Hidden Ingredients: More Harmful Than what You Are Avoiding?

Concerned pet parents are frequently asking us if Nature’s Logic diets include a list of various ingredients, such as chicken, beef, cheese, fish etc. Usually these requests come after a visit to the vet where allergy testing has been done. The results of most allergy testing are an endless list of foods and other things, which their pet should avoid.

What is often then recommended is an expensive so called hypoallergenic clinical or prescription diet made from low quality ingredients that can only be bought from the vet. Though it can sometimes sounds like the only option, is it really the best for the pet?

Weighing the Difference: Protein Slurry vs. Protein Meal

Dry kibble pet food labels can be confusing to interpret because some of the main ingredients are not what they appear. Ingredients in pet food are listed in descending order by their weight. This predominance by weight includes the water weight when the product is mixed and not the actual weight after the product has been extruded, baked or dried. For example, a dry kibble which uses an ingredient such as “beef” as the first ingredient, which is actually an emulsified slurry, will contain anywhere from 55% to 65% water pre-extrusion and drying. So if the recipe is 70% beef and 30% potato, this company could legally market its diet as containing 70% meat and 30% potato.

What About GMO’s and Protein?

Nature’s Logic frequently receives calls on whether the animals it uses for its proteins consume any GMO ingredients. The answer to this is, “does any company really know 100% for sure the answer to this question?”

First of all Nature’s Logic uses no GMO ingredients in any of its diets. Furthermore, Nature’s Logic knows that the New Zealand grass fed lamb and venison have not consumed any rations containing GMO’s. This would also be true of the sardines harvested in the North Atlantic off the coast of Norway used in the new fish diet.

A Closer Look At Cans

It was reported a few years ago that more canned pet food diets were fed in Europe than dry food. That might not be the case now with the marketing from big commodity diets chasing dollars, but it was the case for certain not long ago.

A couple months ago we published an article where we highly recommended adding moisture to dry pet food to make it more genetically proper for dogs and cats since their prey diet would be very high in moisture, not dry like kibble. Canned food is high in moisture, which makes it more genetically proper for a carnivore assuming the ingredients are proper and healthy.