QUESTION: Can you define what you mean when you say “CLEAN FOOD”?
It is not a short answer. But please read the whole definition so that you all can take charge of your pets nutrition. Your veterinarian, unless he or she has a degree in animal clinical nutrition and has researched nutrition, does not know the answer to this. They only know what the dog/cat food company tells them. Companies like Iams, Science Diet, Purina, Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies and more. So, hold on to your hats and read on!
The term “rendering plants and processing” mean renderers” receive dead stock, by removal companies, who bring dead, diseased farm animals, zoo animals, decaying road-kill, maggots and all, restaurant and grocery store garbage, including styrofoam trays, plastic wrap, rancid grease from restaurants and hundreds of thousands of EUTHANIZED dogs and cats, (companion animals) some with flea collars still attached! The “5 D’s” dead, dying, diseased, disabled, or drugged are animals with cancerous tissues or tumors, livers infested with worms (flukes), cirrhosis, animals that have died with pneumonia in their lungs, animals bowels, feces, and even fetal tissue which is dangerously high in hormones are rendered. Any animal carcasses with high levels of drugs, steroids or pesticides in excess of limits described by the FDA and NOT FIT to be processed for human consumption are also rendered into our pet’s food! Meat rejected by slaughter houses and sent to the rendering plant must first be saturated with chemicals or charcoal called “denatured” a procedure designed to make it unpalatable to humans, ensuring it cannot be re-sold as human grade meat. This is sold in dried or frozen form to dog food companies to be put into our pets food and fertilizers companies to be spread on our lawns. If you ever have the opportunity to watch “Dirty Jobs” “A Look Inside A Rendering Plant” on TV please do. This might make it more “real” to you. And the “wholesome grains” we read about on the package or hear about in their commercials are really just the hulls or remnants swept up off of the factory floor. Corn, for instance, the starch is removed for corn starch powder and the oil is extracted for corn oil. IF… a “whole grain” is really used, it has been deemed “unfit for human consumption” because of mold, contaminants, or poor quality. It is no wonder most pet food recalls are due to toxic grains like wheat and corn! Grains are used to increase the percentage of protein in the analysis Grains are also highly indigestible causing stress on kidneys and a major allergen to animals. And we wonder why our pets itch, have hot spots, eye problems, dirty ears and ear infections, bouts of diarrhea, bowel problems, liver and kidney problems and hip/elbow dysplesia. Other unwanted ingredients like pesticides and insecticides get into the mix by way of poisoned livestock and fish oil laced with DDT or other poisonous herbicides that are found in West Coast mackerel and tuna. Seventy years ago dog food companies did not exist. In the beginning they started out by making a good convenient product. Now, it’s become junk food for our pets, in my opinion. But don’t panic! There are a few “clean” foods out there. The key is in reading the label and finding out if they claim that their food is “human grade”. A few examples are Wellness, Orijen, Timberwolf, Honest Kitchen, Oma’s, and Stella’s & Chewey’s. There are several more but these are my first choices. Hope this helps!
Regards, Karen :~)
Thank you Karen. Now that you explained it, “clean food” makes perfect sense.
Karen, thank you so much for sharing your k-9 nutritional knowledge and Julie for your wonderful blog as well as your GSD’s. Hope my post is not too confusing, not the best at communicating with words.
Since September we,ve been feeding Taste of the Wild Wetlands Canine Formula w/Roasted Fowl (kibble). The change came about when Rudi showed interest in eating, he is not food driven. It is a grain free, all life stages diet and he ate it immediately. Your posts spurred my interest so this morning I looked up ingrediants I was curious about. Had difficulty understanding what Enterococcus faecium is and the part it plays in nutrition Also, he is not interested in salmon oil placed on his food. He now gets “Vitamin World” Wild Salmon Oil 1000, 2 400mg softgels in a Greenie Pill Pocket each morning (the adult “human” recommendation is 4 softgels daily). Also learned the Wetlands diet was recalled for a very short time do to a very slight difference of total protein percentage listed on the ingredients as opposed to the actual amount (took this as a good sign).
Okay, in short my questions are: what is Enterococcus faecium and the part it plays in K-9 nutrition and, is it a bad idea to give him a Greenie Pill Pocket on a daily basis? Of course, he’s gotten to like the greenie routine.
Rudi also gets Royal Canin Treats, Butler Lean treats and occasional PureBites freeze dried cheddar cheese treats. For SAR training Rudi gets cooked liver cut into pieces and frozen until use.
Another question…I realize liver will not be a good choice in the future when in the field during actual missions or training seminars. Are Butler Lean treats a good substitution? Again, he is not a food driven dog but likes the Butler Lean treats. I use them for agility and out and about town treats.
Also, at 5:00 PMEST today Discovery Channel, looks like a Marathon in our area, is airing “Dirty Jobs”/ Mike travels to California to help make dog food. Hmm…wonder if I can convince Peter to watch it and not football. We both are “Dirty Jobs” fans. Thank you, I’ve learned so much already!!! Julie H 🙂
@Peter and Julie, Answered my own question regarding Enterococcus faccium. Finally found it on TOTW website. Here’s to a Saturday allowing me extra time to do such things. Still curious about the pill pockets and should I be concerned about giving Rudi the “Human” salmon oil suppliment gelcaps? Thank you again. JH 🙂
Hi Peter & Julie,
Sorry I haven’t had time to answer but we are making a Transformer Pyramid birthday cake for our 5 year old grandson for tonite! :~) Glad you found out about the EF. NEVER be concerned about giving “human” supplements to your furry ones. All of the supplements we give to our dogs are people vitamins and oils! Thanks for the info coming up on TV. I’m taping the dirty job episodes. This one is different than the “Rendering Plant” episode. I’ll answer more tomorrow!
Regards, Karen :~)
@Karen Murray, Thanks Karen! Your Transformer Pyramid birthday cake sounds like fun AND a lot of work. No hurry as we train SAR tomrrow morning/early afternoon. Glad to know about the salmon oil. Thanks again and Happy Birthday to your grandson. Best, JH 🙂
@Peter and Julie, Hi Peter and Julie, The cake turned out awesome and our grandson LOVED it! He took the pyramid (made out of rice krispies) to Sunday School the next day to share and eat with their friends! Thank you so much for letting me know about the “Dirty Job” segment! It was GREAT! Now THAT is how dog food should be made! These people were actually smelling the raw tripe to make sure it was fresh! I can tell you, if you’ve never smelled raw green tripe, DON’T accept an invatation! I’ve cleaned stalls, picked up vomit and ALL kinds of poo and NOTHING, smells worse! A whole barn full of pig poo runs a close 2nd.!!! :~) Anyway I’m going to order some products from this family run farm in California! I looked up your greenie’s. I guess they are ok to use. Have you ever tried cheese balls? Or you could cut some squares of raw chicken breast and put a slit in them and insert the capsules. You can keep the squares frozen in a baggie and take out some to thaw as needed. Just a thought for more real food! You might be surprised that Rudi might become a “raw meat” motivated dog!!!!! Watch his nose and his eyes when you offer him some raw meat! :~) We use raw chicken and steak chunks at the end of our track for reward! The “Taste Of The Wild” food you use also has the montmorillinite as the 6th ingredient and it says “meat from food source” the “human grade” term was not used. So I don’t think its a bad food like Iams and Science Diet but just not sure about so much of that additive in the food until I research it more. I hope all this helps a bit. Best regards, Karen
@Karen Murray, Thank you so much Karen! Peter says we will order some smelly green tripe in the future. I may consider changing the dogs over to your top choices of “human grade” foods you mentioned at the top of this thread. I will need to feed part dry at times. I’m glad to know about the steak and that raw chicken is okay too. He loves it when Peter is cooking poultry. I’m sure Rudi would just as soon eat raw chicken/steak as well as a greenie pill pocket.
Your cake was a great success!!! I keep rice crispy treats in the pantry for myself in the event I need to be up early and eat something before heading out. It’s quick and fun at the same time. Thanks again for sharing!!! JH 🙂
Julie H., do you think Rudi would get his pills in a pocket if he were at Camp Kayla’s? For gosh sakes, just pop them down his yap! 😉
Karen, you are a great wealth of information! You Rock!
@Carole, I want “Stretch”, that’s what I’ve been calling Doodle lately, to get the few extra calories, hence the pill pockets. I like the chicken and steak idea much better and will change over when the second package is gone.
Smelly green tripe is in my future…YUCK…but better than Rudi getting too thin. Okay, must get ready for a rehearsal. Hugs to “pink girl”! RNFP 🙂