I participate in a discussion forum with other pet food “elitists”. This is a group of fellow reps in my pet food company whom I love and respect who have become very well educated on pet foods and ingredients and feel very strongly about giving their pets the world’s best nutrition.
We had a fascinating exchange this week when discussing a holistic brand that someone recently discovered. It clearly shows that even though the pet food eliminates corn, wheat, by-products, chemical preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and uses meat as your protein source, one can still debate about the quality of the nutrition it provides.
Remember, this Holistic Pet Food blog is about seeking the Best. It’s all about seeking out the Top Five or Top Ten holistic pet foods, balancing with what’s available to you and how much you can afford, and giving your pets the very highest quality of life that you can find.
It started out with someone asking a simple question: Has anyone heard of Blah-Blah Organics? Apparently, it was “much cheaper” than our brand.
Not surprisingly, most people look at price as the bottom line, not at nutrition. So the discussion took the slant of … oh, no, that food is much more expensive than ours, and, well, you can get a coupon and that brings the price down.
So I stepped in in my typically calm and reserved way to discuss the ingredients… and, as you’ll see, I wasn’t focused on ALL the ingredients, just the ones that are on my radar.
1. How old is the company and what is their track record? Lots of new pet food companies are a “flash in the pan” and are then gone.
2. This company does not offer cat food.
3. It’s available mail order and pet health food stores, which is not practical for many people but may be okay for your customer. The mail order shipping price at PetFoodDirect is prohibitive, by the way. They don’t seem to negotiate best rates with UPS, which our company does. I can ship up to $200 worth of our pet food for only $7.25
4. Pricing: It’s $29.99 for a 15-lb bag, shipped by PetFoodDirect at $15.49, that’s is about $45 total price, or $29 if they were able to purchase it directly in a store, great. A 15-lb bag of dog food is approximately 60 cups. Holistic non-grain foods are approximately 1.5 cups per day per 30-lb dog; this company did not list recommended serving size so we’ll go with that one.
Tax is not included.
Total price per day at mail order shipping: $1.125
Total price per day at in-store price: $.50
Because the other food has some grains in it, the dog may eat more, bringing at or above our price, by the way.
5. Does the animal like it and how does it do on it? Skin, coat, energy, bathroom habits… On those occasions when I have to use another holistic brand because I’ve run out (happens frequently when you feed $600 per month!), I can tell right away which brands are acceptable and which are not. It’s not a question of switching too rapidly, ferals will eat anything.
(Yes, I really do go through about $600 per month to feed my rescue kitties).
And then we REALLY got into it, in a good way. I’ll just list the points that were raised.
There are no recommended feeding amounts provided by the manufacturer, what does that tell us?
The first ingredient shown is “organic chicken” and then “chicken meal”. In the pet food industry, whole chicken is 70-80% water and can be listed on the label merely for “impact”, you really don’t have that much “real chicken” in the product. And then, “organic chicken”, in the pet food industry, is most often the scrapings from the human food industry, so it could be organic by-products even though it isn’t labeled as such.
Chicken meal is high protein from the natural meat, not the by-product.
There are a lot of grains. Even if the grains are organic, one has to wonder why so many grains are being used, and why. You only need enough grain to form the kibble and keep it from gumming up the manufacturing equipment. Your protein source is meat and your Omegas are from fish oil. So in addition to brown rice, which our pet food uses, why add oats, barley, and flaxseed? We wonder if a company that uses “organic meat” has to make up for the cost by using lots of grains.
Flaxseed is not very digestible. Flaxseed meal is. So what’s this about?
Beet pulp. There is none in this food. It’s known as one of the best fibers for proper digestion. There is a bit of debate on the use of beet pulp, I think you can see it elsewhere on my blog. But generally speaking, holistic vets like beet pulp, so what is this company using for it’s fiber and digestive support? Flaxseed?
Cooking time - How long is it cooked, at what temperature, and for how long? (See, I told you we were elitists, we even discuss the production process). Everyone knows that cooking at high temperatures or for long periods destroys nutrients. Our “standard” is 15 seconds, 250 degrees. Yes, believe it or not, you don’t have to cook holistic dry pet foods very much.
Where is it made and who makes it? Our facilities are ‘APHIS Certified for Sale to the European Union’, which, believe it or not, is a higher standard than some of the U.S. certifications, which we also have. The consumer does not generally know this type of information and it’s usually hard to find on a pet food company’s website. But, like I said, we’re elitists and we want to know these things.
Glucosamine – The sense was that this is done more for a sales point because it’s not likely to add much value in the dosages present in pet foods. But there are no studies and my point remains valid, which is, if we don’t feel it’s safe to use in human kids, why would we think it’s safe to use in kittens and puppies?
As elitists, we want to know WHO takes responsibility for the quality of the product, give us a NAME, like the name of the veterinary formulator. If it was a committee or if the company contracted with someone to give them a recipe (that happens a lot), where is the OWNERSHIP of the quality?
Just an aside: During the pet food recall, I received email alerts from PetSmart because I am a PetPerks member and they had on file a list of my purchases, and I had purchased some cans of a recalled cat food. I noticed that one company personally issued email alerts to their customers. So one of my new personal criteria became that you should only buy pet food from a company that has your name and can alert you if there is even the tiniest problem.
I have since learned that my pet food company maintains, in their warehouse, sample bags of EVERY LOT made. If a problem is ever reported, they can test it at the source. I wonder if the big companies can logistically even think of doing that.
At any rate, it was a fascinating discussion. If someone buys this pet food, it’s probably pretty good. But you get a glimpse of what we’re looking for when we say we’re seeking the Best.
