August 31, 2009

Dog Food Ingredients: Where’s The Meat?

by K.C. Jones

So many of the dog foods available to us today try to lure you in by telling us about the great quality of the meat, grains, and vegetables they use. Can you believe them? To find out, you have to read the dog food ingredients list. But beware, they are tricky to navigate.

How do you know what is a healthy dog food though? In reality, what is healthy for one pet isn’t necessarily healthy for another. Certain dogs may have different levels of activity or be in different stages of their life. Others may have a food intolerance or be diabetic. Take all of these into consideration when determining the type of dog food best for your pet.

Figuring out the type of dog food will narrow your list of dog foods greatly. Now you need to determine which has the healthiest ingredients for your dog. The first ingredient that should be listed is a meat. And that is where is starts to get tricky. Meat, meal, by-product. Huh? What happened to just meat?

What is the difference between a Meat, Meal, and By-Product? An identified animal meat, chicken for example, means the clean flesh from a chicken. Meal is simply the ingredient that has be dehydrated and ground. So chicken meal is dehydrated, ground up chicken meat. By-product is what is left over after all the usable meat has been removed (like the neck, feet, intestines, etc.) Chicken by-product would be processed and ground up chicken necks, feet, and who really knows what else.

Animal vs. Animal Meal? Which one first? Although most people think that having an animal meat as the first ingredient is a good indicator of a quality dog food, it is very misleading. Yes, you want an identified meat in the first ingredient, but listing a specific meat meal is the best.

All dog food ingredients must be listed in order of weight. Since a meat still has all of its moisture, it will be heavier than a meat meal. To put it another way, take two pieces of meat that weigh the same. Now dehydrate one. Which one will weigh more - the meat will. The tricky part is that once the dog food is made, all meat is first processed and made into meat meal.

Named Animal Meat vs Generic Category Meat. If the animal protein is from chicken, the label will read chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-product, etc. Now if it is from more than one type of animal, it may say the category of the animal, such as poultry. This means the manufacturer does not know the actual meat origins, just that they are of the poultry family (geese, turkey, chicken, etc). Worse yet, when any and all types of animals are used, it is just listed as ‘meat’, ‘meat meal’, or ‘meat by-product’.

The bottom line is that if a specific animal source cannot be identified, the dog food manufacturer is probably more concerned about their bottom line than the health and well-being of your pet.

About the Author:

There are many more factors that come into play when determining what is a healthy dog food for your dog. Learn more about how to read your dog food ingredients list at the Healthy Dog Food Blog: assisting you in figuring out what makes a healthy dog food.