Brewer's rice and beet pulp are two common fillers.

Many dogs are allergic to corn. There is also too much of it in most foods. Sure, a wolf or wild dog will eat the stomach contents of their prey but that would be a small percentage of carbs to meat. Most wild animals don't eat corn either unless they've been raiding. It isn't a natural diet for cows sheep or horses either. Their natural diet is grass.

Horses will eat almost anything they can get their mouths =---lips on. Young thistle plants are a favorite of horses---before the leaves can get hard thorns. They still eat the purple flowers even after that. Horses will eat leaves and bark off trees, garden plants, and much more.

Does not take much corn to give a horse a stomach ache---and kill it. Corn is considered a 'hot' feed---lots of energy per portion. As a rule, what is not digested is simply passed----look at any horse droppings after they eat feed w/corn.

Animals are a lot hardier then people give them credit for- thats why the recall didn't happen sooner. It still isn't good though, even if the dogs/cats can "take it" we cant and would get very sick, or rarely die from it, and yes there are American people in the word who must/will eat pet food.

They should just ban that kind of food.

Or to up that kind of food make dogs, meat for people- Then FDA will crack down on pet foods.

Considering that dogs in the wild ate the intestines, and in fact their diet requires a certain amount of organ and tissue material, what is considered good for a people diet is not necessarily good for a dog diet.

I think the problem with many cheap commercial diets is not necessarily the grains themselves, but its the amount of grain. The grains should be a secondary or tertiary component of the food, not the primary component.

I know that, but all BY products are treated W toxic stuff to make it unable to go into human food.

I agree about the grains... Grains should be illegal to put into dog and cat food... if not dog food then cat food by far.

I have never heard of treating by products with toxins. That is an amazing statement---could you provide an example?

Go on You tube every buddy and see the video.. What's REALLY in your pets FOOD?

Just got done seeing it... didn't surprise me actually.

They have to put some poison/nasty stuff it TO STOP IT FROM FROM GOING INTO HUMAN FOOD LINE!

It seems to me if 'they' put poison/nasty stuff in the by products, it would kill/sicken the dogs that ate it. I have not seen any large scale reports of that occuring----with the exception of the Chinese tainted ingredients---and those were not by products.

Maybe its done so little, that the effects take a long time to show..... anyway they must do it to stop it from going into the human food line.

There is very little regulation in the pet feed industry... most people would be shocked to know what actually goes into pet feeds. I make my own... I can't feed my dogs the crap that passes for commercial feed.

Dogs are carnivores, first and foremost... if a grain is the first ingredient on a bag of kibble, it's not a healthy feed for your pet. Labels on pet feeds are deceiving... they really need to be deciphered as to actual nutritional value.

It must be remembered that pets do not buy their own food... the owners do! And with that in mind, the industry aims its ads at you, not your pet! If you don't know exactly what a dog requires, and what's in the feed you're feeding it, it might be prudent to research a little...

Most feeds on the store shelves today are complete garbage.

i agree and a danger to the homeless and children.

We feed Innova EVO. Its grain free and better then most.

When animal carcasses or parts are deemed unfit for human consumption they are dyed and tainted to keep them out of the human food chain.

supposedly, what they use isn't harmful to pets....

Guts are perfectly healthy for dogs and cats. Grains aren't.

Cereal sprayed with animal fats to make them eat it isn't a healthy diet for dogs or cats though some seem tolive well enough on it. How long would they live if they ate quality food as nature intended?

Everyone knows someone who lived to be 95 while smoking 3 packs a day and drinking a pint of whiskey too but we all know that this isn't really healthy and millions die early from smoking and drinking.

yep, I'm starting to think making dogs and cats edible may actually help more then hurt, if 5% of shelter cats and dogs were picked up, killed and made into meat for supermarkets, and legally you could take any dog/cat from anywhere, then we'd see some MAJOR change's in this whole pet food issue.

All pet food would have to by law be raised to the standard of human food because there would be a chance that the animal may one day be eaten by people.

Though it would be awful for the unlucky 5% ( I could never eat dog/cat meat) the other 95% would benefit greatly and there would be no more recalls.

I posted this link on the Pets forum and here since I feel it makes the most sense of the situation.

I now have a dog that needs a lamb and rice diet to get rid of obvious digestive system discomfort. I bought a bag of Purina Lamb and Rice---why? Because it has the same basic ingredients as brands costing twice as much(or more) and it made an obvoius difference in three days.

Um, by the way---for the 'Dogs do not need/can't use grain folks who recommend lamb and rice----when did rice cease being a grain?

Here is a link that might be useful: The Dog Food project

I have home cooked my dogs' food for over two years now, since the petfood contamination debacle. I will never feed commercial food to my dogs again.

About toxins in dog food....I have a brother in law that raises mink. They get downed animals from farmers, and use the meat in the mink feed. What meat they don't use for the mink is sold to Alpo for dog food. Before the meat leaves the ranch it is ground up and there is a black powder sprinkled on the meat but if IRC it is not toxic. It's just so that no one will try selling it for human consumption. It's a government controlled thing.

Over the years, my lab began to suffer one allergy symptom after another after the age of 7. She was put on a bunch of medications, expensive shampoo etc. with no improvement. It was suggested that we put her on a dog food without fillers so we did our homework and chose Orijen brand mostly beccause it was so very highly rated - it remains at the number one or number two rated dog food.

Nothing went into her mouth except for her Orijen dog food, dog cookies with no fillers and home made treats of small "bites" of plain cooked chicken breast - I would cut small bites of a bunch of chicken breasts, bake it completely plain, as is, in my oven and cool and put into freezer zip lock bags. I make up a bunch at a time and take out about ten "bites" at a time and keep them in a covered container in the fridge - at treat time I take one out and tear it up into even tiny pieces (for her to feel she is getting a lot of treat at a time) and she gets this about three times a day, plus her little grain free cookie about three times a day.

She no longer has an overweight problem, she LOVES her food and one by one her allergie symptoms disappeared over a period of about two months.

I can't recommend this grain free diet highly enough. The Orijen, at first glance, seems to be more expensive to feed but the dog eats less of it than the cheaper, supermarket found dog kibble so in reality it really isn't all that much more. And the dog loves it. And the savings in our vet bill now probably is in the multiple of hundreds of dollars over the last five months we have been doing this - no more emergency visits because of terrible hot spots or endless scratching or draining eyes, no more expensive drugs which are totally ineffective.

I don't consider the baked chicken to be expensive at all, since each treat is really so small a piece, about half the size of my thumb at the very most. Both dogs just love the chicken bites of course and it helps give them a varied diet.

What she is eating now is tastier to her than the junk food and junk cookies she used to have - this was obvious from the start, she loved her new diet.

Her coat looks terrific, she no longer has hot spots she is licking at constantly, her eyes are clear and no longer run with clear drainage, she is more active and generally a happier, most certaily a healthier dog.

All due to getting her off the junk filler. That is what worked for us.

We put our new puppy on Orijen puppy food and the filler free treats and the baked chicken bites. Why tempt fate, we don't want this brand new puppy to develop problems due to cheap foods found in the supermarkets. If she does develop allergies or other physical problems, it won't be from her diet. Her vet is thrilled with the diet. I just wish she was so thrilled that she refunded to us the easily thousand dollars we spent in two years trying to treat her allergies to no avail. But the world doesn't turn that way and what really matters is that our dog is, once again, happy with good health and comfortable in her own skin.