Dog.bg Форуми : Капаните на етикетите и съставките

The first ingredient is a named meat product. This is not a meal ingredient, but is inclusive of water content (about 80%). Once that is removed, as it must be to create a dehydrated product, the ingredient will weigh around 20% of its wet weight. Ingredients are listed in order of weight, and the dehydrated ingredient would probably be more accurately placed much further down the ingredient list. It is unlikely that this ingredient makes any significant contribution to the overall meat content of the food. The main meat ingredient in this food is the 5th ingredient, a named meat meal ingredient. This is too far down the ingredient list to give any confidence that there is any significant meat content in the food at all, but rather it is primarily a collection of grains.


Fish meal is a further meat ingredient in the food, but it is far too far down the ingredient list to make any significant contribution to the overall meat content of the food. We find no sign on the manufacturer's website of a guarantee that only ethoxyquin-free protein ingredients are used in this food (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative, commonly added to fish ingredients, and that is banned or heavily regulated in human food due to the belief that it is carcinogenic).


The main grains, and main ingredients, in the food are brewers rice, corn and wheat. Brewers rice is a low quality grain and byproduct. Corn is a difficult to digest grain of limited value in dog food. It is also commonly associated with allergy problems. Corn gluten meal it is that part of the commercial shelled corn that remains after the extraction of the larger portion of the starch, gluten, and term by the processes employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup. In plain English, the remains of corn after most of the nutritious bits have been removed. Wheat is believed by many to be the leading cause of food allegy problems in dogs; in this product at least is a whole grain. Oatmeal and barley are further grains in the food. They are good quality, but a long way down the ingredient list.


Animal fat is an ingredient of unidentified origin for which it is impossible to determine species, source or quality. Unidentified ingredients are usually very low quality. AAFCO define this asobtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative". We would prefer to see the use of whole eggs rather than egg product in the food.


Beet pulp is controversial filler which appears to be used in large quantities in this food. It is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required. We note the use of synthetic vitamin K, a substance linked to liver problems and that is progressively being removed from better quality products.