Corn gluten meal, revisited

Interesting, yes, but perhaps simply a justification for the use of corn gluten meal from such a reputable company?
 
IMO, there are better ways to balance the PH than by using corn gluten meal.

I see what you are saying, but there are no other alternatives to make the ash content lower which is another culprit in urinary crystals,etc. 

And Eagle Pack writes about Corn AND Rice Gluten:

Again we used functional food ingredients. Our formulas are heavily meat meal based. Meat tends to be high in ash and magnesium, which may cause crystals in a small percentage of animals. These two protein concentrates are low in ash and magnesium, and thus help to reduce crystals.

Every Eagle Pack formula for cats has corn gluten meal in it.

schlep--I believe it is for the reason of acidifying the pH of the urine while not adding alot of ash content.

You could show the actual lab reports and chemical analyses, and a step-by-step link between the inclusion of corn gluten and its benefits, in everyday language and people will still assume it's just the evil big corporation making cheap food to poison your pet. That corn gluten is evil, that any grain is evil, that anything from a dog food manufacturer is evil. That is because they have an unbending faith.
 
Of course, you knew that someone would find your report something suitable to poop on. I, as always, enjoy the tidbits you share.
 

Keep in mind we're talking about corn gluten meal being beneficial to cats. I haven't seen any scientific studies claiming any benefits of corn gluten meal in dogs.

You could teach me something, then. Is there a scientific study that shows that corn gluten has not helped dogs? I am specifically not talking about the lean body wasting where they fed a dog less than 12 % protein on just gluten, as I do not believe that gluten should be the only source of protein. They were starving the dog to show the effects of one particular molecular compound.
 

I spent like 5 hours in the NCSU library/archive section (I do have a life [8D]) looking for studies from the vet school and anything for that matter, and most of the studies were done for cats and it's acidifying properties.  However, I did find something (and if I can fix my scanner and figure out how to get it on here I will) that showed that it's beneficial in balancing calcium to phosphorus and aiding in coat growth by adding extra amino acids and energy to a diet paired with animal proteins for dogs.  Most importantly, I didn't find anything saying it is harmful unless it is fed as the ONLY protein source.

I also want to add that through my researching, I have found that the formulation of dog food is more than just high-quality ingredients; it's the BALANCE of nutrients that is essential.  We were discussing in the lab the other day about how many holistic companies are forgeting this and causing the foods to have nutrients in excess that are simply passed through in waste.  We are also in the process of testing the foods I listed in a survey in an earlier thread, and are noticing that their ratio of proteins to carbs to vit/minerals are way off due to the excess of each.  Will report back when we get a finalized analysis.

We are also in the process of testing the foods I listed in a survey in an earlier thread, and are noticing that their ratio of proteins to carbs to vit/minerals are way off due to the excess of each. Will report back when we get a finalized analysis.

 
 That report should be very interesting. Many companies exceed the AAFCO guidelines; I never thought that could be a problem.
 
 

 
We are also in the process of testing the foods I listed in a survey in an earlier thread, and are noticing that their ratio of proteins to carbs to vit/minerals are way off due to the excess of each.  Will report back when we get a finalized analysis.

 
I'd be really interested to hear about the results! [][]

I would have to ask, way off compared with what? Only in the past 20 or 30 years have dogs even started living inside more than outside let alone having nutritional research done. The fact that you could only find one piece of research on one of the most used ingredients in commercial dog food today means there's much work to be done yet.

It's very easy to tell the difference between a dog being fed a high quality (Eagle Pack, Solid Gold, Nature's Variety, Innova, etc) food and one being fed a low to mid quality food. In fact, the only dog I saw at dog days that looked great and wasn't being fed a premium brand was Ron's dog, and there were a hell of a lot of dogs that came by our booth.

compared with what?

Compared to the nutrient requirement for dogs determined by the National Research Council, NOT commercial dog food or AAFCO recommendations.

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