Meat By-products. Are they OK?

Seriously tho Meat By-products If I am correct are things not good enough for humans to eat. Not exaclty something I would want my dog eating, if I could help it. But Maybe Im just being weird.

by-products are the things that the food companys don't want to list on the bag of food - like ground up bones, intestines, necks, heads - etc. They are the parts of the animal that have been REJECTED for human grade food.

I DO NOT feed anything with by products to my dog. There are many good foods out there - no need to feed that stuff to your pets.

Check out the nutrition part of the forum - lots of good info there!

I'm sorry - but I would not feed my dog something that has been rejected as a human food. He does very well without byproducts in his diet. I know dogs used to eat all that stuff when they were in the wild - but they are not in the wild anymore - he lives him my house, and it's something I do not feel comfortable with.

"The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto"

Many/most raw feeders feed these things every week, and they are in every pre-made raw diet (like nature's variety and primal) but listed separately and not under the umbrella. If you aren't comfortable feeding tripe, or liver, that's one thing, but it doesn't mean they are bad. The OP just wanted to know what they were. I personally wouldn't feed something that didn't have them seperately listed out.

Well it's really hard to say if they are good or not since you don't really know what the by-products are unless they are listed.  Especially if it says just "meat by-products" you don't even know what animal or animals it's coming from.  Such an open-ended term allows the pet food company to put pretty much anything in there without having to list it specfically,so it's basically mystery meat.  I don't know, is mystery meat good or bad? lol

Meat by-products are not inherently bad.  They can provide good nutrition.

The problems are that you don't know

• what meat,
• which by-products,
• how healthy the animals were (the 4 D's - dead? diseased? dying? down?),
• whether the by-products have been treated as food or as garbage (think hot outside dumpsters).

A healthy, refrigerated, cow heart is good nutrition for a dog.  A rotting, heart from a deer found dead - maybe not.

When you don't know what ingredients are in a dog food, it is very difficult to spot food sensitivities.  With meat by-products the same food can vary from batch to batch.

ETA:  Remember that "meat by-products" have little to no meat. 

I personally will not use or recommend a food containing by product or by product meal.

 I will not disagree with Ottoluvs defination, however I find problems with that defination, or rather the leeway this gives to manufacturers..  There is NO federal standard for by product.  BONE can increase the amount of calcium in the food, and unless that is adjusted for, throw off the calcium/phosperous ratio which is critical to bone growth and health.  ORGAN meat should comprise no more than an average of 5% of the dogs daily diet.  With no federal standard, who knows what the heck is in each bag, or that the SAME by product in a bag from one run is the same as it is in a bag from a different run.

IMHO it isn't worth taking a chance on foods that use by product as an ingredient.

I also want to add in another reason why I don't feel comfortable... WHY can't the companies list the individual ingrediants? WHY does it have to all be shoved under one catagory?  I mean, if they want to add in some organs, fine - but why not list them for what they are.

  Meat by products are okay, but avoid meat meal or meat and bone meal because they're rendered.

Organ meat needs to not exceed an average of 5% per day, so they have to be careful how much they add, AND, by NOT listing things, they can throw in any danged thing they wish to throw in and call in by product.

Meat MEAL is not rendered.  Chicken for example is 70% water.  MEAL is the chicken with the bone and water removed....basically, concentrated meat.  It is a very, very GOOD thing.

erica1989

by-products are the things that the food companys don't want to list on the bag of food - like ground up bones, intestines, necks, heads - etc. They are the parts of the animal that have been REJECTED for human grade food.

I DO NOT feed anything with by products to my dog. There are many good foods out there - no need to feed that stuff to your pets.

     None of the afformentioned foods are not fit for human consumption - necks ... yes, humans eat necks. They are sold @ grocery stores, go nicely in soup, and are a favorite of some raw feeders. Ground up bone ... I take Kal Bonemeal myself & the last I heard, it was ground up bovine bone. Intestines - hell, I wouldn't eat that $*** but ever hear of tripe (stomach)? People eat the cleaned out white tripe (blech!) and dogs are fed dirty (green) tripe. Sausage casings ... intestines Heads ... plenty of raw feeders give heads, but no one tells them it's not good food for *dogs*. The key here is that we're feeding dogs, not humans. They don't have the same nutritional requirement, and have been known to eat roadkill and their own poo, so I can't say much for their gourmet palate. They're animals. Their food must be fresh and of a good quality, but lungs, hearts, tripe ... that's doggie candy! It's not rancid, poison, or otherwise going to hurt your dog. It's part that are very difficult to sell for the human food market, save for soem ethnic stores that carry the more exotic parts. Not that it was found to be diseased and rejected - the slaughterhouse makes more money selling it wholesale to kibble manufacturers because they're simply selling more of it. Not that much of a demand for the human food market.

P.S. - I love when people are critiquing a food and give the line you can find better out there for that price or with better ingredients. I've probably tried well over a dozen foods plus have done homecooked and raw and I like the food with the meat and bone meal the best The

erica1989

by-products are the things that the food companys don't want to list on the bag of food - like ground up bones, intestines, necks, heads - etc. They are the parts of the animal that have been REJECTED for human grade food.

I DO NOT feed anything with by products to my dog. There are many good foods out there - no need to feed that stuff to your pets.

     None of the afformentioned foods are not fit for human consumption - necks ... yes, humans eat necks. They are sold @ grocery stores, go nicely in soup, and are a favorite of some raw feeders. Ground up bone ... I take Kal Bonemeal myself & the last I heard, it was ground up bovine bone. Intestines - hell, I wouldn't eat that $*** but ever hear of tripe (stomach)? People eat the cleaned out white tripe (blech!) and dogs are fed dirty (green) tripe. Sausage casings ... intestines Heads ... plenty of raw feeders give heads, but no one tells them it's not good food for *dogs*. The key here is that we're feeding dogs, not humans. They don't have the same nutritional requirement, and have been known to eat roadkill and their own poo, so I can't say much for their gourmet palate. They're animals. Their food must be fresh and of a good quality, but lungs, hearts, tripe ... that's doggie candy! It's not rancid, poison, or otherwise going to hurt your dog. It's part that are very difficult to sell for the human food market, save for soem ethnic stores that carry the more exotic parts. Not that it was found to be diseased and rejected - the slaughterhouse makes more money selling it wholesale to kibble manufacturers because they're simply selling more of it. Not that much of a demand for the human food market.

P.S. - I love when people are critiquing a food and give the line you can find better out there for that price or with better ingredients. I've probably tried well over a dozen foods plus have done homecooked and raw and I like the food with the meat and bone meal the best The dogs look awesome so I'll let the be the judge ...

Well that's fine for you then - but I guess I'm just a much more of a picky eater. Like I said before - the biggest problem I have with it is they WONT tell you EXACTLY what you are feeding. I like to know what I'm eating - I'd like to know what I'm offering my dog as well. You don't know where the byproducts are coming from either...was it a dead animal? diseased animal?

Different foods work best for different dogs/cats. My dog came to me eating a less that (what I find to be) quality food, and since switching to a 'better' food - his skin problems vanished, allergies are not as severe, coat is shinny and smooth, ears and eyes are clear, nails are healthy and poop does not smell nearly as bad.

My cats do not a 'good' food - but my oldest has allergies, and we cannot switch them, because I do not want to risk her ripping open her face again - she's an old lady (13-14 years), and doesn't need that added stress.

ETA: If I wanted to feed my dog tripe or a heart or what not - then I want to feed THAT, not some mixture of unkown materials.