Pet food

As I am a fish keeper, I know that the quality of fish food does matter. I always buy high quality good brands, such as New Life Spectrum, Omega One, Hikari.

New Life spectrum pellets are made of fresh krill mostly, while Omega One flakes are made of whole salmon. Compare to other lesser brands whose fish food are most leftover of fish(usually skin, while good parts were processed for human consumption), the nutritious value of good brands do make a difference.
I can see the fish colors are better after I switched to good brands.

It is also said that fish need more than one type of food in order to have a balanced diet. Some food might be rich in certain nutrients, while lack in some other. That is why I keep several different brands of fish food and rotate them on different days of the week.

Well that is just for fish. I don't know anything about other pets' food.

I wonder, if it is also the same with other pet food? Do dog food and cat food also have this huge of a brand and quality differences? Do they also need more than one type of food to have a balanced diet?

As we are talking about pet food in general let me toss out what I have found about dog food. Look at the ingredients lists. Meat (not meal) of some type should be the first ingredient. There should be no corn, wheat or by-products. Innova, Wellness, Orijen & Merrick are a few of the good brands out there. Just as with humans the better the food (nutrition) the better the health. While people can live on junk food for a time, their health suffers. Same with dogs, they can live on the cheaper brands of dog food BUT A low cost poor quality food that will have you asking questions like,"why does my dogs breath smell so bad?" "why does my dog have a bad body odor?" "what can i give my dog to give it a shiny coat?" "why does my dog scratch all the time?" That's what cheap food can do for your dog. Now a premium quality food has the nutrients a dog needs without the corn and wheat fillers that cause problems and they don't have by products (want to feed your dog cancerous tissue?) Premium quality foods come at a higher price but they are worth it.

I am trying to figure out how this works to answer questions.
You mentioned more poop with poor quality fish food. It is the same with dog food. If you feed the better dog foods you get a smaller, firmer, less stinky stool.
Like you I do not stick to just one food. My guy gets a blend of a few of the premium quality foods. I buy Merrick, Wellness, Blue and Orijen and mix them. Yes, there is a big difference in feeding a dog food with "Chicken" as the first ingredient than feeding one with "Corn" as the first ingredient.

Now you mention that "meal".

It just reminded me it's the same in fish food. Anything with "fish meal" in fish food means it's leftover of fish in the food, mostly fish skins.

Omega One brand of fish food has "whole salmon", it means they throw in entire salmons. New Life Spectrum has "whole krill". This is why some brands are better than the others.

You also talked about filler. Same thing in fish food. It is like eating popcorn, no real nutritious, and more poop, although certain amount of filler is needed to make sure the food won't fall apart easily.

Premium quality fish food also often have enhanced vitamins.
They cost more, but they are worth it for sure!

Do you feed just one type of food to your dogs? As I rotate different brands on different days of the week to feed my fish.

(02-22-2012, 06:37 AM)Ram8349 Wrote: Now you mention that "meal".

It just reminded me it's the same in fish food. Anything with "fish meal" in fish food means it's leftover of fish in the food, mostly fish skins.

Omega One brand of fish food has "whole salmon", it means they throw in entire salmons. New Life Spectrum has "whole krill". This is why some brands are better than the others.

You also talked about filler. Same thing in fish food. It is like eating popcorn, no real nutritious, and more poop, although certain amount of filler is needed to make sure the food won't fall apart easily.

Premium quality fish food also often have enhanced vitamins.
They cost more, but they are worth it for sure!

Do you feed just one type of food to your dogs? As I rotate different brands on different days of the week to feed my fish.

You mentioned more poop with poor quality fish food. It's the same with dog food. You feed the better brands you get smaller, firmer less stinky stool.

That is because they can't digest those filler garbage.

Same thing with cat food. I don't know about fish, but with both dry cat and dog food, ingredients are listed in order by volume, greatest to least measured by weight, and the first three ingredients make up the bulk of the food, and at lease one of these three should be a good meat source.. This makes it a bit easier when reading ingredient labels. Also, the Department of Agriculture has layed down strict rules for the termanology. If it says simply "chicken" this means chicken meat, the same cuts a human would eat. "Byproducts" means the less desirable parts like intestines, stomachs, skin, whatever. While animals in the wild would eat these parts of their kills, and it does help balance their nutrition, meat is better. Also, the term "meal" means animal products that have been ground up and dehydrated. Since ingredients are ranked by weight, having the water weight removed means you are getting more of the animal product for the wieight. On the other hand, this processing to cook, grind, and dehydrate the animal parts does remove some of the nutrient value. Still, "chicken meal" is better than "chicken byproduct meal".
I hope this makes label reading a little easier. I got most my info from a vet-tech friend and several pet food reps, so I trust it to be fairly acurate. (I hope).

They do list their list of ingredients by volume or weight in the order of from most to least in fish food as well. When I see "fish meal" on the first, it is a big no no for me. I like to see "whole salmon" and "whole krill" on the top lists. Hey, I would eat that too haha !

I have not seen "byproducts" on any fish food.
"Fish meal" is mostly fish skin and organs etc. leftover. No where as "whole", but I doubt you will see "whole pig", "whole cow", "whole chicken", on the labels of dog food and cat food.

Do you also have any thing like "enhanced vitamins" in dog food and cat food? It is a very important part of fish food since in the wild even the predator fish still have diet of veggie when they swallow veggie eating fish whole.

This is a copy of the ingredients list on Wellness 5, one of the foods I feed my guy. Yes it does contain added vitamins.
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Ground Barley, Ground Brown Rice, Tomato Pomace, Rye Flour, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Tomatoes, Rice Bran, Whitefish, Natural Chicken Flavor, Carrots, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Ground Flaxseed, Ground Millet, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins [Beta-Carotene, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement], Minerals [Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite], Choline Chloride, Mixed Tocopherols (added to preserve freshness), Taurine, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Chicory Root Extract, Garlic Powder, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Green Tea Extract, Dried Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation products, Rosemary Extract.This is a naturally preserved product.

I recieved a posting on facebook that someone forewarded about pet food contents with regard to the melamine poising a few yars ago due to imported ingredients. They pointed out that many of these added vitamins are because cooking the food, and heating it in the canning process causes it to lose vitamins which then have to be added back in. The point of the article was that these added vitamins often come as a pre-mix that the pet food manaufacturers buy from other sources, and the labels don't state if the source is over seas or not. I can't speak as to the acuracy of the statement about the source of the pre-mix, but it does make sense to me that vitamins would be lost in cooking and need to be replaced.

If I can find the link to that article again, I'll post it here.

Sometimes they do add extra vitamins which did not exist in the ingredients they use in the pet food.

Take a look at Omege One garlic flakes (fish food)
For all marine fish. Made with fresh seafood and 2 percent garlic.

Rich in Omega 3 & 6 HUFAs. Natural pigments in salmon skins for vibrant colors. Fresh, natural fats. An abundance and variety of fresh seafood protein means less starch. Doesn't cloud water.

Ingredients: whole herring, whole salmon, halibut, black cod, seafood mix (krill, rockfish, shrimp, squid, clams, salmon eggs, and octopus), wheat flour, wheat gluten, fresh kelp, spirulina, garlic, lecithin, astaxanthin, L-Ascorbyl-2 phosphate (source of vitamin C), natural and artificial colors, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, inositol, tocopherol (preservative), ethoxyquin (preservative).

Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein (min.) 39.0%
Crude Fat (min.) 10.0%
Crude Fiber (max.) 4.0%
Moisture (max.) 8.5%
Ash (max.) 9.0%
Phosphorus (min.) 0.5%
Omega 3 (min.) 2.0%
Omega 6 (min.) 1.0%

Available in 1 oz. and 2.2 oz. sizes.



And also New Life Spectrum pellets
Typical Ingredients: Whole Antarctic Krill Meal, Whole Herring Meal, Wheat Flour, Whole Squid Meal, Algae Meal, Soybean Isolate, Beta Carotene, Spirulina, Garlic, Vegetable and Fruit Extract (Spinach, Broccoli, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomato, Pea, Red and Green Cabbage, Apple, Apricot, Mango, Kiwi, Papaya, Peach, Pear), Vitamin A Acetate, D-Activated Animal-Sterol (D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine, DL Alphatocophero ( E ), Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Niacin, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, L-Ascorby-2-Polyphosphate (Stable C), Ethylenediamine dihydroiodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Choline Chloride.


Tons of vitamins we don't usually hear about lol.

If you also noticed, the band agent - wheat flour is behind several main ingredients on the list.


Now, take a look at the "not so good brand" - Tetra (it actually self-claim to be "leading brand" lol)

Contains fish meal, dried yeast, ground brown rice, shrimp meal, wheat gluten, potato protein, dehulled soybean meal, feeding oatmeal, soybean oil, fish oil, algae meal, sorbitol, lecithin, wheat flour, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), inositol, niacin, riboflavin-5-phosphate, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), d-calcium pantothenate, a-tocopherol-acetate (source of vitamin E), thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A palmitate (source of vitamin A), menadione sodium bisulfate complex, biotin, cyanocobalamin, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), beta-carotene, blue 2 lake, red 3 dye, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6 lake, ethoxyquin as a preservative and an antioxidant
Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein (min) 46.0%, Crude Fat (min) 8.5%, Crude Fiber (max) 2.0%, Moisture (max) 6.0%, Phosphorus (min) 1.2%, Vitamin A (min) 8,000 IU/kg, Vitamin D3 (min) 1,700 IU/kg, Vitamin E (min) 90mg/kg, Biotin (min) 800 ug/kg, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) (min) 465mg/kg, Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) 8,000mg/kg


"Fish Meal", and the next 3 ingredient are useless.

About the recall on the dog food because of the melamine poisoning The foods recalled were the lower quality foods. None of the ones I feed were recalled. That was one time I was glad I spent more on dog & cat food. There were pets dying over that one!!

Most people would rather save a few bucks to buy the cheaper brands. That is exactly why the not so good brands such as Tetra would be "the leading brand", because it is probably true that they sell the most simply because the higher quality brands cost a lot more.

Can't go cheap on pet food. The extra money worth every penny.

Ram8349, I so agree! Having a 50 pound dog and three cats, we spend a lot on pet food. But I would not have it any other way! When people expound on the virtues of Purina I just shake my head. I would not even feed that to a starving stray! At least I know my pets are getting good nutrition without all the crap fillers that do them no good anyway. Not just their regular foo but their treats as well!

If anyone's interested, I just found out that Science Diet is offering a rebate up to 12.99 on their new Balance pet food. Go to http://www.hillspet.com/ideal-balance/id...-home.html to find the rebate form to mail in. You can also go to the Blue Buffalo web site and go to their Take the True Blue Challange to get a $3.00 coupon mailed to you.

Thanks for the Blue tip. Actually Science diet is not on my list of foods to feed. Blue is great though, thanks!

Science Diet is not my first choice either, but at least now they're finally realising that they're being left in the dust by the much better formulas. The rebate is on a new product, a corn-free formula. Maybe still not perfect, but it is an improvement.

So they are catching on, I will have to check out their new ingredients lists

Well, I went to Hills site. Checked the ingredients list for every dog food they had. All garbage. I would not feed Science Diet to a stray.