Dog food

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Dog food is plant or animal material intended for consumption by dogs or other canines.

By its water contents, dog food can be catagorized into following types:

• Dried
• Semi-moist
• Moist

The Making of Dog Foods

To make dried pellet dog food, you need to mix raw materials first. Then the mixture is fed into a machine called expander while steam or hot water is added. Under the vapor pressure, pellets are puffed like popcorn when they are outside. The pellets are allowed to dry, then sprayed with vitamins, grease or any other material that are not heat-tolerant.

Dog Food Contents

Most commercial dog foods are made from materials unusable or less desirable for human consumption. They may include:

• Meat by-products or digests
• Meat-and-bone meals
• Grain by-products
• Restaurant grease

Not every pet food producer use all kinds of inferior materials. But usually they will use a couple or several kinds of them.

Special Dog Foods

There are dog foods specially formulated to dogs that are allergic to wheat, corn, and/or chicken. These foods usually consist of lamb or fish meat.

Popular Brands

• US
  • Dog Chow and Puppy Chow (made by Purina)
  • Iams (made by Procter & Gamble)
• UK
  • Bounce, Cesar, Chappie, Markies, Pal and Pedigree Chum (made by Pedigree Petfoods, part of Mars UK Ltd, owned by Mars, Incorporated)
  • Award (H. J. Heinz)
  • Fido, Winalot (Spillers, owned by Nestlé)