What is animal digest
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Quoted from the Dog Food Project-Ingredients to Avoid:
"AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto.
A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on."
I bolded the portion which especially highlights why this isn't an ingredient I would be comfortable feeding my dog.
"AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto.
A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on."
I bolded the portion which especially highlights why this isn't an ingredient I would be comfortable feeding my dog.
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That second portion containing the bolded area is *not* part of the official definition above it. The FDA did tests looking for dog or cat DNA in feeds and found none at all in foods containing animal digest. They found pentobarbital in foods containing "meat" "beef" or "meat and bone meal" though which probably came through humane slaughter of downed cows.
Animal digest is simply any animal as the above poster said boiled down through an enzymatic process. It is usually sprayed on kibble as a flavor enhancer.
Cherri
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Umm, no one is claiming that the second part was from the AAFCO definition so I'm not sure why some of you felt the need to state the obvious.
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The first paragraph was the AAFCO def. and the second was the author's interpretation......I provided a link for the quote which is an interpretive website, not the AAFCO.
Regardless I stand by my statement that it isn't an ingredient I would be comfortable feeding my animal as part of a commercial diet.
Regardless I stand by my statement that it isn't an ingredient I would be comfortable feeding my animal as part of a commercial diet.
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there are just too many decent foods on the market to be taking a chance on animal digest and what it really is. with all these lies and deceptions with the pet food company, who really knows what's what.
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I think the best and simplest definition of animal digest I've found is the following -
I would avoid it in a pet food. I like foods where I read the ingredients list and can actually identify what the ingredients are without having to look up terminology or chemical compounds.
(It's from an article published in a Seattle newspaper talking about pet food ingredients. Their source for the definitions is listed as AAFCO, in case anyone is wondering.)
I would avoid it in a pet food. I like foods where I read the ingredients list and can actually identify what the ingredients are without having to look up terminology or chemical compounds.
If most of us knew exactly what we put in our own mouths and did as much research about our food. We would probably put billion dollar Pharmaceutical companies out of business.
Think about it, when was the last time you went to the store and read every label and dissected every item listed?
How many buy the latest advertised item on TV that the kids wanted?
How many have children under the age of 16 with a cell phone.
Perhaps we do more worrying about or pets and no so much on our own children.
Not that we don't need to be educated about what we feed our children, animals and ourselves but maybe the order in which we do it a little out of order...
JMO>........
Think about it, when was the last time you went to the store and read every label and dissected every item listed?
How many buy the latest advertised item on TV that the kids wanted?
How many have children under the age of 16 with a cell phone.
Perhaps we do more worrying about or pets and no so much on our own children.
Not that we don't need to be educated about what we feed our children, animals and ourselves but maybe the order in which we do it a little out of order...
JMO>........
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i read every label of everything i buy at a grocery store. yes i cheat and buy fast food every once and a while, but the majority of food that goes into my system is all natural. learning about dog food is actually what prompted me to learn about what i was eating myself.
Ok, so these are the ingredients I've been feeding. What do you think?
Venison meal, ground rice, oatmeal, pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pea protein, animal digest, potassium chloride, minerals (zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, iron proteinate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), yeast culture, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), inositol, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, beta-carotene, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium bisulfite complex, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), choline chloride, yucca schidigera, rosemary extract.
Venison meal, ground rice, oatmeal, pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pea protein, animal digest, potassium chloride, minerals (zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, iron proteinate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), yeast culture, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), inositol, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, beta-carotene, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium bisulfite complex, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), choline chloride, yucca schidigera, rosemary extract.
I e-mailed Nature's Variety about the animal digest. This is the e-mail I got back:
"The meat by-products used in our pet food products are made of various organ meats such as lungs, spleen, kidney, liver, blood and fatty tissue from slaughtered farm mammals. We only use good quality organ meats, selected because they are low in fat and rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients.
Although the descriptions of these ingredients may not sound attractive to humans, the ingredients are a natural part of your dog or cats diet and help make the food more palatable. AAFCO regulations do not permit the use of hair, horns, teeth or hooves in meat by-products."
I think my dogs are doing very well on this food. Apollo's ears aren't dirty and he is lean & muscular. Their poops turn powdery and disentigrate, and they are not gassy!
"The meat by-products used in our pet food products are made of various organ meats such as lungs, spleen, kidney, liver, blood and fatty tissue from slaughtered farm mammals. We only use good quality organ meats, selected because they are low in fat and rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients.
Although the descriptions of these ingredients may not sound attractive to humans, the ingredients are a natural part of your dog or cats diet and help make the food more palatable. AAFCO regulations do not permit the use of hair, horns, teeth or hooves in meat by-products."
I think my dogs are doing very well on this food. Apollo's ears aren't dirty and he is lean & muscular. Their poops turn powdery and disentigrate, and they are not gassy!
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