Eddie's Blog
About Eddie: I'm a dog on a mission. With your help, I'm going to change legislation in the U.S. to make sure chemicals are safe before they're put on the market. Read more or contact Eddie.
Blogroll:
View posts by tag:
Search the blog:
Recently in Eddie's world:
Pet Food Confidential: Corn for dinner, AGAIN?
Now we move on from something there often isn't enough of in pet food (protein) to something that there tends to be way too much of: grain.
The majority of the grain that goes into pet food is considered unfit for human consumption. Pet food manufacturers like grains because they're a cheap source of calories, but those calories are mostly empty.
Pet food manufacturers can list each type of grain in lots of different ways, depending on which part of the grain they're using and how it's prepared, but whichever way you slice it it's still grain. Most pet foods have more than one grain-based ingredient.
Corn
Possible ingredient listings:
- corn bran
- corn feed meal
- cracked corn
- ground corn
- corn grits
- corn flour
- hominy feed
- maltodextrins
- this list could go on for days!
Some humans have pointed out how much of the human diet now is based on corn -- corn syrup, corn starch, and a whole host of other corn-based ingredients are used in human food.
Well, the same is true of dry pet food, where corn is often the #1 ingredient. But for us, it's even worse. Cats and dogs haven't evolved to eat corn. Pets on a dry-food diet face the same corny dinner, day in and day out, their whole lives long. That's not good for us pups, but it's especially bad for cats, since they're not built to eat any grains at all. Their digestive systems are built for meat, meat, meat, but most of them are getting corn, corn, corn instead. No wonder I know so many fat cats! (No offense, guys. And of course I don't mean Cleo, who is perfectly svelte.)
Wheat
Possible ingredient listings:
- wheat bran
- wheat flour
- wheat germ meal
- wheat mill run
- wheat shorts or middlings
- wheat red dog
- defatted wheat germ meal
One pet food company poses an interesting question on their website:
When was the last time you heard or saw a wild dog or cat hunt for a loaf of bread?
Clearly he didn't know me back in my counter-surfing days! Eventually my human mom got a bread box. But they're right. Wheat isn't any better for us four-legged types than corn.
Brewer's Rice
Brewer's rice is pure by-product. It's the small, broken grains left over after rice has been processed. It has basically no nutritional value -- brewer's rice is pure and simple empty calories.
Other grains
Some other grains and grain by-products you might see on your pet food labels include barley, grain sorghum, oats, any kind of screenings, aspirated grain fractions, and brewer's dried grains.
Look, it's not that grains are always bad for us. There's room for some healthy, nutritious grains in most good doggy diets. But there are other, healthier options when it comes to pet food. These days, plenty of companies make grain-free and low-grain pet foods.
Photo by admitchell08.
Thanks for the compliment, Edmund! I do try to eat the right things.
Interesting post. Mum has long suspected my food is full of rubbish and she wasn't happy to read this. At least some hoomans are doing something about this and raising awareness!
check out realfood4pets.com. my mom goes to the Pet Deli and buys me all kinds of goodied no grains allowed. It is in Fort lauderdale area. They do shipsome things. Lulu the cat
Always check the first ingredients listed!
Eddie, have you done a "how to read your pet's food label" post before? that'd be a good one. Or a good tutorial video.
Also, artificial preservatives and coloring are icky. Not only do wild animals not ravage wheat fields, they don't hunt down science lab experiments.
I switched my puppy from food that was full of corn and other grains because he was lethargic and had runny poop atleast once a day!
I put him on a new food called Orijen and his energy level skyrocketed and his poop solidified!!!
I haven't seen much research on this particular brand of food, but it seems good when I read the ingredient list. Does anyone have any info on it???
My human started buying Blue Buffalo dog food for my friend Pickle the Pit Bull, after the pet food recall of 2007. We lost our friend, Tucker, to kidney failure at that time.
I think Blue Buffalo dog food tastes great, and it doesn't make me throw up like cat food does. There's no wheat, soy, or CORN in the ingredients, and the label says that all the ingredients come from the USA.
Thanks for the article, Eddie - this is a lesson that I've been learning the hard way. My humans have been giving me some wet food each day and then letting me snack on the dry freely... then they wondered why I was so thirsty all the time - turns out that Science Diet's wet and dry for cats are both loaded with corn and wheat products. Well I started having a problem with urinary tract infections, and from the research they've done, it seems that these carbs may be to blame. I'm on the market for a new wet food, the meatier the better. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks Eddie! My mommy has been looking for the best kibble for me, but she's having a hard time finding one. I'm a 9 month old Rottweiler and I eat 6 cups of food every day! We tried "Blue" but it gives me too much gas so we're looking for something that works better with my growing system. If you could give my mommy some recommendations for good kibble it would give her more time to play with me! Thanks :)
Mom is SO glad to see you address this! My three kitty buddies, Gwen, Sarah, and Jack are all raw fed kitties, like I am (though I am a dog!!). The difference is HUGE! Mom tries hard to make sure we have a species appropriate diet by feeding us the whole prey model, with meaty bones, and organs in basic prey model porportions each week (we get fed daily, but a whole prey is divided up throughout the week). Fresh rabbit, chicken, turkey, and organ meals of liver, kidneys and heart. We are so sleek, soft, and our teeth are white as newborns! Even our vets are impressed!
Dry cat food, though, is as addicting (and as bad!!!) as fresh baked whole wheat bread is for mom (she's gluten intolerant and gets really sick!). Gwen was raised on dry cat food, his breeder felt it was best for him. But a 25 lb cat quickly becomes a 35lb cat on that junk, with no energy, dry coat, and smelly breath (not to mention the cat box!!!). Jack, Sarah, and I have been on raw since we could eat solid foods. Mom's human kids really appreciate it, too, since they are the ones who have 'poop duty'!, lol. There's hardly anything to pick up when we are feed right, and our bodies can actually absorb what I eat! But, if I am a bad dog, and go steal even a little chicken feed, I end up itching REAL bad, and turn PINK on my tummy and between my toes! So for me, at least, ANY grain is BAD! The occasional carrot goes right through me, and doesn't offer me any nutritional support at all, but it's fun to eat them, lol.
Anyway, I am excited (can't you tell?) to see Eddie bring this important issue up! I'd recommend that you check out http://www.rawfed.com/ and the Yahoo groups RawFeeding and RawCat, to learn more about feeding your friends the RIGHT way, the way their bodies NEED to be fed, to be in optimum health.
Loki, and his kitty gang
Orijen is a great food, good choice Lauren! I love the fish flavor my mom feeds me for treats. They make dog, puppy, senior and cat chow too! Sampson, you might try Evo my favorite is the red meat. I used to have an itchy rash when I came home from the shelter, but my mom found out I was allergic to Soy and probably corn too. As soon as I switched to Evo it went away and now I feel great. It can get expensive and hard to find (same with Orijen) but it's worth it. Wellness Core just came out with a fish blend and they have a chicken kind on the market as well. It is a little less expensive and easier to find. I've also heard that Solid Gold Bark at the Moon is a great choice, but I've had a hard time finding it in stores, you could order online. If anyone knows of less expensive grain-free food and treats I'm on the lookout. I just got a new sister, Fresca so now there's too of us hungry, high-energy dogs in the house we'd like to have some money left over for toys of course =)
Good article, Eddie! My sister and I have been eating dry cat food our whole lives, and we won't eat anything else. We don't even like fish or chicken. Our mommy has been trying to find a dry food to switch us to that isn't full of grains or meat by-products, but she's had a hard time finding one in stores. I noticed you said in your article that there are plenty of grain-free or low-grain pet foods. Can you give us some of the names so our mommy can look for them? Thanks!
Lola
Wow Lola you need to read Dr. Hodgkins work. She says that there is NO FORM of dry food that is okay for a cat to eat. It doesn't matter that it doesn't have grains, the very process of high heat processing and extrusion makes your cat die a slow death. Just ditch it. That goes for all those so-called "natural" and "organic" kibbles. Kibble is bad, period. It is species-inappropriate. Cats and dogs are carnivores that need to eat meat to survive not cereals, not veggies. Cats especially are obligbate carnivores and canot digest carbs in any form.
1、We have excellent customer service team, which could solve online various problems about the Air Jordan we provide in 24 hours.
2、We have perfect Logistics system, which guarantees all the ordered Nike Air Jordan shoes are delivered to you in good shape as fast as possible.
3、We have strong manufacture plant, which are able to provide various models, sizes & colors of Air Jordan shoes ranging from 1 to 23 according to what you request.
4、We have the first-rate after-sale service , in case that the Jordan Shoes products that you receive come across some quality problems, then, please do not worry, we are abound to refund all the payment in one week,. Also, the products can be changed in one me month.The main products we specialize in are showed as follows
Our Jordan Shoes:
Air Jordan 7
Air Jordan 8
Air Jordan 9
Air Jordan 10
Air Jordan 11
Air Jordan 12
Jordan 7
Jordan 8
Jordan 9
Jordan 10
Jordan 11
Jordan 12
All online game's gold pieces supplied on site:
runescape gold
buy runescape gold
cheap runescape gold
runescape money
buy runescape items
runescape items
runescape accounts
runescape power leveling
runescape powerleveling
cheap runescape gold
runescape money
buy runescape items
runescape items
runescape accounts
runescape power leveling
runescape powerleveling
cheap runescape gold
runescape items
runescape accounts
buy runescape accounts
cheap runescape accounts
runescape power leveling
rs2
runescape 2
Runescape weapons
runescape lvl
buy runescape gp
runescape items
runescape accounts
runescape power leveling
dofus kamas
dofus gold
dofus items
dofus jol
MapleStory Mesos
mabinogi gold
buy mabinogi gold
cheap mabinogi gold
mabinogi money
warhammer gold
warhammer items
warhammer accounts
warhammer videos
warhammer money
warhammer power leveling
warhammer powerleveling
warhammer cd key
warhammer time cart
our websites is an professional store for runescape,warhammer online,mabinogi,dofus games gold,items,money,accounts,powerleveling,questqoint,runes and some other goods with fast delivery and world class service
Post new comment