Blue Buffalo 32 m settlement

Pawz4me wrote:

A confounding factor as I see it is that veterinary nutritionists seem to just look at nutrient profiles. As long as the nutrient profile is met, most of those that I've read don't seem to think it matters what foods are being used to meet those profiles. OTOH the "all natural" crowd tends to think the foods used matter a lot. Just as with human nutrition where the more natural crowd would prefer to get their Vitamin C from organically grown oranges (eating the entire fruit, not just drinking the juice) and those who are only interested in meeting their RDA for Vitamin C are fine with mixing up some Tang in a glass of tap water. Is one of them right or wrong, or are both approaches equally acceptable? After all, they both meet the RDA for Vitamin C. In the end is that all that matters? Or does the quality or amount of processing of the source matter?

I don't like to see big pet food companies vilified because much (if not all) of what we know about canine and feline nutrition we know because of the research those companies have done or funded over the years. That's not a small thing! Do I think they could do a better job of providing higher quality products? Yep.

In human nutrition, we are continually discovering new nutrients that are necessary for life. Vitamin K, essential fatty acids, choline... none of these things were in the syllabus when I was in school.

An advantage in eating whole, natural foods is that we,are more likely to be getting the nutrients that have not been discovered YET, but are crucial. I can only assume that scientific knowledge of dogs' needs is even less complete.

ROBERTSUNRUS wrote:
Don't you think a dogs lifespan might just be a little longer with a quality diet? I do. And to me, that is what this is about.


:) Hi, my dog is 18 years old and the funny part is that people always ask "What do you feed him?" Well we try to feed him good stuff, meaning canned dog food with chicken, ham, turkey, or hamburger meat mixed. Previous owner fed him almost everything that was on the table.

We had four prior dogs, two at a time. The one that lived the longest was 12 1/2 years old. This dog was 13 1/2 years old when he adopted us. To me, it's like some people just live longer, and there is no real explaination as to why.

:) Depends on what you call a quantity diet, whether feeding expensive dog food or Purina I see no difference. If they have a dietary issue then yes. But feeding the dog table scraps & **** then no not a good thing.

The BBs and other companies market to what humans like not necessarily to what a dog should eat. Not saying they are bad but they are way overpriced. We have had numerous dogs over the years and always feed a Purina Dog Chow product. Bizket a mix is 17 he's getting old and feeble but seems to be healthy he gets a Purina product an occasional dog treat but nothing else. One of the girls is 9 the other six they are healthy........ all of our past dogs were well over 10 years with us and not pups when we got them.

Spend your money on expensive food if you like but it is not necessary for long life but as I said if they have issues and need a special diet prescribed by a vet a whole different story.

And as far as oh that's all they will eat, really like us if they are hungry they will eat just about anything......... :)

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Every had Andouille ?

Andouille is not what it used to be. Health depts, at least in Louisiana, where it is hugely popular has force a change. Was a time when it,like Boudin, had hog blood in it. Hogs head cheese received its name because its brain matter was used. Not allowed anymore. I do eat Boudin a lot when I find it made to my taste which is mainly firm rice. Often the rice is mushy. Andouille when I can get it to cook Gumbo, Jambalaya, etc. Much easier to find when I lived around the Baton Rouge area. Tasso is also very good in those dishes.

In Europe it often has tripe, chitterlings, etc.

EDIT: I should have added that my comments for Boudin and Andouille are referring to what is sold to the public. I understand that any and everything goes depending upon what they do in their kitchens for private consumption.

down home wrote:
it had large hairs,or bristles sticking out, of the chunks, of food.

Unfortunately, I found the same thing in the canned beef stew I had for lunch a couple of weeks ago......

How do you know for fact that no pet food manufacturer obtains ingredients from a usda inspected meat processor? This is what you have implied.

The reason the costs are lower is because human consumers don't want the cuts going to pet foods.

You should go spend some time watching a custom usda inspected meat processor do his job and see how much usda inspected bits of neat would be wasted if not sold to pet food manufactures.

Human grade is a marketing term that has no legal definition.

I am Just REALLY GLAD this whole thing was about a 'by-product' being found in their food and NOT something like melamine that actually KILLED pets. A by-product is not going to kill any pet.

A supplier of an ingredient had by-product in it and Blue Buffalo went down for it because it went into their bag labeled no by-products.

IMO, JMHO More pet owners should be reading up about WHERE dog food 'ingredients' come from. Not one ingredient in the majority of the popular dog food comes from an inspected human food manufacturer. And if you read what the FDA allows and lists these manufactures/farms etc are allowed to sell to pet food companies you'd realize where the majority of the diseases/organ failures in pets can come from. Kidneys and livers can only last so long constantly being assaulted with low level toxins in pet food over the pets life.

Corn that can't pass the aflotoxin ppm at feed mill for human consumption is allowed to be sold to pet food companies.Broken moldy bags of all types of feed, dead and diseased fish, Diseased and down cattle,Offal not fit for human consumption, rendered foods not fit for human consumption, all sold to pet food companies.

The beef and chicken in dog food is NOT coming from the same line intended for human consumption. Have you looked at what a steak, lb of ground beef, whole chicken etc cost today at the supermarket?
http://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/AverageRetailFoodAndEnergyPrices_USandMidwest_Table.htm
If these were the same meats and grains that were going into a 40 lb bag of dog food, that bag of dog food would cost $100.00!!

Common sense would tell you that the ingredients in dog food is NOT the same as the fresh, healthy, inspected food we buy in the grocery store for ourselves.......but some dog food companies sure try to tell US it is in their advertisements.:W

Just love the Beneful dog food TV commercial showing beautiful fresh chicken breasts and fresh vegetables falling into their bag.

"Human grade" is not an allowed term on a pet food label, unless the food is made in a plant approved for manufacturing human food. Because of this, there are very few pet foods that are labeled "human grade." However, this regulation doesn't apply to advertising and websites, so some pet food companies will tout "human grade" ingredients in their products.

Here's my take on this....I have had dogs my whole life and they did just fine on the cheapo brands, meaning they lived long (healthy) lives but as with most things in life, priorities change. I don't like paying high Vet bills and if I can feed my pets(dogs) a better, more nutritional diet(without going the ah-natural route), I want to do that in hopes of sustaining their life as long as possible and keeping them as healthy as possible without frequent visits to Dr. Doug. (no offense DR. Doug...lol)

I'm not certain, but its floated that feeding a "better" grade food may provide for a longer/healthier life. I suppose I buy into this notion about healthier pets with better food! (whether its true or not??). I fully realize its a very COMPLEX" issue but just as some of us rely of financial advisers to invest money, I look to some others who have more knowledge about such things as "by-products", "Organ Meats" or whether those pet food manufacturers have any truth in advertising.

I'll end with this, some 50+ years ago my brother went to a meat packing house that produced Hot Dogs...after observing the process of by-products from organs, hoof's(what have you) being scraped off the floor and thrown into the mix....he didn't eat hot dogs for years after this. In the same vain, I'm quite confident that if I visited a Dog food plant, I'd be fairly disgusted with the practices taking place their too!

Long story short, I guess I have my answer, there is no definite source, its all open to interpretation or mis-interpretation of what is good or bad in the world of Food source in general. Oh well...:-)

Deb and Ed M wrote:


The BEST SNACK EVER that any of my dogs ever got was a gift from my Large Animal Vet, who tossed the "un-needed parts" ;-) of a male horse he was gelding, to my dog who was just sitting nearby.

Two of my 5 cats would think that was the cat's meow. ;)

They eat what we give them. They accept it as they have overridden natural instincts to some degree.
I remember one of the big names in dog food, on looking at what I was feeding our dog, it had large hairs,or bristles sticking out, of the chunks, of food.
Our dogs are lightly regarded in many cases. We have had some terrific dogs, devoted to us their family.
Our dog or rather our daughter's has been with us between 12 an 14 years. He saved us, this past year possibly, when someone came in the house, while we were in the kitchen and sent them right back out the door, before we knew what was happening.
So I'm interested his well being and keeping him happy and healthy.
Meat food scraps and such, and dog food Daughter chooses.
If i could afford it he would get his choices, of food every day.

4X4Dodger wrote:

Even a Chihuahua would probably rather be ripping at a bloody carcass of some animal, eating all the tasty bits, like the liver and intestines, bones and blood vessels than face a bowl of the same dried up processed dog food everyday.

The BEST SNACK EVER that any of my dogs ever got was a gift from my Large Animal Vet, who tossed the "un-needed parts" ;-) of a male horse he was gelding, to my dog who was just sitting nearby.