By products on dog food

Tess

Well I'm quite partial to setters too! Ours are english setters though, but probably share some characteristics with Irish.... very sweet, like to run, kind of have more of a hunting dog brain, ie somewhat ADD!

Criosphynx

I agree.... but byproducts are not the end of the world...they are simply pieces of the animal WE would not eat...but organs and guts are not evil ingrediants...a dog would eat these things if they were killing prey themselves...


heck, when I fed whole-prey, my dogs would EAT the feathers LOL


I worry more about grains and chemicals honestly. These are the things that dogs tend to have issues with. Never heard of a dog doing poorly on a food because it has too much chicken intestine in it.

Tess

Crio, that's cool! How did you get ahold of "whole prey"? Sounds like you stopped feeding that way... did you encounter issues? I would love to find a source for whole prey that was reasonable in cost, for our dogs. I'm doing raw the supermarket way mostly.

Maybe I should be asking this question on a different thread?

Tess

Yes, I agree with Criosphynx that "byproducts" are not in themselves necessarily bad.

Things I try to stay away from starts with corn and corn gluten meal, soy protein meal, and other grain products. Then also any not-named meat substance such as "rendered animal fat" or "meat meal" These can come from "4-D" animals: dead, down, diseased or dying. (I think that's what the 4 D's stand for.) Also stay away from preservatives like BHT, BHA or ethoxyquin.

What you want to see in a good food is named meat products like "chicken" or "chicken meal" or even some "chicken byproduct meal." Its good if named meat products make up the first several ingredients. For preservatives look for "mixed tocopherols" which is essentially vitamin E. The fats need some preservation or they will go rancid, and dogs do need fat in their diets.

I hope I'm giving an accurate summary of what I've learned in books. If anyone wants to correct me, I won't be insulted!

GreatDaneMom

i just wanted to chime in and say to watch what you are feeding because HOD is common in irish setters. it was actually first discovered in irish setters. my great dane had HOD, and believe me, you dont want to go through that. i have the photos to prove it.

a very safe food to go with when dealing with a breed prone to HOD and other growth diseases is Eagle Pack Large and Giant Breed Puppy. its had extencive research done, and has found to work amazingly for those breeds and dogs with a growth disease already. it doesnt have the best ingredients in the world, BUT i would sacrifice that until the dog is a year old as apposed to having growth issues.

nd33

Thank you for the insight. I know these dogs are very prone to it, just like several other diseases as well. My last Irish Setter died when he was nine from Kidney failure. I've taken every single precaution i can to make sure this little guy does not get sick. Luckily, this puppy's family history does not have any crazy diseases. Essentially, they've all been pretty healthy.

Mischief

I agree 100%

nd---How old is your little guy now?
Have you posted pics of him? I love Irish Setters. My brother had one, when I was a kid and I have very fond memories of him!

Dawnben

since Mars bought the company I dont know if its the same as it was before. Generally when a large corporation buys one of these dog food companies the quality of the food goes down. That is just my opinion. I would choose Wellness Halo, Orijien Blue Buffilo. You want a named meat a named fat no by-products or bha/bht as a preservative.
Is this something you would choose for your dogs dinner?
The well-known phrase "meat byproducts" is a misnomer since these byproducts contain little, if any, meat. These are the parts of the animal left over after the meat has been stripped away from the bone. "Chicken by-products include head, feet, entrails, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, stomach, bones, blood, intestines, and any other part of the carcass not fit for human consumption.

In many cases, by-product meals are derived from "4-D" meat sources — defined as food animals that have been rejected for human consumption because they were presented to the meat packing plant as "Dead, Dying, Diseased or Disabled."

Criosphynx

Iam in the reptile retail business, so I have access to feeder rodents at wholesale prices and used to feed those whole ..I also had a coworker who was a bird hunter, and he'd give me his extra birds which I'd feel whole also

Whole prey is VERY expensive. I did the rodents mostly when I had just one dog, the birds were more recent...but they were free...even at cost a small rat is .90 a piece and a small rat would feed only my small dogs...so two of those a day x 30 days in a month x five dogs (more for the big dog)...yeah not happening....

if you do want to look into whole prey...this is a great site, I believe they have birds also

www.rodentpro.com

I had ZERO issues with whole prey items, I had MASSIVE issues when trying to switch to traditional raw. I tried twice before I gave up. I should stop before I derail this thread more.

LDMomm

The site hare-today.com has whole prey products.

I would chose a quality grain-free food. In addition to kibble, there are dehydrated products like Honest Kitchen or ZiwiPeak or Raw foods like Nature's Variety medallions or patties or even DIY raw foods.