When selecting the best dry food for your dog, why is it better to go with the chicken meal than the pure chicken?
Chicken meal is simply chicken that has been baked to remove bacteria and other toxins. Chicken is simply pure chicken.
What people don't know about chicken, is that it is made mostly of water. If a label on a bag of dog food says %60 whole chicken, that is quite misleading as that does not take into account how much of that %60 of chicken is left after baking it to remove unwanted substances!
When the label on the bag says %60 of chicken meal, your getting more of the chicken because the product has already been baked to remove unwanted affects such as bacteria.
Explanation:
Converting dry matter basis This can be the hard part. All pet foods have different levels of moisture. Canned foods can have up to 80% moisture whereas, some dry foods can have as little as 6%. This is important for 2 reasons. The first is that the food is priced by the pound, and when you buy dog food that is 80% water you get 20% food and the rest is water. So the amount of food your pet consumes is small and expensive. The other reason for understanding percent moisture is to help you compare crude protein and fat between brands and between canned and dry. The listings on the label are for the food as it is, not as it would be on a dry matter basis. So without converting both brands of food to a dry matter basis you will not be able to compare them accurately. Fortunately, the conversion is not that complicated.
If a dry dog food has 10% moisture we know that it has 90% dry matter. So we look at the label and check the protein level that reads 20%. Next, we divide the 20 percent protein by the 90% dry matter and we get 22%, which is the amount of protein on a dry matter basis. Does this make sense so far? Good. Now let us compare this to canned food that has 80% moisture. We know that with 80% moisture we have 20% dry matter. The label shows 5% protein. So we take the 5% and divide it by 20% and we get 25% protein on a dry matter basis. So the canned food has more protein per pound on a dry matter basis after all the water is taken out. We can do the same for fat, fiber, etc.
» left by Anonymous (2 years 144 days ago.)
Chicken meal is made out of all the scrap meat that is left over at the slaughterhouse. Also it includes all the animals that aren't fit for human consumption. Disgusting. Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (1 year 173 days ago.)
Well, just in case you didn't know, you and your pets have different nutritional requirements so you giving your pets what you eat is probably not the best idea. Dogs are omnivores so they don't need a diet strictly based on meats only. Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (1 year 104 days ago.)
dogs are carnivores, not omnivores regardless of what we may feed them. They're primal diet included of meats and fish only. How many wild dogs or wolves do you see eating fruits and veggies?
Wolves eat the digested fruits and vegetables in their herbivorous prey. They, like dogs, are considered opportunistic omnivores. Some dogs require more vegetables than others.
One of my dogs would pick tomatoes off the vine and eat them (maybe as a side dish to the grubs she loved to eat.) Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (59 minutes ago.) New Comment!
actually, in the wild they start by eating the stomach. Which in most prey animals contains plant and fruit matter.
» left by thegarbageguys from toronto (1 year 129 days ago.)
what they don't list is how the chicken died and the meat by products, they are the dead animals that died from disease or misfortune picked up from vets and farms complete with flea collars, choke chains, leather collars, halters and the plastic bag they were picked up in. It all goes into the grinder. That is where mad cow comes from. Cows eating cows. Just think about it. Where does all the dead deseased livestock go? The answer is: rendering plants and where does the rendered meat go if people can't eat it? It goes to animal food because animals can't complain and demand regulations.
Yes! Finally someone uncovering the truth. Great post. Allow me to expand upon it...
Let's think about it. If dog food companies can put so much quality chicken in a bag of food, how is it that the food can be so inexpensive?
It's because the quality of the meat is questionable.
This from Wikipedia: Chicken meal is a commonly-used ingredient in pet foods. It is defined
by the AAFCO as "the dry rendered product from a combination of clean
flesh and skin with accompanying bone, derived from whole carcasses of
chicken thereof, exclusive of feathers and skin" chicken meal cannot be
made without byproducts. Chicken meal is never suitable for human
consumption as it is rendered. Rendering facilities always process
chicken meal using unrefrigerated carcass up to but not limited to 7
days old and may contain maggots.
See how it starts off sounding wonderful and quickly degrades into the ugly truth. I think the maggots sound more healthy than the meat!
Now, go read about rendering, which is disgusting to me (it might not be to someone else.)
This is a great comment, with correct info about Chicken Meal. It is correct. Unsuitable for humans. I know by-products are even more disgusting and embarassing that we humans would prepare and feed this to other animals. But for chicken MEAL to be not suitable, and the disgusting, true description is a let down that it is even in natural pet foods.
» left by Anonymous (1 year 91 days ago.)
Good article and YES, chicken meal is superior - what is not superior is chicken by products meal. Do your research before attacking the author! Chicken meal does NOT contain feathers! Chicken by products does. Respond to this comment
I would like to clear up most commonly mistake between chicken and chicken meal, chicken meal is most of the water and fat removed as versus chicken contains water and fat, as well it takes 5lbs of chicken to produce 1lb of chicken where as chicken takes 5lbs and probably will only decrease by a fraction with the water and fat still contained. F.Y.I chicken by product meal contains the chicken's head, feet, and intestines as per AAFCO which is hard for your dog or cat to digest. Please people before bashing other people do research and do not approach a situation with your own ignorance and/or judgement. And if you are wondering wat types of food are nuturious for dog or cat research; NUTRO,Blue Buffalo, Solid Good, Wellness,Royal Cann,Avoderm,Pet Promise
» left by Liz from Minnesota (1 year 75 days ago.)
Just put your carnivores (dogs, cats & ferrets) on a raw meat diet. I have for the last 15 months done this for my 2 large dogs. Get a whole chicken and give it to them, then you don't have to worry about chicken vs. chicken meal. I divide a whole chicken between my two dogs. Raw meat doesn't have all the nutrients and enzymes cooked out of it. Plus, it keeps their teeth clean and breath fresh. Throw away the 'crap in a bag'. Feed the way nature intended....a model-prey diet.
Wow, it sounds like a lot of people here are mixing up "Chicken Meal" and "Chicken By-product Meal,' which are two completely different things! Chicken meal is good, real meat, without the useless water content, chicken by-product meal is leftover scraps. What bothers me is that a lot of people are thinking that chicken meal and chicken by-product meal are the same ingredient, when they couldn't be more different! And that they are actually spreading this misinformation and treating it as a fact is even worse!
True. Steve from Ohio and a few others actually provided the accurate information as to the difference between chicken meal and chicken by-product. Quite a number of people had it 'bass-ackwards'.
The other thing I really like is when a person attacks another claiming that they're wrong about their info but offer zip-zero-nada in support of their own assertion...wonderful reasoning process there!
» left by Rod Callahan from Florida (311 days 7 hours ago.)
Straight for the aafco's site : chicken meal is generally a lesser quality of protein source than chicken meat.
make sure you read examples
Definition: Chicken Meal: chicken which has been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size.
Examples: Chicken meal is often used in dry cat food. The quality of the protein will depend on the type and amount of chicken meat in the mixture, as well as the amount of bone and connective tissue processed with the meat. Although better than chicken by-product meal, chicken meal is generally a lesser quality of protein source than chicken meat.
» left by Jennio from San Francisco (304 days ago.)
I work for a premium dog food company. Just to be clear, fresh chicken has to be processed, ie. baked, cooked, dried, for it to go in dry dog food, and of course it's to ensure safety. To think that 'fresh chicken with all that water' doesn't get cooked down and dried anyways to go into a big of kibble is ridiculous. So knowing it all needs to be baked, what's the difference between 'chicken' and 'chicken meal', according to this writer? I quote:
"Chicken meal is simply chicken that has been baked to remove bacteria and other toxins. Chicken is simply pure chicken."
» left by petfoodjunk from virginia (236 days 6 hours ago.)
Liz and a few others are the only that have commented correctly. Any assertion that your pet should be eating processed food from a bag is just ridiculous. BTW dogs and cats thrive from raw meat, bone and organs..not Nutro or Solid Gold etc... Nice try. And if you are worried about bacteria...um, my dog licks his butt as does yours. Stop reading these useless claims on the internet and go watch Animal Planet. If you see any wolves, dogs, cats, or lion's cooking their food, please call Ripley...hell may freeze over.
» left by Tracy from Mesa Arizona (33 days 11 hours ago.)
Chicken meal if you trust the company is fine. The problem is it opens itself up to having by-products thrown in to cheapen the cost of making the food. If Blue buffalo or Naural Balnce makes a food with meal I would have a better ime trusting them than if Nutro or Iams or Purina makes a food with meal. If it ever got out that a premium food was tainted that food is toast. The really good companies would not let that happen.
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