Dog Food

Phosphorus levels in dog food
A decline in kidney function often accompanies aging in dogs. Lowering the phosphorus content in the food you feed to an elderly dog can help to slow the rate of this decline. A comparison chart of different brands and their phosphorus levels is included.

Phosphorus Content in Dog Food

Raw food diets for dogs
There has been a lot of debate on the VETMED list regarding the safety of feeding raw meat to dogs. Yes, there is risk in feeding raw meat, just as there is risk in feeding kibble or dog treats or even raw vegetables.

Risk, raw feeding, and pathogens: a review (html version)
Risk, raw feeding, and pathogens: a review (plain text version)

Pentobarbital levels in dog food
The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine recently released a report on the pentobarbital residue in commercial dog food. Those dog foods that include the rendered materials, such as the ingredient "meat and bone meal" may also legally include the rendered remains of companion animals.

Pentobarbital is one of the drugs used to euthanize companion animals and it is not destroyed by the heat of the 'rendering' process that is used to produce meat and bone meal, animal digest, and some other common ingredients in dog foods. The FDA report found pentobarbital residue, but did not find evidence of DNA from dogs and cats in the foods.

The FDA posted their findings to the web, but they are only available in Microsoft Word "doc" format. I converted these to Adobe Acrobat's "pdf" format for the convenience of those who do not have Microsoft Word or who cannot open a non-html file from a webpage.

Revised 28 November 2003, S. Pober