Is that a
lot of times the animal protein and pet food is cattle, swine, chickens, lambs,
(19:20):
other animals. When they're slaughtered, their lean muscle tissue is
trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption, along with
a few other organs that people like to eat. But
about fifty percent of every food animal does not get
used in human food. And whatever remains like the carcass, heads, feet, bone,
blood and tustins, along spleens, livers, ligaments, all that gross stuff,
(19:44):
I mean, even unborn babies.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
I know, it's so upsetting.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
All of that other stuff not generally consumed by humans
is what's used in pet food. I wait to know.
That doesn't mean that every pet food out there uses this,
Please don't think that. But this is just so that
you know that a lot of standard brands out there
could you know, using this. So it's just that if
people know what the mass market is producing, then you
(20:10):
can find something that's better. But so all that's in there,
I mean, and whatever the pet it's or say, like
the color whatever eight I mean, animal feed, fertilizer, all
kinds of stuff like that is put in there as well.
There's byproducts, which we talked a little bit about. Nutritional
quality of by products meals, digest et cetera. Can vary
(20:33):
from bash to batch. Even some of the better brand
of pet foods, like maybe something that says their super
premium natural et cetera. They you know what I mean,
They could use some of the by products as well.
Can doesn't mean that all of them are. Check your
label and make sure you don't see any of that warning.
(20:53):
Some of the by products the meats can be leftover
scraps like for poultry, can be bone. So what you
think is a chicken bry product is you know, skeletons basically,
which is really gross. A small amount left on the bones.
I mean, that's not enough to constitute. Again, you think
your feed of chicken, it could be three percent chicken.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Right the rest bones or backs or exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And meat meals, poultry mills, all those good things that
are called meals are common ingredients and pet foods. And
the term meal means that these materials are not used
fresh but have been rendered, So keep that in mind.
And what's rendering. Rendering is basically a process for industrial
use to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from
(21:41):
the fat blubber, et cetera, by melting it. In other words,
it's like raw materials are being dumped into a large
vat and boiled for several hours. Rendering separates fat removes
water and supposedly kills bacteria. However, this high temperature can
alter or destroy any kind of natural enzymes and proteins
found in those rocks.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Christine, let's talk about vegetable protein. The amount of grain
and vegetable products using pet food has really risen. Plant
products now replace a large portion of what used to
be the meat in the earliest commercial pet foods. Most
dry dog foods contain a large amount of cereal grain
or starchy vegetables that give it texture. These are high
(22:23):
carbohydrate plant products, and they provide a cheap source of
energy for the pet the quote unquote right, the rest
of it's just calories. Gluten meals are also high protein
extracts from which most of the carbohydrate has been removed.
Speaker 9 (22:37):
They use these to boost.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Protein percentages without expensive animal source ingredients. Corn gluten meals
another one. It's the most commonly used. Gluten is also used.
It creates those shapes like cuts, bites, chunk shreds, flakes,
and slices, and it can be a thickener for gravy
in the wet food. In most cases, food containing vegetable
proteins are among the lowest and poorer quality of the
(23:02):
foods you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Know, like you do you remember when we used to
buy like, you know, dog food, dry dog food you
can just get over the counter. Do you remember when
you would open the bag and you would smell this
weird odor? Yes, well, yep, you know that's actually it's
a rendered animal fat that causes that smell, or sometimes
the vegetable fats and oils deemed an enable for humans.
(23:27):
They use those fats and they spray it directly onto
the extruded kibbles and pellets and make it otherwise bland
or distasteful products palatable, you know, make s your dog
want to eat it. The fat also acts as a
binding agent, which makes the manufacturers add other flavors such
as animal digests and which is made from like processed byproducts.
(23:51):
So they add those other flavors onto that to make
it better than your dog want to eat it, because
probably without all that, your dog would be like exactly.
So if you've never known what that smell was before,
that's the smell growth.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Another era that we want to talk about is what
happened to the nutrients?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
You know, if there's they're doing all this and they're
say it's nutritious, where where are the nutrients?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Well, Cooking and other processing of the meat and the
bright products using pet food can greatly diminish their nutritional value.
Although the cooking increases the digestibility of certain greens and
starchy vegetables, but it can also diminish, you know, some
of the nutrients. To make pet food more nutritionoush pet
food manufacturers must fortify it with vitamins and minerals. Proteins
(24:40):
are especially vulnerable to heat and can become damaged or
denatured when cooked. That's why some people are now switching
to that raw raw diet. Right dry food ingredients are
cooked twice, first during the rendering and again in the extruder.
The problems are much more common with canned or hominge foods.
(25:02):
Altered proteins can contribute to food intolerances, food allergies, and
inflammatory bow disease. Something to think about, definitely. Another thing
they're doing is they're adding in processed like additives into
the pet food. Many chemicals are added to commercial pet
foods to improve the tasteability, et cetera. We talked about
that a little bit earlier. These additives provide no nutritional value.
(25:25):
It's basically like to help like prevent water and fat
from separating. They put in antioxidants to prevent the fat
from turning ranch in, and artificial collars and flavors to
make the product more attractable. So when you think you
see these additives on your ingredient lists, it might not
seem like quite a big deal, except for when you
stop and think about what they're trying to do with
(25:47):
that additives. And if they have to put anything in
my dog's food to keep the water in the fat
like from separating, that's probably a little strange and maybe
I don't want to eat it, And this is probably
telling us a lot about what people food we eat too. Yeah, definitely,
that's a different topic, not for our show.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Some of the preservatives that are added to the ingredients
are raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be
added by the manufacturer, So that's something to keep in mind.
Like your list might say the additives that are in
your dog food, but if you have like I don't know,
like the chicken, it's not going to tell you what
all the additives was in that chicken, all the hormones
(26:27):
and everything else. So that's something to keep in mind.
Because manufacturers need to ensure that dried dog foods have
a very long shelf life, typically twelve months. They add
in these different additives to make sure that the food
remains edible through shipping in storage. I mean, all this
different additives is not good. There's potentially cancer causing agents
(26:51):
at relatively low levels. But the use of these chemicals
and pet foods has not been thoroughly studied or studied
for long time and build up of these agents, so
ultimately it can be harmful and we don't know yet, Vicky.
One thing I want to tell our listeners about is
some of the potential containinants and pet food. We given
(27:11):
the types of things manufacturers put in pet food, it's
not really surprising that bad things are going to happen
sometimes our pet food, you cause, would tell us that
ingredientses and pet food are often highly contaminated with a
wide variety of toxic substances, and some of them what
we want to tell you about are like bacteria, slaughtered
animals others that have died because of disease in your
(27:34):
natural causes are sources of meat, byproducts, rendered meals, et cetera.
All that can be suspect to Salmonella equal i. BAB
bacteria obviously is not good, and while cooking the protein
may kill the bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins
that some bacteria produce during their growth, so that's something
(27:58):
to keep in mind. These toxins can still survive processing.
They can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do
not test their products for bacterial endotoxins. Because sick or
dead animals can be processed as pet foods, the drugs
that were used to treat or euthanize them may still
be present in the end product as well. One of
(28:18):
the other things besides bacteria is micotoxins, which is basically
from mold or fungi. Pet food ingredients that are most
likely to be contaminated with microtoxins are grains such as
wheat and corn and fish meal also have a chemical residue.
Pesticides and fertilizers may leave residue on plants and products.
Grains that are condemned for human consumption by the us
(28:41):
DA due to residue may legally be used without limitation,
and pet food they really need to up the standards
but again, if you're talking to people that don't believe
that a pet is an you know, companion or a
family member, they're thinking that they're just you know, something
that you own. It's hard to change the mind of
some GMOs. Genetically modified plant products are also concerned. This
(29:08):
is a few years old data, but in two thousand
and six, eighty nine percent of the planted area of soybeans,
eighty three percent of cotton, and sixty one percent of
corn and the US were genetically modified varieties. You know, again,
we're not.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Getting the true source of grain and vegetables that we need.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Right There's some other things that could be in your
pet food again, take a look online. Check that out.
And one thing to remember that when things do go
wrong with pet food and there are recalls, some of
them are widely publicized, but quite a few or not.
Something to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Christine, there's a lot of different nutrition related diseases that
come along with this, and we could talk about that
in a minute. I think it's really important that we
talk to our vets about maybe some of the food
you know, you may be get beating a prescription diet
from your vet. I have plenty of clients who do
get prescription diets and some of the ingredients I question
(30:10):
and they've questioned two. So although we always encourage you
to consult your vet, what I would do is ask
your vet about some of the ingredients on a prescription diet.
If you see corn meal, toreine, a preservative, fo ox quin,
ask your vet what that means. Ask them to go
through it with you so that you can make a
(30:32):
better educated decision. That's what we're doing here today, right Christine,
trying to help people make a better educated decision.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, you know, well you said that again. I kind
of think of vets like doctors. There's a lot of
good doctors out there, you know, there's a lot of
malpractice suits. Yes, so just take that into mind. I
know when I first got my dogs and people would
ask me like, oh, what do you feed your dogs?
I'm like, oh, I got them really good stuff. You know,
(31:01):
this is what the vet recommended or this is prescription.
And you know, I'm paying some good money for what
I'm feeding them, you know, and I'm thinking I'm doing
so good. But really, when I learned a lot more
looking at this, and I don't mean this negatively to
any what anyone else is doing. I'm just explaining how
I felt, you know, and when I really learned more
about it and saw that no, just because the VET
(31:22):
recommended it or just because it was prescription does not
mean it was good. And one of our mutual friends
pointed out to me and said, you know, they still
make that at a commercial manufacturer. With where they're making food.
It costs a lot less and it's made at the
same place with the same equipment. And quite a good
point because when there was pet food recalls at the time,
(31:42):
my food wasn't on the list, but food that was
associated with it was, So it's like, oh, good thing.
So something to keep in mind it is.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
And I've also had several vets question what I feed
and if you're going to tell me what I feed
human great ingredients, organic freeze, dried herbs, vitamins and a
protein is not as good as a prescription diet that's
made to sit on a shelf for twelve months. I'm
going to beg to differ with you, right, So, just
(32:11):
like with us in our own healthcare and our own
nutrition and health, we need to be the voice for
our pambered pooches.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Absolutely because we don't want them to have any kind
of nutrition you know, related diseases.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Which you know, the idea that one pet food can
provide all the nutrition to our pets that will ever
need for the rest of their entire life could be
a myth. There's diets of dogs and cats that today
are far from what they used to be, the meat
based diets at where our animals originally came from. There's
(32:47):
a lot of unpleasant results with grain based, processed urine
year out diets, which would be urinary track disease, kidney disease,
dental disease, obesity, chronic digestive problems, thyroidism, and heart disease.
So there are many nutritional problems that come along with
some of the way that pet food is processed in
(33:12):
some of the ways that shortcuts are made. And I
think it's important that we give our animals a complete diet.
And again, our health starts with our nutrition, so it's
really important to check everything out and look at the
bottom line.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I think. So, you know, along the way, they've realized
that a lot of the INGREDI you know, certain ingredients
aren't really good to use. But who knows how long
it'll be that. In the meantime, research will show that
there are other ingredients that are still being used that
aren't good for our dogs. You know, a lot of
dogs have reactions to additives. Others can be a problem,
(33:50):
you know, a result of contamination. Like we talked about before,
mind us have allergies that are in a lot of
the commercial pet foods. The bottom line is is that
diets compose primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meats
are not as nutritious or as safe as you would
expect for your dog.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Right And we're not talking about the most expensive dog food.
We're not talking about that or the most expensive cant food.
We're talking about check the ingredients. There's plenty of cost
effective meals, including homemade meals, that your pets can benefit from.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Okay, another thing we talked about a little bit earlier
is if a manufacturer is manufacturing different types of dog food,
et cetera at the same place, with the same equipment,
but one of the things is kind of like a
little pet food industry secret is what they call copacking.
Copacking is when one company makes the food but puts
someone else's label on it. Kind of a little tricky, actually,
(34:46):
and what that I mean. I don't want to use
any names out there of any kind of companies, but
one that you might think is a low end dog food, like.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Let's say ABC low end dog food.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah. Really, like it's made by the same manufacturer. Now
it's being labeled because XYZ premium dog food. Yeah. So
something to consider. The big question kind of raised by
this arrangement as whether or not there's any real difference
between the expensive premium brands and the lowest generics. The
recalled products all contain the suspect ingredients wheat, gluten, some
(35:20):
of the recent recalls anyway, but they all also contain
byproducts of some kind, including specified broad buy products such
as liver or giblets. Again, we're talking about mass industry
here and not every pet food, et cetera. This is
just a fyi so that you know what to you know,
your educated consumer. Whatever the difference is between the cheap
(35:43):
and the high end food, one thing is clear, though,
the purchase price of pet food does not always determine
whether a pet food is good or bad, or even safe. However,
the very cheapest foods can be counted on to have
the very cheapest ingredients. Please keep that in mind. What
they're kind of doing now. We talked to little bit
also on was the marketing like a marketing magic of
(36:03):
all the pet food pet food companies out there, what
they're doing now is they're doing like niche claims, pretty much,
whatever you need, there's a specialty food that's designed just
for your dog. You know, whether it's because they have
a tender stomach, arthritis, whatever it is, there's going to
(36:23):
be a food out there that says that it's the
best food for you. But in the reality, there are
really only two basic standards of which all pet foods
are measured, and that's adult and growth. That's just something
they keep in mind. Everything else is pretty much marketing.
Another marketing thing is where they're calling natural and organic.
(36:44):
The definition of natural adopted by AAFCO is very broad
and allows for artificially processed ingredients that most of us
would consider very unnatural included. The term organic, on the
other hand, has a very strict legal definition under the
USDA National Organic Program. However, some companies are a little
(37:07):
adapt at evading the intent of both of these rules,
you know, like maybe they're gonna put it in their
company names, such as Nature natural organic. That doesn't mean
the actual food is deemed organic by the USDA. Some
of the other marketing is ingredient quality claims. A lot
of the pet foods claim that they are human greed ingredients.
(37:29):
This is a completely meaningless term, according to this article,
which is why the pet food companies get away with
using it. The same applies to USDA inspected or similar phrases.
Meat is the first ingredient claim. That's just something out
there that is just something to think about. I mentioned
a little bit earlier. If you've got the raw chicken
(37:51):
and then you've got a stack of powder, you know
the powder is gonna be a little bit lighter, So
something to think about. Special ingredients claims they amount, So
these items actually present in the food are small. Sometimes
the items themselves maybe scraps and rejects from processors of
humans food. So that's something to think about. Pet food
marketing and advertising has basically just become an extremely sophisticated
(38:16):
over the last few years. It's very important to know
what all the hype is about and to make an
informed decision about what you feed your pets.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Christine, there are some things that we can do as
pet owners responsible pet owners and looking for a good
dog food. One thing I think it's important to mention
is always buy fresh food. Check the best if used
by date on the bag. If you're buying commercial dog food,
visually inspect the food. It shouldn't be dusty or mold,
the smell it. It shouldn't smell ransid or yucky. Store
(38:44):
the dry food in its original bag in a cool,
dry place. Keep the bag in an air tight container.
If your dog has an adverse response that could possibly
be related to food, withdraw the food immediately. Contact the
manufacture and report the event and tension. If your dog
is reluctant or slow to eat US food, it may
be ransid or oxidized. If you're using a commercial food. Also,
(39:09):
we will have a form at.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
The Pampered Pooch on our email us.
Speaker 9 (39:16):
Yeah, you can email.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Us at Pampered Pooch at petlife radio dot com. It's
how to grade your dog's food. You start with one
hundred points. Every bye product listing, you take away ten
if you're only if corn is listened to the top
five gradients, you subtract however many, and you go from
one hundred and then there's a grading scale A through
F just like a paper. It's really informative and very.
Speaker 8 (39:40):
Good and we both have used this and rely on
it for the nutrition and food we give to our pets.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah. Actually I passed that around to a company I
used to work at, and along with the copy that
I had at the time, it had on there like
some very popular brands, and it already had them grated. Yes,
and one of my coworkers what he fed his dog
was rated in an F and he ended up picking
(40:11):
a still very affordable commercial dog food. Again, it is
still commercial, so some of these instances that we've explained
today is still you know, applicable. But at least it
went from an F to an A plus and it
was very very affordable, so you know at least that
he's still some better nutritional value for the dog. And
(40:33):
I think what everybody's gonna ask us is what do
we use? Of course, right, I mean, I think that's
what everybody's probably gonna be thinking when they're listening to
this program. And VICKI and I do want to tell
you that we use doctor Harvey's Canine Miracle Food. It
is a freeze dried food that has.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Organic pre mix. Yeah, you had hot water to it,
and your protein source whether it's lamb, beef, turkey, eggs,
et cetera, and your oil. Well, and you've got a
complete meal. It's all human great ingredients.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Organic freeze dried, yeah, And I think that's the part
I personally like the best is you're not adding in
all those preservatives to keep it. You know, it's freeze dried,
so you're not going to have it at a manufacturer
that's got a lot of other different foods and that
aren't as good quality. It is a food that we
have to spend a little bit of time to make.
(41:25):
We both do batches. I think Vicky makes it for
like a week at a time or more. I make
mine like x pribably, spend between ten and twenty minutes
depending on what I'm making twice a week for mine.
And that's with four dogs. So and I don't freeze mine,
but you do.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yes, I do freeze mine, and so it lasts longer.
For more information and to find out about how what's
ingredients and all that, you can go to www. Dot
Simon s I M O N and the word A
N D Lulu's l o U S l o U
s dot com or email us and I'll be happy
to give you some information.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
And absolutely that's what we recommend the most. But either way,
just be in forum, check out what you're feeding your
dog and if it's not the best, even if you
go with commercial dog food, there could be something better.
And just a reminder, don't switch your dog's food unless
it is like doctor Harvey's is a little bit different.
But if you're switching from one commercial food to the next,
(42:24):
don't do that quickly. Make sure you mix that in.
I think they say at least for a week week right, just.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
A little bit of the little bit of the new.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
And so we just went to think again the API
for Animals dot org. We really appreciate the Animal Protection
Institute letting us use this material. It's a very important
subject that we wanted to let you know about. And
that's all the time we have for today.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Thanks and we look forward to seeing you in our
next episode.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com to
Speaker 5 (43:05):
S
You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Welcome to the Pampered Pooch on pet Life Radio. I'm
your host, Christine.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Latham, and I'm your co host, Speaking Nixon.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Today we are talking about what's really in pet food.
It's going to be a serious topic, but we'll try
to make it as fun as possible. But we want
to make sure that your pet is truly papered, and
it can be a papered pooch if you're feeding it poorly. Correct.
We will be back after a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
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St Hi, This is Pia Salvani, your host.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Bring your dog, tug, toy and treats, and get ready
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Having a rough day, longing for the dog days of summer.
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dog's day fun and rewarding every week on demand only
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Speaker 2 (02:57):
Welcome back to the Pampered pooch Amber. Pooch of the
week is MoU Cal McDowell and his nickname is Cal
for short. His dad and owner is Ian McDowell, thus
the name Cal is a Newfoundland Great Pyrenees mix. He's
one hundred and sixty pounds of fun and Cal just
(03:20):
turned four in March. Besides Cal, some of his other
nicknames are Bubba and Sweetpea, and his arrival story with
Ian is basically Cal was part of an accidental breeding
at the Borders. His dad is a prize winning Great
Pyrenees and his mother is a beautiful Newfoundland that was
(03:41):
in heat when she was born, except nobody realized it
until a few weeks later. Ian came over to take
pictures of the puppies every week and instantly fell in
love with Cal. Kyle loves going to Doggy Day here
and ann Arbor, Michigan. He loves to go to a
meet up group called the Troy All Dogs Playgroup, which
has been pretty terrific for both Cal and for Iroan.
(04:05):
Cal loves to go swimming in lakes and he likes
to play with his dad in the snow. His favorite
toy is a little black and bear and skunk stuffed
animal that Iron got for him, and his favorite food
is pretty much anything with peanut butter, occasionally a burger
off of the Girl and Cal is a cheese fiend.
(04:27):
He loves cheese. His favorite activity is going out in public.
He loves all of the attention that's showered upon him
with a dog like that. I'm sure he gets a
lot of attention to a big dog and they see him
coming through and everybody wants to pettymum. Sure his best trick.
He's very good at doing, you know, a poll or
shake and he gets lots of pamperine. He goes to
the groomer once a month, Iron brushes him daily, gives
(04:50):
him lots of hugs. I'm sure lots of other ways
at the pampering, especially if he's getting louts of cheese,
right Yeah. One funny story that Iroan wanted to share
is that when he was boarding at the dog daycare
one night, Ian was out walking two dogs out in
the front and col On, two of his greyhound friends,
were in the office, and they managed to get into
(05:11):
the kitchen area and proceeded to woof down his pizza
dinner that he had not touched yet. When Ian called
back the pizza place and reordered another, the guy asked
if Cal had ate the pizza. He guessed that it
had happened before. So, you know, cal sounds like a
great dog. He's very cute. Check out our blog or
(05:31):
our MySpace just check us out for the Pampered Pooch
you can see a picture of him. And also Ian
McDowell is a dog photographer. You can check out his
website at www dot fetch it photo dot com. You know, Vicky,
we're we're gonna spend today talking about what's in commercial
(05:53):
pet foods. When you go to the store, you can
buy buy a line, et cetera, basically just any kind
of food that you're not making a home.
Speaker 7 (06:00):
It's a big question for a lot of people, and
it's been a lot of controversy since there's been pet
food recalls and people are concerned what's going on with
the pet food where does it really come from?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So I think this is a good issue to address.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Today, absolutely, and with our show topic of you know,
pampering your pooch, it's really the basic place to pamper
your pooch.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you know, one of the things that I just
wanted to mention is a lot of the commercial advertising,
the manufacturers are really wanting to you to believe their
food has like the best ingredients, you know, like cold chickens,
it's the best cuts of beef, grains, all that kind
of inttition. But an article by API, Annimal Protection Institute,
(06:50):
is where we're getting our information from and they will
give you a you know, really great information. You can
find their website at the UWWAPI the number four animals
dot org and they've given us permission today to use
this article and we just want to know, thank the
Animal Protection Institute for this source of material. So again,
(07:14):
like the manufacturing, you know, they're in the advertising, they
want you to think that no matter what the best
ingredients are in the food that you're buying. It's a
fifteen billion dollar per year pet food industry. Of course
they're gonna want you to think the best. Yes, the
report we're gonna talk about explores the differences between what
consumers think they are buying and what they're actually getting.
(07:37):
What most consumers don't know is that pet food industry
is an extension of the human and agricultural industries. Basically,
pet food provides a convenient way for slarta, house and
other things that are considered unfit for human consumption and
other similar waste products to be turned into a profit
through pet food ways can include intestines, otters, heads, hooves,
(08:03):
and possibly disease and cancerous and all parts. That's not
what I want to feed my dog.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
No, definitely not, you know, Christine, I believe that everything
begins with nutrition for ourselves most importantly and for our pets.
If there is something that is not human grade ingredients
that I would not eat myself, why would I feed
it to my pets?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Absolutely, with all the by products and everything else that
goes in.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
There, you know, speaking of the byproducts. The Pet Food Institute,
it's the trade association of pet food manufacturers, it has
acknowledged that the use of byproducts and pet food, you know,
is basically an additional income for the processors and farmers.
I mean, if they're going to admit that, there's no
getting around that. Absolutely. One of the basic things we
(08:52):
want to start talking about is to look at a
label and be able to read the label and know
exactly what you're getting. More the food that you're buying,
the first indication is the name of the food is
basically the first thought of what's gonna be inside, what
the food content is. Some terms could be like all
(09:12):
or one hundred percent cannot be used if the product
contains more than one ingredient. There's a lot of times
they're using the ninety five percent rule. Unless you're excluding
the water, then that's gonna be supposedly ninety five percent
of whatever ingredient. That's pretty uncommon nowadays too. Basically, what
you're looking at more now is whenever the word dinner
(09:35):
is used, it's usually about twenty five percent of an ingredient,
and that usually excludes the water. If you're gonna probably
put it all together, it's gonna be about ten percent
of the dry weight. And I'm saying that because when
you think about and you're looking at and you're just
gonna say, oh, I'm feeding my dog chicken right, well,
depending on the word that's used with that chicken, you
(09:56):
might be, you know, actually feeding them ten percent chicken.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
When you think when you're thinking of a whole chicken,
or if you made it yourself, would be a whole chicken.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Absolutely. Now, whenever you see the word like recipe, plat
or entree formula, those are gonna be combinations of ingredients.
It could be as little as three percent of the
actual product weight.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So it could be three percent protein, right. Three percent
chicken out of one hundred percent is not a lot, right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So when you think you're being just chicken or you know,
maybe a few other things, you really need to look
at the wording a lot of times, like the word flavor.
That is again that doesn't mean there actually is beef.
It's just like something that tastes like beef. So you
gotta watch that. Also, the ingredient list, that's really an
important thing. The ingredients must be listed in descending order
(10:47):
of weight. You also have to think about that is
sometimes like if it's a when they have like a
chicken breast and it's heavier than a lot of powder,
that could have been like a ground up into powder.
Really like the content that weight of powder is going
to be a lot less than that piece of chicken.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So it's a little deceiving when you go by weight
as well. So that's just something to think about. You
might want to look on the label though, have a
guaranteed analysis. It's a very general guide to the composition
of the food. It's hard to specify exactly what that's
going to mean for your dog, but it's a general
guide only.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Christine there's also pet food standards and regulations. There's different
ways to do analysis. One is a standard chemical analysis
and that's used to make sure the food meets the
profiles for complete and balanced food. They also do chemical analysis,
but this does not address the digestibility, how good the
(11:47):
food tastes, the biological availability, or the nutrients in pet food. Therefore,
it's unreliable for deciding whether a food will provide an
animal with sufficient nutrients and pet food it kind of
exists in a bit of a regulatory vacuum. There are
laws on the books, but enforcement is a total different
(12:09):
story as far as as far as the pet food
is regulated.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And I think the recalls that we all know about,
yeah pretty attest to that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
One thing people need to know a little bit about
is how pet food is made, because if you're going
to make a wise decision on what kind of food
you want to give your dog, you need to understand
a little bit about how it's made, because knowing that
will help you determine what you really want to pick
for your food. Like dry food, dry food is mostly
(12:41):
made with the machine called an extruder. They put a
bunch of materials in and you know, mix it all up.
It goes through these like screws basically have an extruder
and depending on how the product's supposed to be made
into know, like the size or shape or whatever, everyone's
(13:03):
through those screws and nozzles kind of like a deck,
like a cake decorating, you know, when you have like different.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Tops.
Speaker 7 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Different, Yeah, so like different kinds of And if a
manufacturer is making all kinds of different foods and they're
gonna use the same equipment, so you might think you're
going to have you know, one like this is what
you're buying agin you know, baked food, let's say, right,
But if they're making at the same location like this,
(13:34):
really you know, bad food, it's gonna be made most like,
I mean, organic could be a little bit different because
with organic terminology they have to be like they have
to follow a little bit more specific roles. But we'll
just say something that's it's called natural or premium or whatever.
You know, it's made with the same equipment. I'm sorry,
but no manufacturing facility is going to have that equipment
(13:57):
completely clean out before they switched to you a different brand.
So it's something that people need to think about and
although like the dog food is going through those machines
and they're gonna get cooked. The cooking kills bacteria and
the ingredients themselves, but the final product can pick up
more bacteria during like the drying, the coatine, and the packaging.
(14:21):
Some experts worn that getting dry food wet can actually
allow the bacteria on the surface to multiply and make petsick.
They recommend do not mix dry food with water, milk,
canned food, or other liquids. I never do that until now.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I mean, how many people I know that wet their
dog food with water, that add canned food to their
dry dog food. I mean, the fact that it could
really increase the bacteria is frightening.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Absolutely. You know, this article goes which can go online
again and find it goes a little bit more into
how wet food is made. It's it's actually a little
bit better than how dry food is made. So that's good.
We're not gonna go real far into that right now.
We're gonna also talk a little bit about comparing like
the food types here. When you're actually comparing the food types,
(15:12):
that means you want to compare your dry food to
your wet food. You might look at a bag of
you know, dry food and say, okay, well says you
know this like ten percent protein, and the canned food
says five percent. Email us or check out our blog
and you email us at Pampered Pooch at petlife radio
dot com. We can give you a calculation that's going
(15:35):
to tell you with that wet and dry food, you
can't just take It's not apples to apples, right, So
we can give you a calculation, or you can go
online to this article and that'll show you how you
can compare apples to apples. So it could actually be
that the five percent canned food has a better protein
source than that ten percent dry food.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
We'll be of these messages. Stay tuned, give your dog
some thought.
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hardfarming stories and informative articles from local and national pet experts.
Eh Pet Planet Magazine offers Operation Planet Rescue, helping rescued
pets find due homes, and it's available at five hundred
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Speaker 4 (18:08):
Pets can be a wonderful addition to your life because
they're a member of the family. Keeping them healthy and
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with veterinarian media consultant and veterinarian doctor Bernadine Cruz. Whether
you have a dog, cat, reptile or rabbit, you'll find
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(18:29):
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Speaker 6 (18:39):
Let's Talk Past, Let's done, Pets talk about radio, Heat
Life Radio, pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Okay, now we're basically asked. The most important part, in
my opinion is the actual ingredients in the food. Well,
a lot of people might not know. When I found
this out, I was completely grossed out. Is that a
lot of times the animal protein and pet food is cattle, swine, chickens, lambs,
(19:20):
other animals. When they're slaughtered, their lean muscle tissue is
trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption, along with
a few other organs that people like to eat. But
about fifty percent of every food animal does not get
used in human food. And whatever remains like the carcass, heads, feet, bone,
blood and tustins, along spleens, livers, ligaments, all that gross stuff,
(19:44):
I mean, even unborn babies.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
I know, it's so upsetting.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
All of that other stuff not generally consumed by humans
is what's used in pet food. I wait to know.
That doesn't mean that every pet food out there uses this,
Please don't think that. But this is just so that
you know that a lot of standard brands out there
could you know, using this. So it's just that if
people know what the mass market is producing, then you
(20:10):
can find something that's better. But so all that's in there,
I mean, and whatever the pet it's or say, like
the color whatever eight I mean, animal feed, fertilizer, all
kinds of stuff like that is put in there as well.
There's byproducts, which we talked a little bit about. Nutritional
quality of by products meals, digest et cetera. Can vary
(20:33):
from bash to batch. Even some of the better brand
of pet foods, like maybe something that says their super
premium natural et cetera. They you know what I mean,
They could use some of the by products as well.
Can doesn't mean that all of them are. Check your
label and make sure you don't see any of that warning.
(20:53):
Some of the by products the meats can be leftover
scraps like for poultry, can be bone. So what you
think is a chicken bry product is you know, skeletons basically,
which is really gross. A small amount left on the bones.
I mean, that's not enough to constitute. Again, you think
your feed of chicken, it could be three percent chicken.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Right the rest bones or backs or exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
And meat meals, poultry mills, all those good things that
are called meals are common ingredients and pet foods. And
the term meal means that these materials are not used
fresh but have been rendered, So keep that in mind.
And what's rendering. Rendering is basically a process for industrial
use to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from
(21:41):
the fat blubber, et cetera, by melting it. In other words,
it's like raw materials are being dumped into a large
vat and boiled for several hours. Rendering separates fat removes
water and supposedly kills bacteria. However, this high temperature can
alter or destroy any kind of natural enzymes and proteins
found in those rocks.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Christine, let's talk about vegetable protein. The amount of grain
and vegetable products using pet food has really risen. Plant
products now replace a large portion of what used to
be the meat in the earliest commercial pet foods. Most
dry dog foods contain a large amount of cereal grain
or starchy vegetables that give it texture. These are high
(22:23):
carbohydrate plant products, and they provide a cheap source of
energy for the pet the quote unquote right, the rest
of it's just calories. Gluten meals are also high protein
extracts from which most of the carbohydrate has been removed.
Speaker 9 (22:37):
They use these to boost.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Protein percentages without expensive animal source ingredients. Corn gluten meals
another one. It's the most commonly used. Gluten is also used.
It creates those shapes like cuts, bites, chunk shreds, flakes,
and slices, and it can be a thickener for gravy
in the wet food. In most cases, food containing vegetable
proteins are among the lowest and poorer quality of the
(23:02):
foods you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Know, like you do you remember when we used to
buy like, you know, dog food, dry dog food you
can just get over the counter. Do you remember when
you would open the bag and you would smell this
weird odor? Yes, well, yep, you know that's actually it's
a rendered animal fat that causes that smell, or sometimes
the vegetable fats and oils deemed an enable for humans.
(23:27):
They use those fats and they spray it directly onto
the extruded kibbles and pellets and make it otherwise bland
or distasteful products palatable, you know, make s your dog
want to eat it. The fat also acts as a
binding agent, which makes the manufacturers add other flavors such
as animal digests and which is made from like processed byproducts.
(23:51):
So they add those other flavors onto that to make
it better than your dog want to eat it, because
probably without all that, your dog would be like exactly.
So if you've never known what that smell was before,
that's the smell growth.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Another era that we want to talk about is what
happened to the nutrients?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
You know, if there's they're doing all this and they're
say it's nutritious, where where are the nutrients?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Well, Cooking and other processing of the meat and the
bright products using pet food can greatly diminish their nutritional value.
Although the cooking increases the digestibility of certain greens and
starchy vegetables, but it can also diminish, you know, some
of the nutrients. To make pet food more nutritionoush pet
food manufacturers must fortify it with vitamins and minerals. Proteins
(24:40):
are especially vulnerable to heat and can become damaged or
denatured when cooked. That's why some people are now switching
to that raw raw diet. Right dry food ingredients are
cooked twice, first during the rendering and again in the extruder.
The problems are much more common with canned or hominge foods.
(25:02):
Altered proteins can contribute to food intolerances, food allergies, and
inflammatory bow disease. Something to think about, definitely. Another thing
they're doing is they're adding in processed like additives into
the pet food. Many chemicals are added to commercial pet
foods to improve the tasteability, et cetera. We talked about
that a little bit earlier. These additives provide no nutritional value.
(25:25):
It's basically like to help like prevent water and fat
from separating. They put in antioxidants to prevent the fat
from turning ranch in, and artificial collars and flavors to
make the product more attractable. So when you think you
see these additives on your ingredient lists, it might not
seem like quite a big deal, except for when you
stop and think about what they're trying to do with
(25:47):
that additives. And if they have to put anything in
my dog's food to keep the water in the fat
like from separating, that's probably a little strange and maybe
I don't want to eat it, And this is probably
telling us a lot about what people food we eat too. Yeah, definitely,
that's a different topic, not for our show.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Some of the preservatives that are added to the ingredients
are raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be
added by the manufacturer, So that's something to keep in mind.
Like your list might say the additives that are in
your dog food, but if you have like I don't know,
like the chicken, it's not going to tell you what
all the additives was in that chicken, all the hormones
(26:27):
and everything else. So that's something to keep in mind.
Because manufacturers need to ensure that dried dog foods have
a very long shelf life, typically twelve months. They add
in these different additives to make sure that the food
remains edible through shipping in storage. I mean, all this
different additives is not good. There's potentially cancer causing agents
(26:51):
at relatively low levels. But the use of these chemicals
and pet foods has not been thoroughly studied or studied
for long time and build up of these agents, so
ultimately it can be harmful and we don't know yet, Vicky.
One thing I want to tell our listeners about is
some of the potential containinants and pet food. We given
(27:11):
the types of things manufacturers put in pet food, it's
not really surprising that bad things are going to happen
sometimes our pet food, you cause, would tell us that
ingredientses and pet food are often highly contaminated with a
wide variety of toxic substances, and some of them what
we want to tell you about are like bacteria, slaughtered
animals others that have died because of disease in your
(27:34):
natural causes are sources of meat, byproducts, rendered meals, et cetera.
All that can be suspect to Salmonella equal i. BAB
bacteria obviously is not good, and while cooking the protein
may kill the bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins
that some bacteria produce during their growth, so that's something
(27:58):
to keep in mind. These toxins can still survive processing.
They can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do
not test their products for bacterial endotoxins. Because sick or
dead animals can be processed as pet foods, the drugs
that were used to treat or euthanize them may still
be present in the end product as well. One of
(28:18):
the other things besides bacteria is micotoxins, which is basically
from mold or fungi. Pet food ingredients that are most
likely to be contaminated with microtoxins are grains such as
wheat and corn and fish meal also have a chemical residue.
Pesticides and fertilizers may leave residue on plants and products.
Grains that are condemned for human consumption by the us
(28:41):
DA due to residue may legally be used without limitation,
and pet food they really need to up the standards
but again, if you're talking to people that don't believe
that a pet is an you know, companion or a
family member, they're thinking that they're just you know, something
that you own. It's hard to change the mind of
some GMOs. Genetically modified plant products are also concerned. This
(29:08):
is a few years old data, but in two thousand
and six, eighty nine percent of the planted area of soybeans,
eighty three percent of cotton, and sixty one percent of
corn and the US were genetically modified varieties. You know, again,
we're not.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Getting the true source of grain and vegetables that we need.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Right There's some other things that could be in your
pet food again, take a look online. Check that out.
And one thing to remember that when things do go
wrong with pet food and there are recalls, some of
them are widely publicized, but quite a few or not.
Something to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Christine, there's a lot of different nutrition related diseases that
come along with this, and we could talk about that
in a minute. I think it's really important that we
talk to our vets about maybe some of the food
you know, you may be get beating a prescription diet
from your vet. I have plenty of clients who do
get prescription diets and some of the ingredients I question
(30:10):
and they've questioned two. So although we always encourage you
to consult your vet, what I would do is ask
your vet about some of the ingredients on a prescription diet.
If you see corn meal, toreine, a preservative, fo ox quin,
ask your vet what that means. Ask them to go
through it with you so that you can make a
(30:32):
better educated decision. That's what we're doing here today, right Christine,
trying to help people make a better educated decision.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, you know, well you said that again. I kind
of think of vets like doctors. There's a lot of
good doctors out there, you know, there's a lot of
malpractice suits. Yes, so just take that into mind. I
know when I first got my dogs and people would
ask me like, oh, what do you feed your dogs?
I'm like, oh, I got them really good stuff. You know,
(31:01):
this is what the vet recommended or this is prescription.
And you know, I'm paying some good money for what
I'm feeding them, you know, and I'm thinking I'm doing
so good. But really, when I learned a lot more
looking at this, and I don't mean this negatively to
any what anyone else is doing. I'm just explaining how
I felt, you know, and when I really learned more
about it and saw that no, just because the VET
(31:22):
recommended it or just because it was prescription does not
mean it was good. And one of our mutual friends
pointed out to me and said, you know, they still
make that at a commercial manufacturer. With where they're making food.
It costs a lot less and it's made at the
same place with the same equipment. And quite a good
point because when there was pet food recalls at the time,
(31:42):
my food wasn't on the list, but food that was
associated with it was, So it's like, oh, good thing.
So something to keep in mind it is.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
And I've also had several vets question what I feed
and if you're going to tell me what I feed
human great ingredients, organic freeze, dried herbs, vitamins and a
protein is not as good as a prescription diet that's
made to sit on a shelf for twelve months. I'm
going to beg to differ with you, right, So, just
(32:11):
like with us in our own healthcare and our own
nutrition and health, we need to be the voice for
our pambered pooches.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Absolutely because we don't want them to have any kind
of nutrition you know, related diseases.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Which you know, the idea that one pet food can
provide all the nutrition to our pets that will ever
need for the rest of their entire life could be
a myth. There's diets of dogs and cats that today
are far from what they used to be, the meat
based diets at where our animals originally came from. There's
(32:47):
a lot of unpleasant results with grain based, processed urine
year out diets, which would be urinary track disease, kidney disease,
dental disease, obesity, chronic digestive problems, thyroidism, and heart disease.
So there are many nutritional problems that come along with
some of the way that pet food is processed in
(33:12):
some of the ways that shortcuts are made. And I
think it's important that we give our animals a complete diet.
And again, our health starts with our nutrition, so it's
really important to check everything out and look at the
bottom line.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I think. So, you know, along the way, they've realized
that a lot of the INGREDI you know, certain ingredients
aren't really good to use. But who knows how long
it'll be that. In the meantime, research will show that
there are other ingredients that are still being used that
aren't good for our dogs. You know, a lot of
dogs have reactions to additives. Others can be a problem,
(33:50):
you know, a result of contamination. Like we talked about before,
mind us have allergies that are in a lot of
the commercial pet foods. The bottom line is is that
diets compose primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meats
are not as nutritious or as safe as you would
expect for your dog.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Right And we're not talking about the most expensive dog food.
We're not talking about that or the most expensive cant food.
We're talking about check the ingredients. There's plenty of cost
effective meals, including homemade meals, that your pets can benefit from.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Okay, another thing we talked about a little bit earlier
is if a manufacturer is manufacturing different types of dog food,
et cetera at the same place, with the same equipment,
but one of the things is kind of like a
little pet food industry secret is what they call copacking.
Copacking is when one company makes the food but puts
someone else's label on it. Kind of a little tricky, actually,
(34:46):
and what that I mean. I don't want to use
any names out there of any kind of companies, but
one that you might think is a low end dog food, like.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
Let's say ABC low end dog food.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah. Really, like it's made by the same manufacturer. Now
it's being labeled because XYZ premium dog food. Yeah. So
something to consider. The big question kind of raised by
this arrangement as whether or not there's any real difference
between the expensive premium brands and the lowest generics. The
recalled products all contain the suspect ingredients wheat, gluten, some
(35:20):
of the recent recalls anyway, but they all also contain
byproducts of some kind, including specified broad buy products such
as liver or giblets. Again, we're talking about mass industry
here and not every pet food, et cetera. This is
just a fyi so that you know what to you know,
your educated consumer. Whatever the difference is between the cheap
(35:43):
and the high end food, one thing is clear, though,
the purchase price of pet food does not always determine
whether a pet food is good or bad, or even safe. However,
the very cheapest foods can be counted on to have
the very cheapest ingredients. Please keep that in mind. What
they're kind of doing now. We talked to little bit
also on was the marketing like a marketing magic of
(36:03):
all the pet food pet food companies out there, what
they're doing now is they're doing like niche claims, pretty much,
whatever you need, there's a specialty food that's designed just
for your dog. You know, whether it's because they have
a tender stomach, arthritis, whatever it is, there's going to
(36:23):
be a food out there that says that it's the
best food for you. But in the reality, there are
really only two basic standards of which all pet foods
are measured, and that's adult and growth. That's just something
they keep in mind. Everything else is pretty much marketing.
Another marketing thing is where they're calling natural and organic.
(36:44):
The definition of natural adopted by AAFCO is very broad
and allows for artificially processed ingredients that most of us
would consider very unnatural included. The term organic, on the
other hand, has a very strict legal definition under the
USDA National Organic Program. However, some companies are a little
(37:07):
adapt at evading the intent of both of these rules,
you know, like maybe they're gonna put it in their
company names, such as Nature natural organic. That doesn't mean
the actual food is deemed organic by the USDA. Some
of the other marketing is ingredient quality claims. A lot
of the pet foods claim that they are human greed ingredients.
(37:29):
This is a completely meaningless term, according to this article,
which is why the pet food companies get away with
using it. The same applies to USDA inspected or similar phrases.
Meat is the first ingredient claim. That's just something out
there that is just something to think about. I mentioned
a little bit earlier. If you've got the raw chicken
(37:51):
and then you've got a stack of powder, you know
the powder is gonna be a little bit lighter, So
something to think about. Special ingredients claims they amount, So
these items actually present in the food are small. Sometimes
the items themselves maybe scraps and rejects from processors of
humans food. So that's something to think about. Pet food
marketing and advertising has basically just become an extremely sophisticated
(38:16):
over the last few years. It's very important to know
what all the hype is about and to make an
informed decision about what you feed your pets.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Christine, there are some things that we can do as
pet owners responsible pet owners and looking for a good
dog food. One thing I think it's important to mention
is always buy fresh food. Check the best if used
by date on the bag. If you're buying commercial dog food,
visually inspect the food. It shouldn't be dusty or mold,
the smell it. It shouldn't smell ransid or yucky. Store
(38:44):
the dry food in its original bag in a cool,
dry place. Keep the bag in an air tight container.
If your dog has an adverse response that could possibly
be related to food, withdraw the food immediately. Contact the
manufacture and report the event and tension. If your dog
is reluctant or slow to eat US food, it may
be ransid or oxidized. If you're using a commercial food. Also,
(39:09):
we will have a form at.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
The Pampered Pooch on our email us.
Speaker 9 (39:16):
Yeah, you can email.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Us at Pampered Pooch at petlife radio dot com. It's
how to grade your dog's food. You start with one
hundred points. Every bye product listing, you take away ten
if you're only if corn is listened to the top
five gradients, you subtract however many, and you go from
one hundred and then there's a grading scale A through
F just like a paper. It's really informative and very.
Speaker 8 (39:40):
Good and we both have used this and rely on
it for the nutrition and food we give to our pets.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah. Actually I passed that around to a company I
used to work at, and along with the copy that
I had at the time, it had on there like
some very popular brands, and it already had them grated. Yes,
and one of my coworkers what he fed his dog
was rated in an F and he ended up picking
(40:11):
a still very affordable commercial dog food. Again, it is
still commercial, so some of these instances that we've explained
today is still you know, applicable. But at least it
went from an F to an A plus and it
was very very affordable, so you know at least that
he's still some better nutritional value for the dog. And
(40:33):
I think what everybody's gonna ask us is what do
we use? Of course, right, I mean, I think that's
what everybody's probably gonna be thinking when they're listening to
this program. And VICKI and I do want to tell
you that we use doctor Harvey's Canine Miracle Food. It
is a freeze dried food that has.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Organic pre mix. Yeah, you had hot water to it,
and your protein source whether it's lamb, beef, turkey, eggs,
et cetera, and your oil. Well, and you've got a
complete meal. It's all human great ingredients.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Organic freeze dried, yeah, And I think that's the part
I personally like the best is you're not adding in
all those preservatives to keep it. You know, it's freeze dried,
so you're not going to have it at a manufacturer
that's got a lot of other different foods and that
aren't as good quality. It is a food that we
have to spend a little bit of time to make.
(41:25):
We both do batches. I think Vicky makes it for
like a week at a time or more. I make
mine like x pribably, spend between ten and twenty minutes
depending on what I'm making twice a week for mine.
And that's with four dogs. So and I don't freeze mine,
but you do.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yes, I do freeze mine, and so it lasts longer.
For more information and to find out about how what's
ingredients and all that, you can go to www. Dot
Simon s I M O N and the word A
N D Lulu's l o U S l o U
s dot com or email us and I'll be happy
to give you some information.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
And absolutely that's what we recommend the most. But either way,
just be in forum, check out what you're feeding your
dog and if it's not the best, even if you
go with commercial dog food, there could be something better.
And just a reminder, don't switch your dog's food unless
it is like doctor Harvey's is a little bit different.
But if you're switching from one commercial food to the next,
(42:24):
don't do that quickly. Make sure you mix that in.
I think they say at least for a week week right, just.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
A little bit of the little bit of the new.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
And so we just went to think again the API
for Animals dot org. We really appreciate the Animal Protection
Institute letting us use this material. It's a very important
subject that we wanted to let you know about. And
that's all the time we have for today.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Thanks and we look forward to seeing you in our
next episode.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com to
Speaker 5 (43:05):
S
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