Pet Food Companies

Pet food companies: they never fail to amaze me. While reading a mailing list this morning, I read about a brand of dog food that I haven't heard of yet: "Taste of the Wild." I did a web search and found their web page. Check it out, as always, very slick advertising. Here is the list of ingredients for their "High Prairie Roasted Bison & Venison" flavor. Looks great, huh? Four meat ingredients first, although, they really should re-name it "High Prairie Roasted Bison, Venison, Lamb and Chicken" as there is more than bison and venison in the product.

"Bison, venison, lamb meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, canola oil, roasted bison, roasted venison, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevesiae fermentation solubles, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid."

I always have to laugh at pet food ingredient labels, "bison" is listed first, but later down the list there is "roasted bison." Is the bison that is listed first sauteed rather than roasted? I suppose listing the same meat ingredient twice (the same is done for venison) makes it look like there's more meat in the product than other ingredients. Tomato pomace is a byproduct of tomato sauce production, so why add tomato pumace and add tomatoes as well? Why not just add tomatoes?

What I found extremely interesting about this company is when I wrote to them asking for samples (they make good, easy to transport training treats) I got an e-mail back from vetinfo@diamondpet.com. Diamond, a company that produces low-end pet food products is now marketing this high end "natural" product because there is a demand for it. Why, why, why can't they just offer high quality ingredients to begin with?

On the list that I saw this pet food mentioned, several people mentioned that they'd like to feed it, but it was too expensive. Maybe if pet food were manufactured from high quality ingredients, which would be more expensive, people would keep fewer pets.

I am so glad I made the decision some 15-odd years ago now to feed my cats and dogs "the kind of natural, balanced diet that he could find in the wild" (taken from the above web site).