[xxxxdogdragoness]

we all know what organic means as far as human food.... but what does it mean for dog food, we all know dog foods dont always mean what they say, i was looking thru the natures variety site & saw on thier frizen raw they had 'organic chicken' & i was planning to get it but it will prolly be more expensive then the regular chicken frozen raw... is it worth it? here is the link to the page about it: http://www.naturesvariety.com/InstinctRaw/dog/orgchicken

 

[Willowy]

Organic is a federal definition, and they're pretty strict about it, even for pet foods. So, yes, it's organic.

As to whether it's worth the extra cost, well, that's up to you.

 

[InkedMarie]

I don't even know the answer to that but the premade raw I feed, Darwins, has two different kinds of foods: the Zoologics is human grade, what most of us eat, the Natural Selections is organic, free range meats. I don't know if all organic meat in dog food is free range or not

 

[Willowy]

The legal definition of "organic" states that all organic meat animals must be free-range, defined as "having access to the outdoors". If you look it up, you can see it's largely meaningless. The regulations don't say how long access to the outdoors is offered (technically, the farmer could open a small door for 30 seconds a day and say his chickens "had access to the outdoors") or what's out there (a concrete slab isn't any better than a confinement barn). If you want to be sure the animal was actually free-range, you have to buy direct from the farmer, or trust the premade company to buy from farmers they know actually let their animals free-range.

There are other reasons to use organic, though. I buy organic yogurt, not because I care that much about it being organic, but because it's the only kind I can find without high fructose corn syrup. And someone on my cat forum uses the NV organic chicken because it doesn't have other proteins mixed in (I guess the regular chicken has turkey in it) and the bone grind is finer.

 

[BlueChaos]

Most of the organic food is pretty deceptive, if you look at the ingredients, often times its organic chicken, followed by chicken meal (non-organic), since chicken is mostly made up of water, once it's cooked, there's not much of it there. So its mostly made up of non-organic meat meals.

 

[xxxxdogdragoness]

i think i will go with the reg chicken LOL, i was just wondering if there was any difference, for the dry food next time (i still have a lot of the venison/millet left so it'll be a month or so til this happens) i think im going with the instinct kibble with the reeze dried raw peices in it.

another kinda related question tho, i am feeding venison food, i supplement with the frozen raw patties, i am almost out of the venison patties & she is kind of getting a little 'eh' about it, i think its the lamb, its mostly lamb meats with fresh venison as the first ingredient & a bunch of lamb stuff (liver, kidney, heart etc..) but she loved the bison one & the beef one (i know they are very similar) would it be ok to mix beef or bison patties with venison kibble?

 

[boxerlover876]

i think i will go with the reg chicken LOL, i was just wondering if there was any difference, for the dry food next time (i still have a lot of the venison/millet left so it'll be a month or so til this happens) i think im going with the instinct kibble with the reeze dried raw peices in it.

another kinda related question tho, i am feeding venison food, i supplement with the frozen raw patties, i am almost out of the venison patties & she is kind of getting a little 'eh' about it, i think its the lamb, its mostly lamb meats with fresh venison as the first ingredient & a bunch of lamb stuff (liver, kidney, heart etc..) but she loved the bison one & the beef one (i know they are very similar) would it be ok to mix beef or bison patties with venison kibble?

Absolutely! Variety is fantastic. You want as much as possible.

 

[Mheath0429]

Do you have any coops near you? I never feed chicken, as I have an intolerant dog, but I can get other meats cheaper through my coop than through my grocery story. For example, I get 30lbs of turkey necks for 21.00 - which is nothing compared what you could pay for primal, omas and darwins. Premade raw is always more expensive.

FWIW, be very careful about meat from supermarkets - they are usually filled with hormones, antibiotics and sodium. If there is more than 100mg of sodium per 4 oz serving, its too much.

 

[amosmoses89]

If you want to you can read this PDF from the Food Marketing Institute. Its a 2003 article so it's a little old, but the basics are still there.And anything for people is transferable to the pet food, if they say organic it has to follow these guidelines!

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06p0094/06p-0094-cp00001-05-Tab-04-Food-Marketing-Institute-vol1.pdf

As for supermarket meats, just look for really small writing that says something like "12% solution of sodium phosphate added" especially in pork and chicken. 99% of the pork in Walmart has sodium phosphate in it. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, its just a water binder that makes the meat more juicy and salty, but you are also paying for the water that is being bound by the sodium phosphate, so its a "value added" product.

Ok end the science lesson for the day! lol

 

[LM222]

I would recommend Natural Balance Organic. My cousin feeds this to her dog and was telling me about how organic chicken is the first ingredient and it is all non GMO and pesticide free. She’s pretty picky and informed about organic foods, and is really happy with this brand.