Did you ever wonder, with all the different types of animal feed available, how we make decisions on what products to stock? Today we will share with you how the store is stocked, and why we would decide to let a product go. There are a variety of things we consider before a new product makes its way to the store floor.

  • Country of Origin – We do not stock any feed that is manufactured in China, but there are some countries outside of the USA that produce excellent quality, and humanely raised meat-based products we do stock. Italy and New Zealand are two of those countries. New Zealand has very strict animal welfare policies in place for all of its livestock.
  • Quality of Ingredients – We research all ingredient labels on every product that we are considering offering to you. We steer clear of “grocery store brands” and also any feed type that is not properly formulated for the animal it was intended for. For example, there was a time that one popular brand, which is commonly recommended, decided to put Peanut Hulls (33%!)  in their Light formula. Peanut shells are undigestable garbage. The shells are also harmful as they are contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals they are sprayed with to reduce mycotoxins and aflatoxins. This was quietly added to the food in hopes nobody would notice. Shady! We continue to watch labels and production practices even after a product is on our shelf.
  • Manufacturers Reputation – A reliable way to determine the quality of the product you are going to get is by knowing the recall record of the manufacturer, and knowing how situations were handled by companies when recalls occurred. Every recall is taken very seriously, but sometimes a little digging is in order. Some recalls have been issued that were totally unwarranted, also there have been instances where recalls should have occurred, but did not. We do not take things at the surface level, we dig into the details.  Finally, we watch the industry very closely, and we ask pointed questions, pertaining to quality, sourcing, and manufacturing processes when company reps come in to show us new products.
  • Safety – How is the product performing? Customer feedback is very important. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have such awesome people shopping here that keep us informed about their pets, and how the products they feed are affecting them. Every review we get about a product is taken into consideration, this also helps us to make informed decisions about if a product stays…or goes.
  • Customer Demand – We are more than happy to bring in new products that are frequently requested!

We are always watching, and sometimes it happens that products we once supported, have to be let go. Any time a company is sold we research the product again as if it were a new item in the store. We watch what the new developer does with the feed and what their manufacturing practices are. Also sometimes it happens that a company is not sold, but new information becomes available, and we may need to reevaluate whether or not we will keep the product on the shelf. That is what happened with the popular No-Hide. I became suspicious when the No-Hide dog chews were causing constipation in one of my dogs, for a “rice-based product” they sure seemed to be undigestable. Then a dog (not mine) got one stuck in his throat and there was a highly publicized debate over whether or not No-Hide was indeed rawhide. (link below) I did two experiments on two different batches of No-Hide chews and the results were this…there is no doubt that No-Hide is indeed rawhide of more than one kind of animal. I boiled down 3 treat rolls and I got 2 different types of hide, one of them was held together with glue that ended up coating my boiling pot. Even with that, I had to forcibly pull the roll apart and got glue all over my hands. Yuck! I have the boiled No-Hide samples here at FON Oconomowoc for anyone to examine, ask at the counter and we will show you. We also have a pice of Wholesome hide rawhide for comparison.

We would like to thank all of our customers who shop here and those help us watchdog the ever-changing pet feed industry.

 

truthaboutpetfood.com/is-it-no-hide-or-rawhide-from-china/ 

Written by Kaye Huebner