What’s so bad about generic “meat”?
If a pet food label says “meat” instead of the specific source of meat like beef, lamb or chicken, and so on, then beware. You don’t know where the meat has come from, or what kind of animal it was.
If the meat is not named, it can be literally anything, including animals that didn’t make it to the slaughterhouse and died on the way (The infamous 4-D meats, dead, dying, diseased and disabled.)
It can be road kill. It can be cats or other dogs, picked up after they’ve been euthanized at the pound or shelter.
Real &
Simple
The best dry dog food contains named meat – like beef or chicken. Not meat by-product meal.
Grains, if they’re even in the food, should be waaaay down on the ingredients list.
And the fat source in the food should be named as well, not simply listed as “fats” – otherwise the food could actually contain USED RESTAURANT GREASE.
The best dog food brands
Acana from Champion
Amicus from Horizon
Before Grain from Merrick
Blue Buffalo Chicken and Brown Rice Small Bite Adult
Fromm
Go! Sensitivity
Holistic Precise
Life’s Abundance
NOW!
Orjen from Champion
Pinnacle
Wellness Core
*There are many more excellent products; these are just a few. They’re ranked as the best because they contained named meats and fats, and don’t contain dangerous preservatives, chemicals and unnecessary sweeteners.
We can thank RENDERING for this dog’s breakfast
We all agree: food has to be processed; it has to be reasonably affordable; it has to be safe and it has to be nutritional. These factors all depend on HOW the ingredients in dog food are processed. Most pet foods start with a process called rendering, and this is where the problems begin.
Except that quality control is a huge problem. Anything that’s deemed too horrible for human consumption goes into the big grinders in rendering plants, to start the process.
This includes:
- putrid flesh – dead, diseased and dying animal flesh – not allowed in our food (the pet food industry calls this the 3Ds of supply)
- parts of animals not allowed in our food including hide, bones, digestive system and it contents, brain, feces and udders, hooves, chicken beaks… the list goes on
- roadkill (which may have been drying in the sun for some time)
- pets that have been euthanized, including the sodium pentobarbital used to kill them at shelters.
- rotten meat from local grocery stores (Styrofoam packaging and all)
If the label says:
by-product, meal, tallow, animal fat, or grease
It’s probably from a rendering plant, and the quality can’t be trusted. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Some of the worst dog foods…
…are the ones you see advertised on TV.
Poor quality dog food brands
BENEFUL BY PURINA
EUKANUBA
HILL’S SCIENCE DIET ORIGINAL
IAMS
KIBBLES N BITS
OL ROY From WALMART
PEDIGREE
PURINA DOG CHOW
