Trilogy HealthyPetNet announced their new canned dog food line yesterday. While they have provided one of the top holistic dry foods on the market for the last 11 years, canned pet foods are a fairly recent addition. The canned cat food, Instinctive Choice, has been out for only two years.
When the announcement came yesterday, you could almost hear the cheering and applause… for a moment. And then silence.
Why? Life’s Abundance Premium Canned Health Food for Dogs comes only in a 5.5 ounce can. That’s the size of a tuna fish can. Hardly the 13.2 oz or 22 oz large dog food cans that people are used to. So for people who are used to giving their large dogs 22 ounces every morning and every evening, well, it’s a bit of sticker shock.
A smaller can than what dog owners are used to
I did a quick check of ultra premium, natural, or organic pet foods sold via PetFoodDirect and other online retailers to see if this was typical and was surprised to see that three other top premium manufacturers sell in this size. Note that all would have to add S&H.
- Castor & Pollux Organix sells 24 5.5 ounce cans by the case for $32.99
- Newman’s Own Organics sells 24 5.5 ounce cans by the case for $34.39.
- Nature’s Variety Instinct sells 1 can at a time at boutiques for $1.59 each ($38.16 per case).
- Life’s Abundance 24 cans on Autoship is $29.95.
But why would a premium manufacturer offer a food in such small amounts? There didn’t seem to be any answers, so I went a different direction. How much canned food should a dog eat in a day? Could they survive on the small cans?
Castor and Pollux and Natures Variety Instinct canned each recommend 2-2 3/4 cans (the 5.5 oz cans) per day per 15 pounds of body weight. We understand that the others have a similar feeding guideline.
For even a 75-pound dog, that’s six to eight cans per day of not inexpensive food. Most dog people are multi-dog people and many own the 140 lb dogs. Can you imagine what a household with several Golden Retrievers or Great Pyrenees would feed?!
Perhaps that’s why some manufacturers say…
You shouldn’t feed canned foods exclusively
I could not find anything on the Castor and Pollux or Newman’s Own websites explaining why the small can, or how to use it (i.e., only source of food, topper, or dry food supplement). But Dr. Jane Bicks*, who is not only a holistic veterinarian but a well-reputed pet food formulator, made the announcement for Trilogy HealthyPetNet and offered an explanation that makes sense. She said that a canned pet food should only be used as a supplement, a tasty treat, a break from the monotony of dry food all the time, but never as a sole source of nutrition. That’s because there is so much moisture in canned pet foods that it would be impossible for the animal to get adequate nutrition before their stomachs are full.
What? On canned foods, if your pet tried to eat enough to get their full protein and nutrient requirements, they would fill up on water before they got to the goal?
This is THE controversy of the season
But Dr. Jane Bicks is not the only person to make this claim. Susan Thixton, well-known author and host of TruthAboutPetFood.com, notes that it takes quite a few cans of wet food to provide the daily nutritional needs of your pet:
If you have ever closely examined the recommended feeding instructions on a can of dog food or cat food, you see that it takes quite a few cans to provide the daily nutritional needs of your pet. The reason is all canned foods contain high amounts of moisture. Water fills you up pretty quickly; the concern is your pet might not eat enough canned food. On the other side of the water coin however…the added moisture to the diet of dogs and cats is very beneficial. Cats, especially don´t drink enough water.
These canned foods are excellent nutrition, don’t get me wrong. With the nutrient profiles in turkey, turkey liver, shrimp, and eggs for the breakfast food, and chicken, chicken liver, crab, and eggs for the dinner food, our pets are getting great, well-rounded nutrition. They just would not get ENOUGH if all they ever ate was canned food.
So these foods, and this would be true of the other ultra premium canned foods, are intended to be used along with your dry food. Dr. Jane Bicks said that to maintain a proper balance, you would use 75% dry food and 25% wet food.
SIDEBAR: Don’t believe your pet can’t live on canned food alone? We’re talking commercial processed canned foods, here, not the raw or BARF diets that are closer to what they would get in nature. Read your label. A quick scan of canned dog foods on the PetFoodDirect.com website shows that most canned foods are 78-82% moisture and only 8-12% protein. The PetEducation website maintained by Drs Foster & Smith explains that most adult dogs require 18% protein; puppies and lactating females, 28%. Is it a fallacy to think that if you gave two 8% cans, you would hit 16% protein? Or is two cans still 8% protein because it’s in combination with what else the dog is eating? At this point you really focus on total grams of protein. Then the question would be, have you given them too many calories if you feed many cans?
It looks to me like their target consumer is a fairly well-educated consumer who is committed to excellent nutrition for their pets and recognizes that it comes with a cost. People who are used to letting their dogs free feed on Iams dry food and pour out a large can of Alpo or Ol’ Roy at every meal will not be attracted to reading the label and opening a tasty but very small can of Life’s Abundance, Castor and Pollux, OR Newman’s Own.
There are other important and even exciting differences with the new Life’s Abundance canned dog food formulation, however, they have taken a back seat to the controversies generated by the “how many cans per day to feed” discussion that is now roiling throughout the dog forums. We will discuss those in a later post.
It will be interesting to see if other holistic manufacturers release canned dog foods in this small size… and if consumers can shift their thinking. We think, now, ”We want to watch our big guy gulp down a whole plate of wet food. The longer he eats, the more he knows we love him. ” But perhaps we should be thinking, “That guy is so much healthier on that canned addition to his dry food.”
It’s a whole new world, and after last year’s recalls, we’ve delved into pet food ingredients and nutrition like no other generation of pet parents ever has. We’ve discovered that our pets can live longer and healthier if we feed them higher quality foods. It all comes with a price adjustment and a mindshift. I think we’re ready.
* Some have asked who is this formulator. Dr. Jane Bicks is a highly respected & nationally recognized Holistic Veterinarian. She has been featured numerous times on Animal Planet, CNN, 48 hours, Discovery Channel, Good Morning America & many more. Dr. Bicks is the author of three national selling books on pet care and nutrition. She was awarded 3 Presidential Citations. She has served on many professional boards. She was the President of the Veterinary Medical Association of NYC and was appointed by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help start one of the largest animal shelters in the U.S.A.
Copyright 2008 Teresa Holladay
The Holistic Pet Food Blog
http://IsYourPetFoodSafe.com
This article may be shared in other forums as long as all links and credits remain intact.
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Teresa Holladay is an IT Project Manager by profession and an animal rescuer by avocation. She has used holistic pet foods for over 10 years and is an independent, home-based rep for HealthyPetNet. These are her own personal opinions, she does not represent HealthyPetNet nor does she use this forum to promote her own personal links. The purpose of this forum is to educate the consumer on high quality pet nutrition and to discuss controversial pet food topics in the news. Rarely are HealthyPetNet products discussed, however, this is an occasion where a discussion was warranted.
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Filed under: Holistic Pet Food | Tagged: Cat Food, Cats, dog food, Dogs, Pet Food
Thanks for the very informative article.