Review of Vital pet food

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Recently I had the opportunity to try out a new dog food (well, at least new to me). I had been seeing commercials for Freshpet dog food that you buy in the refrigerated section of stores, but hadn't seen it here locally. I decided to research it, as is typical for me, and found their website. I got some samples to try and agreed to write a review of the food after I tested it out on my guys.

The first thing that attracted me about the food was the ingredient list. There are no preservatives of any kind, hence the need for the food to be refrigerated. There are several product lines produced by Freshpet....Freshpet Select, Vital, Deli Fresh, a couple types of treats, and a veterinary line as well. I tried their Vital line, which is their grain-free line. All the flavors are 85-90% meat protein, and 10% fruits and vegetables. There are no fillers of any kind, and the ingredients are minimally processed to preserve their nutritional values. The Freshpet Select line includes small amounts of brown rice and rice bran in addition to the meats and veggies.

I will use the Turkey Recipe formula of Vital as our example and examine the ingredients. They are: turkey, turkey liver, spinach, blueberries, pomegranate, cranberries, carrageenan, broccoli, natural flavors, inulin, green tree extract, plus a host of vitamins and minerals.

Let's take a closer look at the ingredients.

According to their site, most of their ingredients are of USA origin. The poultry is processed in a USDA inspected plant that processes human food. Due to FDA regulations, they are not allowed to call their meat USDA inspected, however. The salmon is wild-caught. Cranberries are harvested in New England, and blueberries from Canada. While the ingredients are not organic, they are from high quality sources. A couple formulas contain carrageenan, which is a seaweed extract used in both human and pet foods. It acts as a natural thickening agent to improve the form and texture of the food.

The only ingredient I was a little unsure of is inulin. Inulin is an extract of chicory root. It serves as a prebiotic to help nutrient absorption. It also serves as a natural, soluble fiber source to aid in digestion, which is important with a diet rich in meat and fish. There is a lot of good research describing the health benefits of inulin. There is a great article on the site Medical Herbalism that goes into detail about it. There are some sites that state that inulin is not recommended and discourage its use. From my own research, I think the benefits far outweigh any potential issues. This is my own personal opinion. If you have any doubts, you should check it out for yourself.

I received a sample of all four flavors of Vital. I can say that my pups absolutely loved it. They gobbled it up so quickly that I'm not sure they even tasted it. They must have, though, because they definitely wanted more. They did not have any problems with digestive issues when switching from their regular foods to Vital. I was very comfortable with the quality ingredients and would definitely feed it again. Having 5 dogs to feed, 4 of which weigh over 75 lbs, it would not be very cost effective for me to feed it exclusively. I like to rotate my dogs' foods between several high quality kibbles, a dehydrated raw food mix, and my own homemade dog food. I would have no qualms about adding Vital into my rotation of foods. Unfortunately it is not yet available very close to me, but I will be watching for it and will purchase some when I find it.

To sum it all up, it is a great, high quality food that your pets should absolutely love. I would definitely recommend it.

If you want to learn more, here is the link to their site. Freshpet.

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Halo shares its recipe for "Spot's Stew"

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Halo is a terrific company that sells natural and holistic pet foods and products. I can testify that their stuff is first rate. I have personally used their supplements, grooming products and foods with great results. The best part is there are no chemicals or filler ingredients in any of it. Their "Spot's Stew" is wonderful. All the ingredients are human-edible, and all their grooming and flea products are all natural herbals.

If you want a great recipe for homemade dog food, try this one!
Dateline: Tampa, Fla.

Release Date: Monday, December 01, 2008

Halo shared their recipe for Spot's Stew, the original inspiration for the company, to help people and their pets have a healthy Thanksgiving.

The formula was developed when Halo founder Andi Brown’s pet cat, Spot, was struggling with allergies and other health issues. Spot’s Stew was created in her kitchen in 1986.

The recipe can be tweaked to accommodate cats and dogs.

Spot’s Chicken Stew from Halo
2 ½ pounds whole chicken
¼ cup chopped fresh garlic
1 cup green peas
1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
½ cup coarsely chopped sweet potato
½ cup coarsely chopped zucchini
½ cup coarsely chopped yellow squash
½ cup coarsely chopped green beans
½ cup coarsely chopped celery
1 tablespoon kelp powder
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
11 to 16 cups spring water

For dogs only: Add 8 ounces whole barley and 6 ounces rolled oats, and adjust the water content to a total of 16 cups, or enough to cover the ingredients. According to Halo veterinarian Donna Spector, cats require zero carbohydrate content in their diet, so this would be an unnecessary addition for cats.

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a 10-quart stainless-steel stockpot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat as low as possible and simmer for two hours – the carrots should be quite soft at the end of the cooking time. Remove from the heat, let cool, and debone the chicken.

With an electric hand mixer, or using a food processor and working in batches, blend all the ingredients into a puree; the stew should be slightly thicker for dogs and more soupy for cats. Using zip lock bags or plastic yogurt containers, make up meal-sized portions. Refrigerate what you’ll need for three days and freeze the rest.

Serving size:
Amounts will vary depending on age, activity level, health, weight and season, but here are some guidelines: The average adult cat will eat roughly one cup a day. For dogs consult the table below. The amount shown should be split into at least two meals daily.

Dog’s Weight/Daily Portion

• Up to 10 pounds - 1 to 1½ cups
• 11 to 20 pounds - 2 to 3 cups
• 21 to 40 pounds - 4 cups

For each additional 20 pounds, add two cups.

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To Feed or Not To Feed - The By-Product Debate

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There seems to be a great deal of debate on "by-products" in pet foods. Are they nutritious, protein-rich foods, or are they just junk? I must admit I was a militant "no by-product" person until fairly recently. I have been doing a good deal of research on this subject and my feelings on the issue have changed. Let's examine the facts.

First of all, just what are "by-products"?

Meat by-products in dog food by law do not include hair, horn, teeth or hooves, feathers or manure. It does include organs, including the lungs, spleen, intestines, blood, brains, kidneys and liver, and in the case of chicken byproducts will include the head and feet, backs and necks. About 50 percent of a slaughtered cow will not go for human use, most of this leftover goes into the pet food industry, not because it's unhealthy. How many of us rush out to the grocery store to eat a daily meal with tripe (stomach), chitlins (intestines), and scrambled brains? Ugh. Doesn't sound very appealing, does it? But what about your dog. What would your dog eat if given a choice? (...more...)

Watch a nature program with wild dogs and wolves and you'll see them eating these parts of the animal. Those organs are always the first to be eaten by wild canids, wild felines, and pretty much any other. They don't go for the 'meaty haunch', they go for the gut and pull out all that gooey stuff and eat it. They crunch the raw bones to get the yummy marrow, not to mention the calcium and natural glucosamine from the bone and cartilage. Believe it or not, while organ meats are gross to think of eating to humans, they are also extremely high in natural vitamins and minerals.

Go to any website the promotes a raw food diet for pets and read some of the things they recommend as great things to feed. Or shop the many frozen raw foods that are available to purchase, and read the ingredients of those. You will see that chicken necks are one of the favored items! Organ meats are rich and fed less often, but hearts are full of taurine which is very beneficial to dogs. Livers, kidneys, brains....all those other "yucky" things are full of protein and other nutritional goodies. You can buy canned, green tripe. Tripe is considered by many experts to be one of the most complete foods for carnivores. It is actually the stomachs of the cow complete with partially digested grass, etc. It contains a plethora of enzymes and beneficial bacteria. Freeze dried lungs are a popular treat for dogs, as is dried liver. What about ears? What dog doesn't love a pig ear? Moo tubes, another popular chew treat, are dried trachea. And I won't even begin to touch on the whole "bull pizzle" thing....

The protein quality of by-products sometimes is better than that from muscle meat.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to by-products in dog food. Some say that because a dog in the wild would eat the entire animal when killing prey, including skin, organs and bones, some amount of by-products in dog food is just fine. What you don't want, say reviews, is unidentified by-products, often listed as "meat by-products." Experts say this could include zoo animals, road kill and '4-D' livestock (dead, diseased, disabled, dying). Most shockingly, "meat by-products" can even include euthanized dogs and cats. In 1990 the American Veterinary Medical Association and the FDA confirmed that some pet food companies were using the bodies of euthanized pets as by-products in their foods. It turns out that this practice was limited to small rural rendering plants and a few other assorted links in the pet food manufacturing chain. For these reasons, reviews that do approve of some by-products in pet food say that dog owners should look for specific origin, such as "chicken by-product" or "lamb by-product."

The other school of thought is that by-products should be avoided entirely, and that a dog's diet should contain meat, vegetables and absorbable grains. These critics say that it's simply too hard to know what exactly is included in by-products, and some say that these unwanted animal parts may contain bacteria or even parts from cancerous animals.

Where does all that leave us? In my personal opinion, by-products are okay IF certain criteria are met. Make sure the by-product meal was specific such as chicken or lamb by-product meal and not just listed as "poultry", "meat" or "animal" by-product meal. . If a label says "chicken by-product," all the parts must come from chicken; the same goes for lamb, beef, etc. Avoid at all cost the generic "meat by-products" or unidentified "poultry by-products". Heaven only knows what could be in those.

All that being said, do your own research. You will find opinions on the extreme of both sides of the issue. As I said earlier, my own opinion has changed after a good deal of reading and research. And basically, it comes down to this. Feed what you are comfortable with, and what your dog seems to do best on, but don't rule out a food entirely because it contains by-products without reading a little further. Remember, just because it's disgusting to us doesn't mean it's not great for your pet.

Food for thought.

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Just what IS in my dog's food? Part 3: Fats

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Fats and Oils

Dogs need a certain amount of fats and oils in their diet, mostly for skin and coat health, but also for proper brain development and other critical processes in the body. In this regard some are more valuable than others. As food ingredients they should be specifically named and of high nutritional value. Beef tallow and lard make foods highly attractive to dogs, but they are high in saturated fat and low in valuable fatty acids. (more......)

Fats are highly digestible, very palatable, and are an energy dense nutritional ingredient. Unlike humans, dogs don't suffer from various diseases related to high fat intake - they metabolize fat the way humans metabolize carbohydrates. Since fats provide 2 1/4 times the amount of calories per gram compared to proteins or carbohydrates, it is not a good idea to feed excessive amounts to less active animals, but restricting consumption too much (and often for the wrong reasons!) or providing poor quality types of fat will lead to various problems - a coarse, dull coat and dry, itchy skin often being the most obvious ones. The dog's body will always utilize fat to convert into energy before protein or carbohydrates. Fat is also important for reproductive efficiency, kidney function and the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K. As a less well known fact, it also serves as a metabolic source of water, so a hard working dog is less likely to get dehydrated when fed a diet higher in fat.

If you see a generic name like "animal fat" on the ingredients list, run the other way! Note that the animal source is not specified and is not required to originate from "slaughtered" animals. The rendered animals 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, rancid cooking grease, and so on.

"Beef tallow" is often used to make low-quality food more palatable. Dogs like the taste of it. Beef tallow is very low in linoleic acid and much cheaper for the pet food industry to use than a good quality vegetable oil or nutritionally rich chicken fat.

"Poultry fat" is from any source and is not defined as "slaughtered poultry". The rendered fowl 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), turkey, chicken, geese, buzzard, seagulls, misc. roadkill, birds euthanized at shelters and so on.

What to look for:

►Specifically named fats and oils such as chicken fat, herring oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, flax oil etc. (but not one preserved with ethoxyquin or BHA/BHT. We'll tackle those sorts of preservatives in a future post).

►High percentages of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, but a low ratio of the two. For each percent of Omega-6s at least 0.13% Omega-3s should be present, resulting in a minimum ratio of 7:1. Ratios of 5:1 and lower are preferable. Don't discount a food because of low percentages of essential fatty acids though, you can easily make up for this with a good quality fish oil supplement.

What to avoid:

►Non-specific sources such as animal fat, poultry fat, vegetable oil, generic fish oil

►Mineral oil

►Lard

►Beef tallow

Next time we will talk about the various types of fiber in pet foods. Some may surprise you.

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Just what IS in my dog's food? Part 2: Carbohydrates

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Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are useful to dogs for readily burnable fuel for all kinds of muscular and metabolic activities. Cheap and easily produced sources of carbohydrates are such items as rice, corn, wheat, barley and soy. Hmmmmmmm... sounds like what some pet food manufacturers are commonly using as their first choice for a diet’s foundation.

It is common knowledge and generally agreed upon by experts that dogs are meat eaters and have evolved through the ages primarily as meat eaters. Although now "domesticated", our pet dogs have not evolved rumens along their digestive tracts in order to ferment cellulose and other plant material, nor have their pancreases evolved a way to secrete cellulase to split the cellulose into glucose molecules, nor have dogs become efficient at digesting and assimilating and utilizing plant material as a source of high quality protein. Herbivores do those sorts of things. That’s how Nature is set up at this time.On the other hand, some plant material such as rice, soybean meal and corn have some, although limited, usefulness in the meat eater's diet. Corn, wheat, soy, rice and barley are not bad or harmful to dogs. These plant sources are simply not good choices (we do get to choose what we feed our pets, don't we?) for the foundation of a diet to optimally nourish animals what are, have been, and for the foreseeable future will be meat eaters.

Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, companion dogs eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diet of dogs is a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or intolerance to pet food ingredients.

Let's pick on corn, for example.... it's cheap, takes up lots of room in the bag of food and in the pet's stomach so it will "fill ‘em up", it's a good carbohydrate source so the pet will have some energy, it has a few amino acids in it so the corn will contribute to the protein totals on the guaranteed analysis list, and there's a cheap and steady supply of corn. So the pet food manufacturer makes a corn diet, adds some "meat and bone meal" (which has been cooked at least twice before it gets in the bag and may contain too much calcium) to "complete the amino acid profile" and adds a few other calculated substances so that COMPLETE AND BALANCED can be stamped prominently on the pet food label.

What to look for:

►Whole ground grains such as rice, oats, barley, millet etc., potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas.

►Corn often gets a bad reputation. While it is NOT acceptable as a main source of protein in a dog food (as it is used in combination with corn gluten), as a source of carbohydrates it is no better and no worse than other grains in terms of nutritional value and digestibility. The starch part of corn is highly digestible but the whole ground product has a higher fiber content than other grains (around 7%). It should NOT, however, be listed as two or more of the top 5 ingredients!

What to avoid:

►Fragments like potato product, middlings/mids or mill run of any kind

►Unspecified grain sources like cereal food fines, (distiller's) grain fermentation solubles

►Any sort of grain hull (peanut hulls, rice hulls, soybean hulls, etc.) These have no nutrional value whatsoever and only add to the bulk of the food.

Dogs are livelier and healthier when meat, poultry, lamb and fish are the foundation of their diets. In other words, we should choose to feed them as the meat eaters they are and stop the senseless practice of feeding as if they were herbivores simply because it's cheaper to do so.

Next time we'll discuss the types of fats used in dog food.

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Just what IS in my dog's food? Part 1: Proteins

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• Dog food labels are very confusing if you don't know how to read and interpret them. Things are not always as they appear. Here are some tips to help you make informed decisions on what to feed your pets. (from an article by Sabine Contreras).
  
  The Pet food industry is a very competitive multi-billion business, and the manufacturers of most popular brands spend millions on advertising alone every year, trying to convince consumers that they are offering the best, most nutritious product. Of course they all claim that they use only the best quality ingredients, but there is no legal requirement that such statements must be truthful. It's your responsibility as a pet owner to look past the pretty pictures of fresh cuts of meat and juicy vegetables, the cute commercials and the misleading, biased information about "proper nutrition" and to question the statements these companies make.
  
  Contrary to popular belief, it's not always the "first five" or "first seven" ingredients listed that make up the major portion of a product. The number of main ingredients actually depends on the specific formulation of a food and the degree of variety included, so one brand may have only three or four main ingredients, while another could have eight or ten. (more.....)
  
  
  What you need to look for is the first source of fat or oil that appears in the ingredient list. This can either be from an animal or vegetable source, there are good and bad ones of both, but more details on that later. Anything listed before that first source of fat, and including it, are the main ingredients of the food. Any other items are present in much smaller amounts to add flavor, function as preservatives, help with the manufacturing process or provide dietary benefits (e.g. probiotics, vitamins and minerals).
  
  Ingredient groups: What to look for and what to avoid
  
  Let's take the protein group today. I'll post information on a different group one at a time (it's too much reading to take in all at once).
  
  Protein:
  
  Protein, in the form of quality meat ingredients, is the most important component of a dog's diet. As animals with a carnivorous background, their digestive tract is designed to utilize primarily meat and fat. It is also the most expensive ingredient for a manufacturer to buy and the profit margin on a product is drastically affected by the amount and quality used. Ideally, the first ingredient of a food should be either a specified meat meal, or a specified fresh meat type followed by a meal. If your individual dog's specific needs limit you to using foods that do not include a concentrated source of meat in meal form, I highly recommend supplementing with fresh or canned meats on a daily basis.
  
  ■ Generically named sources of protein or fat (animal ___, meat ___, poultry ___, etc.) are never present in truly high quality products because they are derived from highly questionable sources. If a manufacturer uses quality ingredients and has nothing to hide, there is no need for generic names. Trust me....you would be shocked and sickened by what is included in a lot of the "generic" meat ingredients. I'll go into more detail at another time.
  
  ■ Byproducts of any type are less desirable and only acceptable if they do not make up the main source of animal protein and if the name of the species used is also defined in some
  manner (e.g. "chicken byproducts" or "beef byproducts but not "meat byproducts" or "poultry byproducts"). Byproducts consist of anything but the quality cuts of meat and highest quality edible offal used for human consumption. What this means (on a market with high demand for human snacks like "buffalo wings" and cheaper pet foods requiring flavoring agents like beef or chicken liver digest to make otherwise uninteresting food more attractive), I leave to your imagination.
  ■ Contrary to what many people believe, meat sources in "meal" form (as long as they are
  from a specified type of animal, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, salmon meal etc.) are not inferior to whole, fresh meats. Meals consist of meat and skin, with or without the bones, but exclusive of feathers/hair, heads, feet, horns, entrails etc. and have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio required for a balanced diet. They have had most of the moisture removed, but meats in their original, "wet" form still contain up to 75% water. Once the food reaches its final moisture content of about 9-12%, the meat will have shrunk to as little as 1/4 of the original amount, while the already dehydrated meal form remains the same and you get more concentrated protein per pound of finished product. This means that in the worst case you are left with only 4 ounces of actual meat content per pound of fresh meat included in a dry kibble, many of which contain less than one pound of meat per 2-3 pounds of grain to begin with.
  
  What to look for:
  
  ►Specifically named meats and meat meals such as chicken, chicken meal, turkey, turkey
  meal, lamb, lamb meal, duck, duck meal, beef, beef meal, eggs and so on.
  ►The following are lesser quality ingredients and are not found in truly high quality products, but may be present in smaller amounts (not as the main protein ingredients) in "mid range" foods: fresh byproducts indicating a specific species (e.g. beef/chicken/turkey/lamb byproducts), corn gluten, corn gluten meal. Products that include these as main ingredients should be avoided:
  
  What to avoid:
  
  ►All generic meat ingredients that do not indicate a species (meat, meat byproducts, meat byproduct meal, meat meal, meat & bone meal, blood meal, fish, fish meal, poultry, poultry byproducts, poultry meal, poultry byproduct meal, liver, liver meal, glandular meal etc.)
  ►Byproduct meals, even if a species is identified (chicken/beef/turkey/lamb byproduct meal etc.), since highly questionable ingredients may be used in these rendered products.
  ►Any food that contains corn (ground or otherwise) as a first ingredient, especially if corn
  gluten meal is also a main ingredient and no concentrated source of identified meat protein (e.g. chicken meal, lamb meal etc.) is present.
  ► Corn gluten or soy(bean) meal as main ingredients. Note: Not all dogs tolerate soy products! Small amounts, especially of organic soy, are okay as long as a dog is not sensitive. There are only very few products on the market that include high quality soy ingredients, none of them sold at grocery stores or mass retailers

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That should give you a good idea what to look for as far as the protein content of your dog's food. Wild canids eat meat, not corn, so make sure your pups are getting enough good quality meat protein.

Next time we'll talk about carbs (and yes, for you Atkins fans out there, there ARE several really good low-carb high-protein foods available. I use a couple of them myself for my guys).

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