1. Ground yellow corn:
Corn is a low-quality and cheap plant-based protein source found in most processed kibble and used as a carbohydrate and energy source. However, dogs can only digest about 54% of the corn in their dog food. Unless it is slow-cooked at lower temperatures, your dog or cat will hardly get any nutritional value from ground yellow corn.
When the first ingredient listed on the bag is corn, it screams low quality to me, and here is why:
Dogs and cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they cannot thrive and, in most cases, survive healthily without high-quality meat. They DO NOT have high enough levels of the digestive enzymes necessary to break down carbohydrates. This is why the only grains, fruits, and vegetables they eat are predigested and found within the intestinal tracts of animals they eat and only in minimal amounts.
2. Meat and bone meal:
Meat and bone meal, according to AAFCO, is:
“The rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach, and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.” This part of the animal, especially in dense meal form, is high in protein, so it will boost the protein percentage in the food, and your pet probably won’t mind eating it (dogs and cats often eat some questionable things). Still, meat and bone meal isn’t a good quality part of an animal. Plus, it can come from any animal sometimes; this means roadkill, rejected or contaminated grocery store meat, or euthanized animals. Typically, this is also cooked at very high temperatures and lacks nutrients.
3. Soybean meal:
Soybean is a plant-based source of protein. But it’s a plant source of protein, which means it’s not as good for your carnivore as animal protein. Plant-based proteins are less bioavailable and don’t contain all the amino acids necessary, which would be found in meat. Again, it can boost the protein percentage in the food without the manufacturer having to use much or any real meat.
4. Poultry by-product meal:
Poultry by-product meal comes from any or assorted poultry, so it’s not quite as generic as “meat by-product meal,” but it’s not a named protein source. As a by-product meal, it includes “ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.” Again, your dog or cat might be okay with this ingredient, but it is considered a LOW-quality ingredient.
5. Animal fat
Animal fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid). Animal fat is a generic fat. You don’t know the source of this fat. It could come from any animal. Additionally, the fat has been preserved with BHA – Butylated hydroxyanisole. BHA and BHT are antifreeze agents. BHA is used as a food preservative, but it has also been linked to cancer. Many pet foods today avoid using artificial preservatives and instead use more natural preservatives such as vitamins C, rosemary extract, vitamin E, and Citric acid. Another preservative to look out for is ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin poisoning has taken the lives of many pets; it results in elevated liver enzymes and liver disease.
Corn gluten meal and brewer’s rice are other ingredients in many kibble brands.
Corn gluten meal:
Corn gluten meal is another ingredient often used to boost the protein percentage in dog foods. Indicating that the animal protein sources are extremely low quality and don’t have much if any, nutritional value.
Brewer’s rice:
Brewer’s rice is a by-product of rice milling. It’s described as the small milled fragments of rice kernels separated from the larger kernels of milled rice. Brewer’s rice is a processed rice product that lacks many nutrients in whole ground rice and brown rice, reducing the quality. It can add texture to dog food, but it’s not a desirable ingredient as it is just the discarded or rejected pieces of rice that are not fit for human consumption.
Ingredients that warrant serious concern:
In addition to the artificial preservative BHA (which can cause cancer in pets), when the food contains many dyes and artificial colors, such as titanium dioxide, yellow #5, yellow #6, red #40, and blue #2, are cause for concern. Pets don’t need dyes and colorings in their food; some of these dyes have been linked to varying diseases and the development of harmful carcinogens in our pets. Carcinogens are cancer-causing and forming agents that are commonly found in pet food.
When the food also contains menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity) – a synthetic form of vitamin K. AAFCO and other dog food governing departments have not determined that vitamin K is necessary for dogs.
Natural vitamin K is easily found in fish meal, liver, kelp, and other sources and is easy for your dog to metabolize and assimilate through diet.
The same is not true of synthetic vitamin K.
It has been linked to weakened immune systems, hemolytic anemia, allergic reactions, toxicity, and other problems. I would be especially concerned when lentils, legumes, and sweet potatoes are present in grain-free foods, as these ingredients block taurine absorption and lead to taurine deficiency. Dilated cardiomyopathy is linked directly to taurine deficiency and is thought to be the entire cause.