“Crude protein” is one of those measurements that can be especially slippery for us to figure out when choosing a dog food. I feel as though “crude protein” should have a yellow caution flag next to it because this pair of words on dog food labels is so misleading. Protein is the most expensive ingredient in any pet food. It’s also true of human nutrition — that protein, especially good quality protein, is the most costly part of a meal. Therefore, savvy pet owners have learned to seek out high protein pet foods, in the belief that those foods are best. But there is a huge difference in where that protein comes from!

Pet owners believe that the words “crude protein” and the number with a “%” sign next to it (as required by the regulatory body AAFCO) refers to how much animal protein there is in the food. Instead, “crude protein” is actually a chemical analysis of the food whereby the amount of nitrogen present is used to estimate the amount of protein in the food. While nitrogen does come from animal protein, it also comes from non-animal proteins like grains, as well as other non-protein nitrogen (NPN) sources. This obviously creates a gap between what you think you are buying and feeding your dog (especially thinking you are getting a food with a high percentage of animal protein) — and what has actually been used to determine that number.

In addition to this problem, for many dry food manufacturers, “crude protein” includes carcasses and other waste from slaughtered animals and the word “meal” on a pet food bag may indicate the inclusion of such ingredients, along with meat not fit for people. This certainly helps clean up the slaughterhouse floor without having to call the garbage company! Unfortunately, inferior meals can also make a mediocre dog food high in protein — but not high in quality protein.

Since pet food can include a variety of questionable ingredients, and crude protein measurements will always include non-animal protein, I have included some tips on finding a high quality protein dog food:

1. Choose a food that lists real whole meat on the bag as a primary ingredient – chicken, lamb, salmon, etc. — because then you are getting true quality protein, not ingredients used to manipulate the nitrogen levels. The same applies to whole vegetables, whole grains and real fruits — all hallmarks of a higher quality nutrition source.
2. Read the entire label and make sure you understand all of the ingredients. Keep in mind that melamine was added to pet food as a non-protein nitrogen source to increase the protein content of pet foods.
3. Call the pet food company and ask about their protein or any of the ingredients you have questions about. A company should have a well-trained customer service staff as well as a veterinarian or nutritionist that can answer your questions.

Personally, I choose HALO! They oversee their ingredient sources and other environmental variables and promptly answer phone calls from interested customers. I believe Halo kibble is a great foundation for the quality dry portion of your dog’s nutrition.

I just had the distinct pleasure of having Dr. Donna Spector as a guest on CAT CHAT®, to discuss the challenges of giving advice on the HALO Purely for Pets website, answering customer questions on their blog. I wanted to know what it was like as a veterinarian to answer questions from strangers without any personal contact — sort of like I do on the air and in emails. In the course of our interesting conversation it came out that Dr. Donna is a specialist in internal medicine, meaning she did four years of training beyond the basic vet degree — and her area of interest is why so many diseases are afflicting our pets and what we can do to protect them. The topic of the interview came around to the ingredients in commercial dog food (as it always seems to do with me!) and my comment that I switched my dogs to HALO kibble for life, when I learned that HALO’s kibble is very high protein (33%) and made from meat fit for human consumption. For me this was the ultimate dividing line  — making Halo’s commitment different from all other pet foods that use meats of dubious quality and meals made from rendered protein sources, frequently of unknown origin.

No sooner had I gotten off the air than I received the following email from Smokey’s Dad Bob in Atlanta, a long time DOG TALK® listener, whom I didn’t know also has SiriusXM!

Dear Tracie,

I happened to hear your show on Cat Chat® tonight where the subject of meal and rendered meat came up with your guest, and I am afraid that I have to disagree with your premise that “meal ” automatically means rendered and not fit for human consumption.  As an example, the food that I feed my dog is Canidae. The meal in Canidae kibble is made entirely from meats that are human grade.  They would not dare to state this on their web site unless it was true, since the legal ramifications of misstating this would be enormous. I did not check any of the other premium foods that are available like Solid Gold, Innova, etc… but I am positive that they are also made of human grade meat meal.

I was interested to have Bob’s feedback and checked out the Canidae website, where sure enough it states the meat sources are human grade — which is fabulous news! How wonderful to know there is more than one pet food company making this pledge about their meat source.  It should also be noted that all pet food contains some ingredients which are fit for human consumption — along with others which are downright scary. Halo’s pledge is that all of it began as human edible. However, Bob makes two assumptions which are woefully inaccurate. One is that there would be some “enormous legal consequence” if a pet food company were to tell an untruth on their literature. Sadly, there are no pet food police. It is a false sense of security to imagine that anyone is watching what pet food companies claim on their bags (where actually they are free to say whatever they darned well please), much less watchdogs (so to speak!) over what actually goes in the bags. The pet food industry is overseen by an honor system — and we all know what sort of honor there is in any profit-driven marketplace, since profits are highest where ingredients cost the least. The other incorrect declaration Bob makes is that he  “is positive other premium foods are made of human grade meal” — a faith I know to be completely unwarranted. In fact, a quick check on the websites of the other brands he mentioned does not have the word “human” attached to any of their protein sources. As for his use of the phrase “human grade meal,” Dr. Donna explained on the air that “meal” and “meat fit for human consumption” do not belong in the same sentence.

Bob continued, citing the Dog Food Project as his source of the definition of  “meal.” I guess he doesn’t know that Sabine Contreras, who IS the Dog Food Project, is the Official Nutrition Consultant on DOG TALK® and someone with whom I have corresponded and spoken for years. I obviously value her opinion and respect her knowledge, but there are certainly conflicting views on meat meal — for example, Ann Martin, the guru of pet food ingredients with her book FOOD PETS DIE FOR absolutely claims that any meal is toxic waste. She also says that by-products can be useful nutritionally and are not necessarily bad, being organ meats. Bob cited Sabine’s definition of “meal:”

Here is a mention of meal on the Dog Food Project website.

“Contrary to what many people believe, meat sources in “meal” form (as long as they are from a specified type of animal, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, salmon meal etc.) are not inferior to whole, fresh meats. Meals consist of meat and skin, with or without the bones, but exclusive of feathers/hair, heads, feet, horns, entrails etc. and have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio required for a balanced diet. They have had most of the moisture removed, but meats in their original, “wet” form still contain up to 75% water. Once the food reaches its final moisture content of about 9-12%, the meat will have shrunk to sometimes as little as 1/4 of the original amount, while the already dehydrated meal form remains the same and you get more concentrated protein per pound of finished product. Preferably a food contains quality meat meal as well as some fresh meat.”

The above is Sabine’s opinion from the Dog Food Project. Bob concluded by saying that “it is easy to confuse ‘meals’ with ‘rendered by product meal’ but they are two entirely different ingredients.  I guess I was surprised that your guest this evening was not aware of this.  I think it is totally unfair to the makers of good quality dog foods to put them in the same category as a company like Purina which does use rendered by products in many of their foods.”

While I was glad to hear about the ingredients in the food he gives Smokey, I certainly don’t share his concern that it is unfair to give pet owners the power of knowledge by telling the truth about commercial pet food ingredients — so I turned his comments over to Dr. Donna Spector forfurther  clarification about her statements about meal:

FROM DR. DONNA:

Please note this direct quote from the FDA website.
(It is under the heading “Net Quantity Statement” and is in the third paragraph.)

According to the FDA and AAFCO legal definitions, meat meals are rendered.  I would quote those websites over the others any day.

“Meat meal is not meat per se, since most of the fat and water have been removed by rendering. Ingredients must be listed by their ‘common or usual’ name. Most ingredients on pet food labels have a corresponding definition in the AAFCO Official Publication. For example, ‘meat’ is defined as the ‘clean flesh of slaughtered mammals and is limited to… the striate muscle… with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh.’ On the other hand, ‘meat meal’ is ‘the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents.’ Thus, in addition to the processing, it could also contain parts of animals one would not think of as “meat.”

And at http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/….

“Rendered animal feed ingredients include the various poultry, meat and marine products which result from the rendering of these animal tissues. Rendering of poultry and other animal tissues has been practiced for over a hundred years as a means of salvaging valuable protein and fat content from otherwise waste material. For many years end products from rendering have been used to feed animals. The rendering industry utilizes packinghouse offal, meat processing waste, restaurant waste and animal tissues from other sources including animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter.

There are two types of processes in use by the rendering industry to process this material. They are dry rendering, used by the largest portion of the industry, and wet rendering. Both rendering processes were designed to ensure that the resultant animal feed ingredients pose no threat of disease transmission to animals which are fed the material or to the health of humans consuming their edible products (meat, milk, and eggs). Included are such products as poultry by-product meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal and fish meal.”

Even if the meat protein source is lamb or chicken, it still goes through the process of rendering to create a meal. Obviously the other unsavory things (packing house offal, restaurant waste, etc) can go into the lamb or chicken meal….

P.S. I happen to agree with Ann Martin on the by-products… I love including butcher quality liver (clearly a by-product) into pet diets for its nutritive value.

This question came from Emi in Kent, Washington:

Hi! I just recently discovered you and your website when I was doing some online research on Weruva.  I recently adopted a 10yr old cat from my local shelter.  From the paperwork submitted from his previous owner, he was fed a dry food (or “kitty crack”) diet only.  I am trying to incorporate some canned food and he is taking to the Weruva brand pretty well.

One thing I’d like more information on is the ingredient menadione bisulfite complex (also known as Vitamin K?).  Weruva uses this in their seafood products, but I want to know if this really is an ingredient to avoid or not?

Can you enlighten me on this ingredient and is it safe for my cat?

Once again, Weruva owner David Forman jumped in with more information than Emi may have been expecting!

Regarding menadione, it is a form of vitamin k that is a required vitamin in fish based cat foods if the formula does not naturally contain enough vitamin k and if a manufacturer intends to label the formula as a complete meal. At this time, the pet food regulations do not permit the supplementation of different forms of vitamin k. We have removed menadione from non-fish formulas, though some cans may have old labels. None of the chicken or beef items contain menadione. Please see below for more information about menadione and how we believe our use of it in our fish based formulas best protects cats, and fish based formulas that do not contain menadione may expose cats to serious health risks.

Before our menadione input, I would like to note that we appreciate all inquiries, and we understand that there are many ingredients that are scrutinized. For instance, even now, the actual cans the foods go into are being scrutinized. . . Do they contain BPA? Ours cans do not contain BPA, though our fish formulas contain menadione. Would a customer buy the non-menadione can with BPA or do you buy the non-BPA can with menadione? In the face of all of these questions, we always urge a predominant focus on what is predominantly in the can. For instance, though our chicken formulas do not contain menadione, let’s assume that they do. Chicken accounts for approximately 50% of the formulas and when we use menadione it accounts for approximately 0.00005% of the formula (million to 1?). Our chicken is just the breast meat, it is boneless, antibiotic free, hormone free and free range. Brand X may be menadione free, but the chicken contains antibiotics, steroids, and the cuts uses are fat, skin, bones and a little meat (fat, skin and bones are not byproducts and are part of the definition of chicken). Which is better, the beautiful chicken which is 50% of the formula with menadione at 0.00005% in the can or the other formula with mystery chicken at 50% without menadione?

Below is an even more detailed response about menadione:

(1) AAFCO REQUIRES US TO PUT MENADIONE IN OUR SEAFOOD BASED CAT FOOD FORMULAS IN ORDER TO BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY DAY FEEDING

The vast majority of pet food does not require the supplementation of vitamin K in any form. However, according to AAFCO, cat food that contains at least 25% seafood on a dry matter basis must contain a certain level of vitamin K, and according to AAFCO, the only approved source of vitamin k is menadione.

peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=1&cat=1399&articleid=657 (stating “Vitamin K does not need to be added unless diet contains greater than 25 percent fish on a dry matter basis.”).

(2) In designing our formulas, we have worked with a nutritionist who has served on several AAFCO boards. When specifically discussing menadione with her, she responded via email, “A couple of websites, that do not seem to have much science behind them, are trying to pressure companies to not use vitamin K3. So for fish items where there is clear evidence that vitamin K is important to the nutrition of the animal, they want you to put the animal at risk.  The only form of vitamin K allowed in pet foods in menadione sodium bisulfite complex. So the K1 and K2 besides not being stable are not approved sources. Some companies have caved, but I strongly recommend that you don’t, especially when you are selling fish items.”

(3) **** MUST READ — For further information regarding menadione/k3 in pet food, please read “Vitamin K3 – is it unnecessary and toxic?” This industry expert states, “this notion that vitamin K3 as an ingredient in pet foods should not be used is unfounded” (petfoodindustry.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=16414).

This article, written by Greg Aldrich, pHD, president of Pet Food & Ingredient Technology, Inc, details the accepted use of vitamin k3 in pet foods.

(3) Here is some insight as to why vitamin k is necessary for cats consuming seafood:

“Clinical signs of vitamin K deficiency have been observed in cats offered two commercial canned diets high in salmon or tuna.” Department of Molecular Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis 95616, USA. (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8840252)

“A deficiency of vitamin K results in prolonged blood clotting time, generalized hemorrhages and death in severe cases.”

(4) Here is a pet food expert’s statement that they are not concerned with the use of menadione:

“Note that I am not overly concerned about menadione, a synthetic form of vitamin K that has many people worried (see The Dog Food Project, for example).” (dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html).

“There has been a lot of concern lately about the use of menadione, a synthetic form of vitamin K, in pet foods. Menadione has been banned for use in human over-the-counter supplements because it is toxic at excessive dosages. This problem was seen primarily in human infants when they were injected with vitamin K to prevent deficiency.

Since synthetic vitamin K has double the potency of natural vitamin K on a per weight basis, this resulted in toxicity. One nursing encyclopedia says that “prolonged consumption of megadoses of vitamin K (menadione) results in anemia,” and that “a daily injection of 10 mg of menadione into an infant for three days can kill the child.” It was this tragic discovery that led to its use being banned.

In comparison, the amount of menadione in commercial foods is extremely tiny. The Balance IT supplement, which is meant to supply nutrients at AAFCO recommended levels, contains 0.0774 mg menadione per scoop. One usage recommendation I’ve seen is to use 3 scoops for 900 calories (for a 35 lb dog), which would be 0.2322 mg daily. This amount is just over 2 percent of the dosage that would be considered toxic to a much smaller infant.

Many substances, even water, are safe in recommended amounts but toxic when excessive amounts are ingested. While I agree that the natural forms of vitamin K, phylloquinone (vitamin K1), and menaquinone (vitamin K2), would be preferable to the synthetic form, my feeling is that the risk presented by feeding foods or supplements that use menadione (vitamin K3) is minimal, and I would not avoid a food just because it contains this ingredient.” (dogaware.com/wdjhomemade6.html#menadione)

(5) Here is why vitamin k3/menadione began to be scrutinized:

“Prolonged consumption of megadoses of vitamin K (menadione) results in anemia, which is a reduced level of red blood cells in the bloodstream. When large doses of menadione are given to infants, they result in the deposit of pigments in the brain, nerve damage, the destruction of red blood cells (hemolysis), and death. A daily injection of 10 mg of menadione into an infant for three days can kill the child. This tragic fact was discovered during the early days of vitamin research, when newborn infants were injected with menadione to prevent a disease known as hemorrhagic disease of the newborn. Today, a different form of vitamin K is used to protect infants against this disease.” (enotes.com/nursing-encyclopedia/vitamin-toxicity)

(6) Here is how much menadione we use in our seafood formulas:

We use 0.00005% menadione in our formulas. That means in an 85g can, we have 0.00425g of menadione, or 4.25 mg. This is essentially over 3200 times less than toxic levels.

Also, oral vitamin K3 is water soluble, meaning, if it isn’t used, it is excreted. The known dangers of vitamin k3 involve heavy injections.

I have attached a few documents that indicate at what levels menadione is harmful. These documents state that menadione taken orally is toxic at 2500 mg/kg for mice and 4240 mg/kg for rats. Even taking the lower amount and applying it to a cat that weighs 5.0 kg (11 lbs.), that would mean that a cat would have to consume 13,750mg to suffer from toxicity. We are supplying 3200 times less than the toxic levels! (I may be misinterpreting or miscalculating the numbers, but the point is nonetheless the same. We are not even remotely approaching harmful levels).

(7) Natural Vitamin K based ingredients – Based upon our research and advice from nutritional consultants, we have learned that there may be “complete depletion” of phylloquinone, the main component of vitamin k, during food processing. Our food is cooked once, put in a can and sealed, and then cooked again in a retort process at high temperatures at extended periods of time in order to “sterilize” the product. Under ordinary heat treatment, vitamin k is relatively stable. However, we are not lightly cooking the food.

Please see this report on the stability of natural vitamin k:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118510171/abstract

An option we have considered is removing the menadione and labeling the formulas for intermittent feeding only. However, we certainly do not want to encounter a situation where a cat consumes too much of our fish formulas and experiences harmful side effects due to vitamin k deficiencies.

Thank you for the inquiry. I hope the above information was more helpful than confusing. Please let us know if you have further questions.
Best Regards,
David Forman
President and co-Founder
Weruva, Because Weluvya !

A newcomer to my universe! And already using the term “Kitty Crack” — way to go! But also a question about the addition on Vitamin K in canned seafood — the answer to which (from the owner of WERUVA) seems worth sharing with others.

I just recently discovered you and your website when I was doing some online research on Weruva. I recently adopted a 10yr old cat from my local shelter. From the paperwork submitted from his previous owner, he was fed a dry food (or “kitty crack”) diet only. I am trying to incorporate some canned food and he is taking to the Weruva brand pretty well.

One thing I’d like more information on is the ingredient menadione bisulfite complex (also known as Vitamin K?). Weruva uses this in their seafood products, but I want to know if this really is an ingredient to avoid or not? Can you enlighten me on this ingredient and is it safe for my cat?

The first thing I can tell you is that fish is NOT a correct daily protein source for a cat. Cats can have fish once in a while but chicken or turkey-based foods are the most natural meat for them (you’ll find many of my Blog postings about this, and Q&As on The Cat Bible part of the website.) However, it has been determined that fish-based formulas that do not contain menadione may expose cats to serious health risks. So the bottom line is that you should feed your cat fish-based foods only infrequently, at which point the amount of menadione she is taking in will be minuscule.

I passed this Vitamin K question to David Forman, the owner and co-founder of Weruva cat food (my favorite high quality cat food in a can) and he explained that the AAFCO requires that seafood-based cat food includes menadione in order to be suitable for everyday feeding. At this time, the pet food regulations do not permit the supplementation of different forms of Vitamin K. Weruva has removed menadione from non-fish formulas, though some cans may have old labels so none of the chicken or beef items contain this form of Vitamin K.

Tracie

The Cat Bible