Meat By-products. Are they OK?

Have you checked up your laws about this? I checked up my country's laws about pet food before I ventured into raw. They're not allowed to put things that they didn't kill in their own slaughterhouse in dog food, and they aren't allowed to put in anything diseased. A carcass with parasites is condemned for human and pet consumption. The whole carcass, not just the diseased bits. The only thing they sell as pet food and not human food is discoloured meat. They cut the discoloured bits away and the rest is pet food. Now, we can get most American dog foods over here, so I do wonder about the dead and diseased claims. But perhaps it doesn't matter if it was made somewhere else.

As for by-products, I have come to distrust any commercial dry food. I don't know what's in them and I don't feel inclined to try to understand it when I could just chuck them some meat and vegies and be done with it. Before dog food, dogs were brought up on table scraps and bones and routinely lived to 17 years or more. I don't think it's as complicated as everyone thinks it is. It's my personal opinion that it's not much different to feeding a kid or yourself, only easier because they're not as fussy and it's easier to make good choices for them when you don't have to eat it yourself! I've read all the theory as I do feed raw, but I'm unconvinced. How hard can it be? We don't feed our kids a perfectly balanced diet cooked down into dry biscuits.

I'm fine with by-products when I put them in and feed them fresh. I'm not fine with some random mix of by-products cooked into oblivion along with god knows what else into a little biscuit that ended up making my dog chronically ill in the end anyway. That kind of experience turns you off kibble. It's not the by-products for me, it's the kibble, but that's my opinion formed from my own unique experiences. 

As I said in my earlier post, the post about meat meal being bad and rendered product was untrue.  I don't really have an issue with bone meal either, so long as it is used in proper amounts to balance the phosperous/calcium ratio.  It's more natural than some other supplements and I don't have an issue with that.

 I feed my dogs liver, kidney, etc.  Lots of humans also eat those things.  Same for heart and tongue (shudder)  The difference is I feed these things fresh and I know exactly what by products they are getting.  Like many grains, by product is a cheap protein source.  And one that is not terribly predicatable in it's content.  by product is simply whats left over....what would otherwise be waste from the carcus.

As I've said, I personally do not use foods with by product, nor do I recommend them.

None of the foods I use on rotation contain by-product, so I guess it's an easy choice for me.  I do not think it is bad, but I wouldn't use a food that only contained by-products and no meat or meat meal. 

glenmar

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

   I agree Glenda; I meant generic meat meal;

http://www.braypets.com/FRR/aafcodef.htm;

Meat Meal - the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

mad cow disease is a fine reason to avoid mysterious unnamed meat by-products. It's carried in the brain. Bet there's cow brain in most batches of meat by-products and meat + bone meal.

Anyway, the presence of cheap sub-par ingredients like by-products and glutens just tips you off to just how much the company values money over the health of your pet.

Should I feed my dog raw food, or homemade food, if so, would it be better than storebought? What is the best storebought brand that I can buy?

Mark Lee Howard

Should I feed my dog raw food, or homemade food, if so, would it be better than storebought? What is the best storebought brand that I can buy? 

This is such a big question that entire books have been written.  That discussion should be taken to the Nutrition forum.

In short, the best food for your dog is the one he/she does best on.  The best commercial foods use human-grade ingredients, no glutens, and no grains except maybe rice.  Raw and homecooked diets must have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio.

Feeding raw means trying to replicate a "whole prey" diet.  Unless one plans to slaughter their own animals, this can mean putting together the "pieces".  Whether the "pieces" should include plant matter is a subject for debate. 

Good links:

• www.dogfoodproject.com
• http://www.naturapet.com/

A good book:

Segal, Monica, Optimal Nutrition, Raw and Cooked Canine Diets: The Next Level, 2006
http://www.monicasegal.com/catalog/product.php?cPath=25&products_id=101

glenmar

I don't really have an issue with bone meal either, so long as it is used in proper amounts to balance the phosperous/calcium ratio. 

It was my impression, from reading the book "Better Foods For Dogs," that bone meal was the optimum way to give your dog calcium and that it was in itself properly balanced between calcium and phosperous (i.e. in raw diets dogs get all their calcium this way).