Practical Pet Food Information

You’re welcome! For this issue, its harder to say. To my knowledge, there is no formal study that provides any evidence that mixing raw and processed foods actually impedes digestion or is otherwise harmful in any way. On the contrary, here are some interesting writings that actually seem to debunk this common raw feeding taboo:The single-dog study done by a member of the popular group The Raw Feeding Community. Has some interesting things to say, and presents the idea that raw food (at least in some instances) may actually digest slower than some processed diets. If true, this would completely invalidate the old notion that kibble digests slower than raw. Now, there is plenty to critique here, most specifically the inadequately small sample size (and with a dog who was raw weaned and fed for most of his life), but its a good starting place. HERE is also a brief but good read by Dr. Laura Duclos, who is the R&D director of the Nature’s Variety brand foods (a brand which has popularized the notion of varying the diet by intermixing raw, kibble, and canned foods). The paper basically states that there are a lot of factors that go into digestion, and that the differences between raw vs canned vs kibble in regards to digestion rate is highly variable. Knowing this, my opinion is and has always been that there is nothing inherently wrong with mixing raw with kibble, and that many of the issues people cite as having (things like bad stools) likely have more to do with too rapid of a dietary change in an already sensitive dog. Notice how many dogs get diarrhea after switching kibbles too fast- expecting anything different from raw foods is hopeful at best. 

I am very pro rotating diets, for both cats and dogs. 

There are many reasons for this, but to put it as plainly as possible… I don’t trust any 1 company to get something as important as the diet my animal will be eating from weaning to death 100% right 100% of the time. 

Mistakes happen, and even when they don’t, no animal has the exact same feeding requirements as another. Keeping them on anything for too long is opening up the door for all sorts of error. 

For example, we know some breeds of dogs are genetically prone to taurine deficiency. We probably WOULDN’T have known this, had many owners not left their dogs on foods that just happen to be low in taurine (because dogs synthesize their own, it is not required to be added in their food like is is for cats) for years on end, never varying what they fed. 

What other things out there are our animals not getting enough of in the “average” commercial diet then becomes the question. 

It also becomes problematic, as I’ve seen happen very many times, when a food no longer is available. Foods get recalled, the distributor for the local pet shop stopped carrying it, the company goes under, any number of reasons. I’ve seen people lose their heads over this, because “this is the ONLY thing my cat eats!” That’s a shame, but is easily preventable. Frankly its also frustrating, especially when one considers the inevitable stress you are now putting on your ANIMAL because you will have to cold-turkey switch their food. 

Sorry about the wait on this! Fat is by far my favorite topic in regards to pet food, so I apologize in advance for how long this got. Hopefully, however, it answers your question! 

corvus-callista asked:hey, just wondering if you know anything about plant-derived fats vs animal fats in dog food. i always feel a little better about buying kibble if it has chicken or pork fat, rather than canola or something–is that justified? i just assume their bodies are better at handling animal products vs plant ones.

I am a devoted believer in the importance of fat. It’s not something that gets talked about as often as protein or carbs, but it is arguably one of the most important factors one should take into consideration when selecting a dog food. But to get right to the point of your question:

Fat, on the whole, is extremely digestible. Digestibility of dietary fats (both animal and plant) range from about 80 to 99% (1,2). However, there are several caveats to this.

First, the quality of the fat matters, as does its processing. One of the best arguments “PRO” fresh/raw diets (in my opinion) should be the benefits from less processed fats, as they are actually quite delicate in regards to processing. Heating processes like extrusion (how most commercial kibbles are made) or chemical processes like hydrogenation (how oil is turned into margarine) can significantly decrease the digestibility of fats, taking them from nearly completely digestible to only 70-90% digestibility. The nature of the fat itself also matters in regards to digestibility, as increased levels of trans and saturated fatty acids also decrease lipid digestibility (for example, polyunsaturated fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 from fish or flax oil are going to be easier for the body to digest vs fatty acids from something like beef tallow).

Now, moving away from digestibility a bit, let’s focus on the actual differences between plant and animal fats. Here is an excellent chart from Small Animal Clinical Nutrition [1] that shows the varying levels of fatty acid amounts in several fat sources:

This chart clearly illustrates the differences between varying fats. The thing of interest to us here, however, is not necessarily which of these has a “better” profile, so much as it is to show that different things are being offered by different fats. There are situations where higher or lower ratios of any number of these fatty acids could be either beneficial or detrimental, and THAT is specific to the individual consuming them. More important, too, is knowing that any fat is extremely important to the body. Fat, regardless of its source, is required by the body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K, and all types of fat are more efficient at providing usable energy than either protein or carbohydrates. I realize there are times I harp on this point, but we are going through a phase in pet food awareness where an absurdly large amount of focus is being put on proteins and carbs- which isn’t a bad thing, but fat has very unfortunately been relegated to a corner of almost complete dismissal by many consumers. This is especially frightening when you consider the popularity of “diet” dog foods, which offer foods so low in fat that one has to wonder how the animal eating it has any energy at all!

Jacqueline Hill, VP of operations at Answers Pet Food once made an analogy that, to this day, I repeat because I love it so much.

“If dogs were cars, protein would be the oil that keeps them running efficiently, and fat would be the gasoline, the fuel, that keeps them going”.  

I DIGRESS. Back to the subject of different fats.

Something else that is important to point out, is that even within a single “family” of fats or oils, there can be a large degree of variance. This can relate to a broader category of fats like “fish oil” which encompass a large range of species, or can be as specific as the differences between a single individual at a given time of year.

Here is a chart demonstrating the differences in fatty acid content in several fish oils:

[chart source]

Also of interest in fish, is that these numbers can change by season as the fish’s food sources change. Along those lines, here is another very interesting chart that shows the difference in polyunsaturated fatty acids between goat’s milk collected at different times of the year (the goats were free-range, meaning they were presumably consuming different plants depending on the season)

[chart source]

And another demonstrating the variance in both plant and animal sources:

[chart source]

Plant fats can have a large degree of variance too. One of the most well known is sunflower oil, which (depending on the type) can range from nearly 70% linoleic acid for some, to around 80% oleic acid for others. [3]

To wrap this up before I spiral too far away from your question yet again… I don’t think there is a “right” or “wrong” fat for a given food to use in regards to animal vs. plant. Essentially, different fats are offering different things, and the source of the fat in the food is less important than the quality of said fat, and its synergy within the diet as a whole. There are other things to consider here: canola oil, to use your example, is just a genetically modified type of rapeseed. It DOES have nutritional qualities that can benefit a diet, however, may be less desirable depending on your stance in the GMO debate, how you feel about the processing it undergoes to become a usable oil, etc. Same goes for some animal fats, which can easily go rancid during processing and lose much of their nutritional properties, and so on. 

I’ve had a pretty busy few weeks, and haven’t had any bright ideas for new posts.

Is there anything anyone might like to talk/hear about regarding dog nutrition/pet foods/the pet industry? 

For those who may find this information useful, I have created a calculator that anyone may use to figure out how many grams of protein are being fed on a daily basis. 

There have been many debates on both sides of the fence regarding the protein content of raw diets. Many people proclaim that raw diets are extremely high in, if not nearly all, protein. Others maintain that because of its water content, raw is actually low in protein. 

The truth is, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Lets take a look:

Since home prepared raw diets are extremely variable, I’m going to pick a commercial product that is similar to what most consider an “average” meal for a “Prey Model” raw diet.  Vital Essentials complete Beef diet: (Ingredients: Beef, beef tripe, ground beef bone,beef liver, beef heart, beef kidney, beef blood, beef fat, herring oil, d-alpha tocopherol) Guaranteed Analysis: Protein, min . . . . . . . 14.5% ME = kcal/oz : 55

Filler is a curious term in regards to dog food. Both from a pet-specialty retail perspective and as someone who has bummed around on dog food internet forums, one of the most quoted items people consider undesirable in a kibble is “filler”.

But what exactly is filler? And how does it apply to kibble?

Realistically, “filler” is anything in a kibble that doesn’t absolutely need to be there in order for the product to be nutritionally balanced. Many people follow the “first 5” rule, in which they only consider the first five or so listed ingredients in a food relevant, as they are going to make up the bulk of the product. Ingredients in a food are listed by weight PRE-cooking, so depending on the labeling and the product, the actual amount of any one particular ingredient can be highly variable. Personally, I look at a food roughly up to its listed fat source to get a fair idea of where the “meat and bones” so to speak of the product is coming from. For most brands, everything after the fat source will have very little to no real bearing on the nutritional properties of the food.

Let’s examine a couple of examples.

Food 1:

Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal (Natural source of Chondroitin Sulfate and Glucosamine), Corn Meal, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Fish Meal, Dried Egg Product, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Fructooligosaccharides, Salt, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Choline Chloride, Minerals, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamins

Food 2:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Pearled Barley, Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, Brown Rice, White Rice, Dried Whole Egg, Menhaden Fish Meal, Millet, Chicken Fat, Dried Tomato Pomace, Safflower Oil, Herring Meal, Cheese, Flaxseed, Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Apples, Green Beans, Chicken Cartilage, Potassium Chloride, Cranberries, Blueberries, Salt, Monocalcium Phosphate, Chicory Root Extract, Alfalfa Sprouts, Calcium Sulfate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Sodium Selenite, Folic Acid, Taurine, Parsley, Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Vitamins, Minerals, Probiotics.

Ok, so let’s break them down. In Food 1, we have two animal protein sources (chicken and chicken by-product meal), 1 plant-based protein and binder (corn meal), two additional plant-based binders, and the fat. Everything listed after that is either a fiber source, flavoring, or a supplement. This is a very bare-bones product, with very little included outside of what is needed to make the product balanced for its intended market (in this case, a high-energy performance food). This is a food with minimal “filler”.

Now, Food 2 starts similarly, with two animal proteins (chicken and chicken meal), 5 different plant-based protein sources and binders (the sweet potato and barley are your major protein bulk here with barley likely duel-purposing for starch), followed by 2 additional animal protein sources, another starch, and finally the fat. Then you have a long list of very appealing-sounding ingredients that, realistically, are contributing nothing at all to the product other than a very attractive label. This is a food I would consider very heavy in “filler”.

The problem for most, I find, is that they are using the term “filler” as a stand-in for “quality”.

“Corn is a filler”. No, corn is almost always used to add additional protein to a product cheaply, and as a starch binder. Is it a good quality ingredient? That depends heavily on the person you ask, the company that’s using it, and the actual sourcing of the ingredient. But a “filler”, at least in the case of the example above, it is not.  

On the flip side, cauliflower, apples, and green beans all sound very delicious and are no doubt very “good” ingredients, but considering the quantities they are found in the product, are adding very, very little to make it complete. They are “filler”.

If it helps to think of it this way, imagine taking out the “filler” ingredient from a product. Would that product still be nutritionally balanced OR be able to physically stay bound together as a kibble without the ingredient in question?

[[This is a little something I hope to do as time permits- offering information on specific topics in which nutrition plays a part. Again, nothing here should take the place of veterinary advise, and is only for personal reference.]]

All information and images sourced from Mark Morris Institute’s Small Animal Clinical Nutrition- 4th Edition (Hand, Thatcher, Remillard, Roudebush) “Cancer” pg887-900.

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Cancer is sadly one of the most prolific killers of companion animals. There is no guaranteed “cure” for cancer, however nutritional management can help to ease symptoms and improve the quality of life for many dogs and cats.

(Chart recommends the following: Carbohydrates less than 25% dry matter, Proteins for dogs 30-45% DM and cats 40-50% DM, fat 24-40% DM, n-3 fatty acids in excess of 5.0% DM and a n-6:n-3 ratio of less than 3.0, and Arginine above 2% DM -- from Small Animal Clinical Nutrition: 4th Edition as cited above)

Carbohydrates

Tumors typically utilize glucose as their primary energy source. They get this by a process known as anaerobic glycolysis, which produces lactate that the body then must work to convert to glucose for the tumor to utilize. This conversion is taxing on the animal’s body, and ultimately results in a total energy loss for the animal and a gain for the tumor.

Foods high in carbohydrates have been shown to increase the total amount of lactates within an animal’s body. Studies on dogs fed diets very high in carbs (over 50%) have shown noticeably higher blood glucose and lactate levels than dogs fed a food lower in carbs (less than 15%).[1] Knowing this, it may be beneficial to decrease the overall amount of carbohydrates fed to dogs or cats suffering from cancer.

Protein

Issues like cachexia (“wasting syndrome”) are a very real threat to cancer sufferers, with noticeable loss in body and muscle mass being a common concern. Tumors also feed on amino acids, and if protein loss from the tumor begins to exceed its intake, negative changes to the animal’s immune system and gastrointestinal function become a concern. Knowing this, it is generally considered helpful for cancer pets to receive increased protein amounts above the generally recommended “maintenance” levels animals in a similar age grouping would receive.

Fats

Fats are perhaps of the most significant to animals suffering from cancer. Loss of body fat seems to account for the majority of “wasting” in cancer patients, and abnormalities processing fats are a concern. However, unlike carbs or protein, fats have been shown to be difficult for some tumors to utilize as an energy source, but still provide usable energy to healthy host cells. Because of this, feeding a diet higher in fat (where the majority of calories are coming from fats) may be of considerable benefit to pets dealing with cancer.

Arginine and Omega-3s                            

Foods elevated in arginine and n-3 fatty acids produce increased levels of internal plasma arginine, eicosapentaenoic (EPA), and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acid levels. These elevated levels seem to not only increase survival time for patients, but in dogs undergoing chemo therapy seem to correlate with an increased quality of life and a decrease of inflammation in irradiated areas. In some trials, arginine has been shown to decrease tumor growth and metastasis. Additionally, EPA has been shown to harm tumor cell growth without harming “healthy” host cells and has been shown to help prevent protein degradation without altering normal protein synthesis in cancer patients.

I’ll tell you what I know.

A long time ago, they started as a strictly on-line product (you could only order it from their website). Eventually they expanded into “Natural” grocery like Whole Foods, where they launched their original food line “Naturals”, which consisted of only 3 dogs lines (Ckn/rice, lamb/rice, salmon/rice) and some cat food and cans. Eventually they tried branching out into the pet specialty market, and also created “Lifestyles”, which had several more options. Personally, I was a huge fan of “Lifestyles” and frequently fed their Puppy and Endurance line, and was very disappointed when they discontinued them. “Lifestyles” basically encompassed a life-stages line (puppy, adult, senior), as well as a weight management and the high energy Enurance line (which was, at the time, their only grain-free offering). I was in specialty retail when they launched this, and despite the store I was working in doing very well with the product (probably because I was so gung-ho about it, haha), it did poorly overall and they decided to discontinue it and “Naturals” and relaunch as the completely grain-free “Freestyle” and “Medal” lines that we have now. “Freestyle” is small-retail only, so you’ll only see it in independents, where as “Medal” is PetSmart’s exclusive (for now) line. Again, all lines are grain free, and the only real difference between the two is that “Freestyle” dog uses no chicken proteins.Is that what you were looking for? If you’re looking for info about where its made, the company is based out of Austin TX, and the food I BELIEVE is manufactured out of Nebraska (though I don’t know off the top of my head which plant). 

It depends on what you are looking for in a food.

If you have an averagely active adult dog with no specific medical concerns, then most of the formulas will likely be fine for your dog.

Lets take a look at a formula. This is the ONE Smart Blend Chicken and Rice Adult:

Crude Protein (MIN) 26.0% Crude Fat (MIN) 16%; 383 kcals/cup.

Chicken (source of glucosamine), brewer’s rice, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (source of glucosamine), whole grain wheat, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, animal digest

Not terrible, decent fat content and average protein. The primary source of energy in this food is going to be coming from carbs, but if that’s not a problem for your dog then its fine. Calories are somewhat low… I prefer higher calorie foods, less volume fed thus making a bag last longer. I also personally prefer the majority of my dog’s energy coming from fats vs. carbs, but again, this is preference on my part and will depend on the dog.

Ingredients come down to what you are personally comfortable with. A lot of people don’t like corn, by-products, etc. I would be more concerned about the sourcing of these ingredients and the quality of the manufacturer. By-products, for example, are only as good or as bad as the source. You hear horror stories about feathers and cancerous growths and all sorts of nasty things in by-products, but legally they are defined as:

“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, & stomachs & intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth & hoofs.”

None of the above listed things are bad for your dog. That doesn’t mean nasty stuff doesn’t make their way into them, which is why trusting the manufacturer is such an important component to making any decision regarding which food to feed. 

Long story short, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with feeding this food. IF you are looking for something similar in price point, but aren’t comfortable with Purina’s quality, try looking at foods like Canidae. Here’s Canidae’s Chicken and Rice Adult for comparison:

Crude Protein (min.) 26.00% Crude Fat (min.) 15.50% ; 449 kcals/cup

Chicken meal, brown rice, white rice, rice bran, cracked pearled barley, peas, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), millet, tomato pomace, natural flavor, flaxseed meal, potassium chloride, choline chloride, suncured alfalfa meal, inulin (from chicory root), lecithin, sage extract, cranberries, beta-carotene, rosemary extract, sunflower oil

Things are still being worked on, but please feel free to leave an ask if you have any questions or comments. 

*******This is NOT a blog dedicated to strictly advising on or against “holistic” foods or remedies, nor is it a blog promoting any one sort of food/feeding method over another. My goal here is not to belittle anyone for what they feed- it is to offer information about the nutritional needs of pets and how to potentially optimize them.