Wet Dog Food

[DesO'Neile]

One of the subjects likely to engender much heated debate and a myriad of different solutions is "What to feed your dog." So are you really sure you need to change your dog's food? Because of my shooting partner's stroke my dogs aren't getting as much work this year and they are starting to look somewhat sleek but normally by the end of the season they would all have lost a lot of condition and be the wrong side of thin. If your dog isn't loosing drive, as opposed to condition, then it is getting enough food. If you are worried that it isn't go to the other extreme and leave a full bowl of food in the kennel all the time. That way you know that the dog is getting enough.

[druidale]

Tinned food actually has less preservatives in it that dry food because it is cooked in the can (basically a prfessure cooker) and sealed. Microbes can't get it in until the can is opened (same as baby food really). Yes it tends to include the cuts of meat that we don't usually eat, but it is all meat that is passed for human consumption. Very little water is added to it as meat is roughly 80% water anyway.

weight for weight it isn't as ecomonical as dry food, but I see no problem with adding a taste dry food to encourage a dog to eat. Whatever you do, don't add gravy (unless it's homemade) as gravy mixes are quite high in salt (not good for our dog's kidneys).

As with all things, there are good quality tinned dog foods and poorer quality ones (price will give you a good idea). Naturediet and similar are verygood, but are at the top end of the range. Butchers seems to appeal to most dogs, chappie original is very high cereal but cna be good for dogs with dodgy tums especially as the original version is fish based.

[MTS]

druidale
Just one question about preservatives and canned dog food, do you know if there are any preservatives added by the original renderer to their product before it is put into the can by the actual manufacturers?

[druidale]

no, and they don't need to be declared either (which is also the case for dry foods, semi moist foods and fresh foods). Having been round pedigree's canning plant, the only meat they had there was kept in cold storage (and by it was cold), so I'm guessing it was preserved. Well worth going for a look round even if you don't rate pedigree's foods, it was very interesting learnign how canned food is made (and no the data about preservatives didn't come from pedigree but from PFMA site adn various books on nutrition). I am only talking about UK dog foods, US and other places have different rules

[MTS]

So If I am reading you correctly Pedigree Foods buy the meat in chilled or frozen, mix it with the other ingredients and then cook it in the cans, they don't use bagged dried meat?

[Pink Gundog]

So If I am reading you correctly Pedigree Foods buy the meat in chilled or frozen, mix it with the other ingredients and then cook it in the cans, they don't use bagged dried meat?

I thought it was derivitives, ie scrapings off the slaughter house floors Coo's tits and pigs lips

[Judy]

Some internet web sites would lead you to believe all sorts of rubbish, from rats to sweepings, feathers to cr*p. Mostly they are talking tosh. UK pet food is quite strictly controlled they can only use human grade foods albeit the bits we don't eat as often as we used to. Pedigree wouldn't need chillers if the meat was all dried or preserved, they wouldn't waste the capital expenditure or the running costs.

[MTS]

Some internet web sites would lead you to believe all sorts of rubbish, from rats to sweepings, feathers to cr*p. Mostly they are talking tosh. UK pet food is quite strictly controlled they can only use human grade foods albeit the bits we don't eat as often as we used to. Pedigree wouldn't need chillers if the meat was all dried or preserved, they wouldn't waste the capital expenditure or the running costs.

Judy
So you are saying that Pedigree Foods 100% use only chilled or frozen meat? I don't know if they do or don't I am just wondering if anyone can tell me.
Feathers, provided they come from animals within the human food chain are considered to be animal derivatives. Do you remember a few years ago I gave you the link to if memory serves a DEFRA site that says so?

[Pink Gundog]

Some internet web sites would lead you to believe all sorts of rubbish, from rats to sweepings, feathers to cr*p. Mostly they are talking tosh. UK pet food is quite strictly controlled they can only use human grade foods albeit the bits we don't eat as often as we used to. Pedigree wouldn't need chillers if the meat was all dried or preserved, they wouldn't waste the capital expenditure or the running costs.

Judy
So you are saying that Pedigree Foods 100% use only chilled or frozen meat? I don't know if they do or don't I am just wondering if anyone can tell me.
Feathers, provided they come from animals within the human food chain are considered to be animal derivatives. Do you remember a few years ago I gave you the link to if memory serves a DEFRA site that says so?

After watching Hugh Fernely the other night he said that the crap that was left on the slaughter house floor (the puddins) went for dog food. However by the time they have boiled all the goodness out of it and added chemical nutrients into it as well as the other preservatives etc that give it a 2 year shelf life it cant be good Can it

[MTS]

Pinky
That's how the meat renderers make their money, good luck to them, but I won't feed my dogs anything unless I am happy with the ingredients.