Changing protein sources in food?

[Tommy Coyote]

I am in the process of changing my food over from Precise to Fromm. Fromm has some food that is designed to change protein sources.

 

Is there a benefit to this?

 

And just as an aside. Why don't they ever use pork in dog food? I don't think I have ever seen pork as the primary ingredient.

[WildFlower]

I feed Fromms and have been for several years. My dogs do very well on it. I do rotate protiens every so often but I feed the pork formula most consistantly:

 

http://frommfamily.com/products/four-star/dog/dry/pork-applesauce

 

I do mix in other types of food, I picked up a bag of Red Paw that I am going to try.

 

I think that changing protien sources is good for a dog's digestive system but hopefully someone else can give you a more technical answer than that.

 

Oh and as a side note Fromms has a frequent buyer program and sign up for their mailing list, I get coupons for money off or free treats or bags of food a few times a year.

[NorthfieldNick]

I'm taking a guess here: The chicken (poultry), beef, and, to some extent, lamb industries generate older, cull animals from layers, breeding stock, old dairy cows, and old ewes. Plus old rams & bulls. While all this meat can be USDA human food grade, it often isn't very palatable- tough, lean, etc. It's cheap, and makes good processed products like kibble. (Many people I know who feed raw buy cull animals, so it's not necessarily a "bad" thing). Even an old breeding sow will pack on fat & make good sausage, for which there is a huge market. Thus, very little cheap pork around.

 

All this said, my own cull ewes get ground up or made into sausage. Perhaps because they're grass-fed, they're delicious. We even ate an old ram. I've had some rams who were dog food, too. Our old poultry goes in the stew pot. The dogs get the short end of the stick, but we don't waste much around here!

[Liz P]

There are pork byproducts such as blood and fat in some foods. Those companies have been using it for years. I think Ben's theory makes sense.

[Gideon's girl]

Every meat has all essential amino acid, but they all have different ratios. That's one reason I've heard for switching protein sources. The argument for switching up brands is that they use different vitamin mixes, so you cover more bases that way.

[ThunderHill]

Blue Seal (New England manufacturer) makes a pork and barley (no corn, wheat, soy) kibble that's good value. It's the only pork-based kibble I know. But I think it's mostly stocked at feed stores, not in pet stores. I've been using it (alternated with other types of kibble) for a couple of years now. (With various raw meats and other goodies added.)

 

Recently I saw a pop science news article which suggested that there's a relatively high residual presence of antibiotics in human-grade pork (as available packaged at grocery stores), which concerns me.

 

I don't think I've ever seen common pork as the protein source in canned food. (I think I've seen "boar" listed in an exotic "game meats" line of products, selling at a novelty price to go with the contents.)

[mickif]

Besides the antibiotics, there is Paylean ( ractopamine). Given to pigs up to the day they are slaughtered. At one time i used pork for treats until I discovered this. Now I don't eat commercial

pork either and I love chile verde.

 

From a site:

Ractopamine is the chemical given to pigs to make them leaner. In the US it is known as Paylean. These words were used to explain the continued EU ban on this additive: “Ractopamine usage benefits producers, but not consumers. It is bad for animal welfare and has some bad effects on humans,” (Donald Broom, professor of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University).

[ThunderHill]

Another reason to keep switching among different protein sources, so as not to accumulate too much potential bad stuff from any single product. Wish I currently had the resources to raise my own dog food.

 

Alas, additional quick searches show that Ractopamine is also a legal feed additive for beef and turkey feed. (Not in the EU or China, however.)

[Maralynn]

Eagle Pack also makes a pork based food

[juliepoudrier]

Alas, additional quick searches show that Ractopamine is also a legal feed additive for beef and turkey feed. (Not in the EU or China, however.)

Interesting, with all the bad stuff coming out of China, that they ban something the US allows....

 

I'm sure one could get lean pork--as with other meats--if the management practices were changed, including using heritage breeds that weren't bred to pack on huge amounts of fat. I'll admit that I don't know much about the pork industry, but if it's like the other types of factory farming then it wouldn't surprise me to find that pigs have been bred to pack on weight (including fat) quickly. It also doesn't surprise me that the answer to overdevelopent of fat would be to give them chemicals, rather than change breeds or management practices. I'm betting that pasture-raised pigs don't require drugs to prevent them putting on too much fat....

 

J.

[NorthfieldNick]

Julie, you're almost exactly backwards. Most heritage hogs grow slowly, but put on much more fat than modern breeds. The heritage hogs were generally bred to produce meat for curing, preserving, etc. That takes fat- to make sausage, lard for sealing things (like confit). Modern hogs have been bred to be lean, to fit the view that fat = bad.

 

The way to control fat & growth in heritage hogs is to feed them less, or lower amounts of concentrates. Our Mangalitsas, an old Hungarian pig, basically survive on compost. (We finished our fall pig on apples, squash, and milk. He was eating about 4 lbs of grain a week.) They layer on the fat, anyway, but that's what they're for :)/> We plan to keep our hogs for 11-12 months, unlike commercial producers, where the goal is to get them out ASAP.

 

The fat on pastured hogs not fed huge quantities of grain is different in composition, just as it is in other animals.

 

I, too, am not surprised that the industry would turn to a supplement to control muscle/lean ratio. Nothing like a band aid...

[juliepoudrier]

Ben,

Thanks for the correction. It sounds like you're saying that factory pork packs on way too much fat because they are bred/fed to grow very quickly. But you at least confirmed my suspicion that management practices do play a role. I keep thinking I want to try to raise a pig for personal use, but haven't yet decided if I'm up to it.

 

J.

[mickif]

From what I have read Pork industry animals are raised w little space thus no exercise. Actually what I read sounds like animal cruelty at its finest. A zillion years ago when my neighbor kids were raising pigs for 4h, they were out walking the pigs before n after school to get the lean mass. So yep, would seem the quickest way to turn a buck would be fatten em up n give em drugs to make em lean(er).