Canine Nutrition Seminar - I Left Educated & Dumbfounded

[Laneline]

I found out about a seminar at a local College concerning Canine Genetics and Canine Nutrition. I jumped at the chance to attend and I thought I was going leave more “educated”. Instead all I left with was anger. I went mainly for the "genetics" part, but was blown away by the "Nutrition" part. I thought some of you would like to hear this.

If you are already are educated in this particular area, please excuse my ignorance as you read this. But like most, I try to feed the best I can afford to my dogs.

I have recently tried “4 Health” dog food and I like it so far. Diamond manufactures it and it is from what I gather {quality wise} it is a food that is based to be a {Taste Of The Wild & Diamond Naturals} combined type food. The price is cheaper simply because it is in the “Tractor Supply Company" Bag.

What many don’t realize is that many of the feeds are coming off the same assembly line with very little differences other than being put in different bags.

If we had the finances, a group of us could get together and create the dog food “American Beagler Dog Food”. We could than go to “Diamond” and get them to produce our dry food, we could go to “American Nutrition” to produce our Canned or wet food and we could go to “Menu Foods” to make our dog treats. And then we market them all under the name “American Beagler Dog Food”. Even though none of us actually have anything to do with the making of the food.

It gets even more confusing, even the dog food manufactories “not dog food companies”, subcontract the making of their own products so they may sell it under their own name or sell it to 3rd party dog food companies, so they can sell it under their name.

Example: Diamond makes a variety of foods with “their name on it. They also make {or made} the “dry foods” for Wellness, Taste of the Wild, Artemis, Canidae, Kirkland Signature Brand Pet Food, Natural Balance, Solid Gold Health Food for Pets.

But the wet or “canned foods” that Diamond sells with their name on it, is actually made by “American Nutrition”, a totally different company. American Nutrition also make the wet “canned foods” for Blue Buffalo, Breeder's Choice, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Canine Caviar etc…

This is the kicker, Most companies have several dog food lines. Most of them have a totally different manufacturer making the food for each line that they sell with their name on it, Dry and canned foods.

Have you ever decided to stick with a certain food in a certain line for a while, and then all of a sudden you’re dogs react to the same food they have been eating for months, and it suddenly affects them differently? That’s because the contract ran out and the owner of the bag that you buy decided to get a total different company to manufacture the dog food, so you’re bag is the same, the food inside is different.

Here is a link that I found later that used to keep up with it. I was told that contracts between dog food companies and manufactories change so often, they simply can’t keep up with it. The link kept up with it until about 2007. Not all brands, companies, and manufacturers are listed, but it will give you a general idea. http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/manufacturers.htm {check out what Menu Foods made}

It is really hard to tell who really makes what for who, and what products are being bought to use from where, and how much higher the prices are “jacked-up” on the different foods that are all the same except in different bags or cans with different labels. Because Diamond, Purina and all the “big-wigs” are in on this game.

As for me now, I really like the “4 Health”, especially for the price. But I am sure it will change.

Because even when you find a food that is consistently produced by the same manufacturer, each and every product that they individually use to make their food, is bought from different sources as contracts end and begin. So even when you think you’re safe, your really not. This is where “Recalls” come into play, bad products from bad sources.

I guess the real answer is to make our own food and go “natural”, or continue to hop, skip and jump from label to label until we find what food is temporarily the best, for the time being.

[mybeagles]

When the animal rights nutts get wind of this things might change. It might take some of their political clout and $$$ to force an industry standard. I think the day is coming when our socialist leaders will demand dog food to be regulated by the FDA. You think its expensive now.......

Ive gone RAW but it takes much more effort and would be a lot of work for big kennel. I think your right, making your own food is the only way to keep consistency.

Mybeagles

[huntall50]

I think we all felt this to be true, we know its done with human foods and beverages.

[da ridgetop]

i have always thought that must be the case on dog foods,buy one brand for a couple of months or even years and get good results and then it starts looking different when you open the bag and the quality seems to change.I used to feed sportsmix 24/20 and diamond 24/20 and not all that long ago was paying anywhere from 14 to 16 $'s and really liked it, could change a dogs weight with a small portion change, know its 22-25$'s around here and the results are not as good Donald

[warddog]

This is just the way of doing business in this country. This is called private labeling and is done with everything made in this country. Motor oil is a prime example and folks don't want to buy the stuff they get at say a dollar store but look on the certifications on the cans and they ALL meet the same certifications. The same thing is done with food items for human consumption. What do you think happens when a major chicken plant say like Tyson's slaughters 140,000 chickens a day for 5 or 6 days a week? Do you suppose that Tyson's has an individual market for 700,000 chickens a day? No way so they sell it off to other chicken manufacturies down stream and the actual tyson produced products are placed into many other companies packageing. If you have kept up you know that E. coli in ground beef has been the culprit in many sicknesses and recalls over the past several years. Ground beef is a very good example of how one producer may actually be the same as hundreds. What happens with ground beef is that a large slaughter facility slaughters an abundance of cattle so they have enough trim and by products to sell off to other manufaturies that use beef trim and or ground beef in their products. Many if these users are what is called grinders and ALL they do is purchase this beef trim and coarse grind it into chub packs and they sell it off to smaller manufacturies to use in their products be it ground beef, hamburger (not the same as ground beef) all beef hot dogs, beef bologna etc. About all the grocery stores and the small processing plants get this beef trim or coarse ground beef in to make the ground beef you buy over their meat counter because they don't produce enough of it themselves. Did they produce the original beef it came from? NO, is it the same beef that originally came from a BIG slaughter plant, Yes. Is it listed on the label as being produced by one of the big plants? NO. The brand name labeling is how big corporate America rapes the unknowing consumer as they pay bigger bucks for that brand name when they could be getting the exact or a very close facsimily of it at a very lessor price. I never rely solely on any brand name dog food but rather what bang I get for my buck. if I save money and my dogs stay in good flesh on it I will buy it as chances are I really have no idea of who actually produced it. I also put very little emphasis on these higher protein dry foods as I'm of the opinion they aren't anything other than getting consumers to pay more for something that is not needed. Just another means to advertise added value when in fact it is not.

[NoBull]

I know this is done with bottling there is a factory in ohio that makes bottles and labels for everything from Coke to A-1 and all the generics in between most of the time the generics are shipped to the same plants as the popular brands.

[hogbody]

Wardog............I worked in a tomato cannery 30 years ago when I first got out of high school. I worked in the lab and did testing for things like bacteria, worm eggs, color, thickness etc, etc. We had to keep track of each batch of tomato juice when it was canned and where it was located in the warehouse. As orders came in we would label the cans for different grocery stores. The higher end store brands requested the better juice and we would retreive the better batches from the warehouse and put their lable on it. Don't know if this sort of thing goes one these days or not. I would think that all brands of products meet the minimum standard requirements but that some are superior.

I'm bummed to hear about Diamond and 4 Health brands as I just stared to feed Diamond. I just bred a female and wanted to feed her the best I could afford. I was looking for something that didn't have ground yellow corn as the second ingrediant. Almost every brand you look at.........Joy, Black Gold, Purina has corn in it and everything you read says corn is bad. I dunno anymore. I fed a brand from a local feed store for years that has porcine meat (pork) and ground yellow corn as the first two ingredients. Dogs looked good, had dark firm stools. Got and old mutt yard dog that is 16 years old and aside from bad hips is in pretty good shape. All I ever fed her was the pork/corn stuff.

[ohlinger]

When the animal rights nutts get wind of this things might change. It might take some of their political clout and $$$ to force an industry standard. I think the day is coming when our socialist leaders will demand dog food to be regulated by the FDA. You think its expensive now.......

Ive gone RAW but it takes much more effort and would be a lot of work for big kennel. I think your right, making your own food is the only way to keep consistency.

Mybeagles

Nobody wanted to listen when i tried to tell this..i used to work @ a purina plant we made ol roy, and several other brands all from the same factory...goes back to all the posts i made about raw diets..

[klrconcrete]

I was told this same thing directly from a pet food sales rep. a few years ago, in his words the only difference from some of these feeds to the next is the bag and the profit margin. That is when I started to work towards a full raw diet, and I am convinced it was a smart move. Kurt