OVD, or a new technology for the production of cat food. Pet food manufacturing technology

Has anything changed in rendering technology (the process of processing animal raw materials) and, most importantly, in the choice of components used for it?

Most likely not, since the disposal of biological waste is a task that still needs to be solved. The only question is, do dog and cat food manufacturers continue to use rendered meat and bone meal in their products or choose higher quality sources of animal protein?

You can find the answer on the label, and the Feed Your Pet Right website will help you with this. Well, to get a deeper feel for why you shouldn’t buy food whose raw materials include something like “flour from animal products” - read on!

What goes into rendering, or raw materials for pet food?

The rendering shop is literally overwhelmed with “raw materials”. Thousands dead dogs and cats, heads and hooves of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, carcasses of skunks, rats and raccoons - all this is waiting for processing. Due to the thirty-degree heat, the dead bodies have already started new life- there are myriads of maggots teeming there.

Two men with their faces wrapped in scarves operate Bobcat skid steers, which load the future “raw materials” of animal feed into a three-meter-deep stainless steel tank. These people are illegal immigrants from Mexico who do all the dirty work.

The giant auger at the bottom of the tank begins to rotate. The crunch of bones and the crack of tearing flesh are sounds from a nightmare that, once heard, cannot be forgotten.

The mass, cut into small pieces, is sent to another meat grinder for more thorough grinding. Then it is cooked for an hour at a temperature of +137 degrees Celsius.

The product is cooked continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the meat is separated from the bones, turning into a hot “soup”. From this “soup” yellow fat is melted, which rises to the surface and is pumped out.

Processed meat and bone raw materials are sent to a hammer crusher, which squeezes out the last remaining moisture from it and turns it into a fine powder.

The vibrating sieve removes wool and large bone fragments. After processing is completed, only yellow fat and meat and bone meal remain.”

This is how rendering is carried out - the process of processing animal raw materials, during which liquid and fat are removed from it. The rendering factory operates on the principle of a huge kitchen, in which “raw materials” are mixed from dead pets, livestock, poultry and spoiled products written off from stores.

Welcome to the dark side of recycling

What is this disgusting mess used for? Definitely not for food production, right?

Unfortunately, although it may be hard to believe, the resulting product is then sold as a source of protein and fat to animal feed manufacturers. That's right: it turns into raw material for feed for chickens, pigs, cattle, as well as dogs and cats.

Every day, hundreds of factories send raw materials from recycled waste to ranches, farms and animal feed plants across America.

Each batch of feed must be labeled according to the primary animal source used to prepare it.

But the names of the ingredients obtained this way are usually vague, and it is difficult to determine from them exactly what they are made of and by whom.

For example:

• Animal by-products;
• Meat by-products;
• Animal fat.

All these are products obtained as a result of rendering.

Toxic waste

The system for converting food waste into animal feed today is a nightmare. And all because many rendering factories inevitably end up with toxic waste.

The bodies of dead animals often contain certain harmful substances. Fish oil is often contaminated with mercury and other heavy metals. Dead shelter pets are being thrown into meat grinders without even removing flea collars. Insecticide-impregnated patches from the skin of slaughtered cattle are also thrown into the general mess.

Antibiotics and other medications given to livestock on farms become another ingredient in the “soup.” And substances used to euthanize pets are also regularly found in rendering products.

Metal contaminants have many sources: collars, tags, surgical needles. Even plastic sometimes gets into the mix.

Spoiled meat from stores

Every day, scrapped meat, spoiled fish and poultry arrive from supermarkets to factories - and all this is sent to the meat grinder directly in polystyrene trays and cling film. There is simply no time for the painstaking work of unpacking and unfolding.

Plastic livestock tags, pesticide patches, and even the plastic bags in which dead animals arrive from veterinary clinics and shelters all go down the well. Plastic, paper, cardboard - everything is ground in a meat grinder.

It’s hard to believe, but very often the raw materials for animal feed are what’s left after the production of human food - it’s usually classified as “unfit for human consumption.”

Not suitable for humans, but ok for dogs

Here is a short list of already mentioned questionable sources of raw materials and several new ones. Despite the fact that each of them is disgusting, they are all legally used for preparing dog food:

• Waste from slaughterhouses (organs, heads, hooves, beaks, legs);
• Waste from enterprises producing bread and cereal flakes (cobs, stalks, flour mill waste);
• Farm animals who died from disease;
• Roadkill animals (deer, skunks and raccoons);
• Contaminated grain processing waste;
• Fermentation waste;
• Spoiled products from stores;
• Euthanized cats and dogs;
• Restaurant waste;
• Dead animals from zoos.

Drawing conclusions

The pet food industry today has become a scary and lucrative one for representatives Food Industry a way to recycle and sell waste from your production.

This is why it is so important for every owner to monitor the aforementioned questionable raw material ingredients and avoid feeds that contain them.

Look for food from reputable producers who supply the market quality product, designed to improve and prolong the life of your pet.

Adapted from Keith Woods, “The Dark Side of Recycling,” Earth Island Journal, Fall 1990.

What you should pay attention to if you still decide to feed dry food.

The truth about industrial feed (Translation by Valeria Shabaeva)

What is industrial feed made from?

A wide variety of animal waste (heads, hooves, horns, beaks, esophagus, intestines, lungs, kidneys, spleen, blood, subcutaneous fat, tendons, etc.), as well as parts of carcasses that were not used in production" human" food (sites of administration of hormones and antibiotics, areas of damage, tumors, including malignant ones, etc.). The corpses of fallen, roadside and euthanized pets - the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about this, food manufacturers angrily denied this fact, and the American Veterinary Medical Association confirmed it. Expired meat products from supermarkets. Since most companies producing feed are branches of food industry giants, by processing by-products of the main production in this way, they practically achieve zero waste.
Some of the animal proteins are replaced by plant proteins, obtained, in particular, from soybeans, which often cause flatulence, corn - but not grain, but cobs, cake, moldy peanut shells containing aflatoxins secreted by the fungus - the last component in one of the types of feed 15%, etc.).
This practice is particularly noted: ingredients originating from the same source are divided into groups and listed in that order on the packaging, resulting in percentage composition they occupy, for example, 2nd and 3rd places, although in terms of their general content they should be in first place. In addition, it is allowed to preserve the composition of the feed prescribed on the packaging for six months, even if it has actually undergone changes. And for feeds with the so-called open formula, this is the rule, despite the fact that their composition is constantly changing depending on the market value of the components.
Fats are a mixture of spoiled and rancid fats of the most diverse origin.

What is added to industrial feed?

Sodium nitrite is often used as a colorant (especially in red foods) and a stabilizer - in interaction with gastric juice and food components it is a powerful carcinogen.

Synthetic preservatives and antioxidants. Some additives - BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), which are used in the “human” food industry and have long been suspected of carcinogenicity, as well as ethoxyquin and propyl gallate - increase the toxicity of other chemicals substances, mutagenic activity, the body's sensitivity to radiation and the influence of chemical carcinogens. According to John Cargill, there is no doubt that in certain quantities synthetic antioxidants provoke or promote the growth of neoplasms. For dogs, this amount has not been determined and the problem has never been properly studied.

Ethoxykin (effective as an insecticide and pesticide, used as a stabilizer in rubber production, has many similarities with Agent Orange) is prohibited in human nutrition, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified it as a toxic substance. In small doses, it was once approved as a preservative in the production of feed from alfalfa and clover for farm animals. It is found in much higher doses in pet foods. Its use in animals leads to immunodeficiency syndrome, liver and stomach cancer; in people who came into contact with it at work - liver and kidney damage, skin cancer, baldness, blindness, leukemia, congenital deformities and chronic diarrhea. The listed diseases can also occur in animals. Used because it is the cheapest and most effective preservative known. The worst thing is that it is impossible to detect its presence in finished food, and therefore to convict the manufacturer of violating the law.

How industrial feed is made

The temperatures and pressures at which feeds are made destroy or deprive natural properties vitamins, many probiotics, some proteins, such as taurine, which cats need, as well as enzymes that the body has to produce as a result, which leads to pancreatic hypertrophy. In addition, during the production process, new toxic compounds are formed under the influence of high temperature and pressure.

One hundred percent myth

The main advantage that manufacturers and fans of feed keep repeating is its ideal balance. However, it cannot be ideal for all specific animals without exception, since they are not statistically average, they have different ages, genders, breeds, and energy expenditures. In addition, there are individual differences in needs between animals of the same sex, age, and breed. So this dignity also seems very doubtful. And also about the notorious balance: they say that a certain veterinarian, without much difficulty, made from an old leather shoe (proteins), used machine oil (fats) and sawdust (carbohydrates) something identical to the widespread industrial feed in the ratio of these components.

Animal and Poultry Fat

You may have noticed an unusual, pungent aroma when you open a bag of dry food - what's the source of the delicious smell? It most often smells like animal fat, table fat, or other fat that has gone rancid or is considered inedible for humans.
Table fat has become a major component of animal fat feeds over the past fifteen years. This fat is often kept in fifty-gallon drums, and can be stored open for many weeks at high temperatures without concern for its future use. "Compound fat (mixed fat)" or processed fat subsidiaries and when this used fat is collected and mixed Various types fats together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to slow down further deterioration, and then sell the blended products to dry food manufacturers and other end users.
These fats are sprayed directly onto the compressed granules and balls, otherwise the product will be soft and tasteless. The fat also functions as a binding agent to which manufacturers add other odor-enhancing agents such as hydrolyzate. Dry food experts have discovered that animals love the taste of these atomized fats. Producers who are experts in their field make money when a dog or cat eats something that it would normally turn up its nose at.

Diseases that can result from eating industrial feed

Kidney disease (among the three most common causes of death in pets), allergies, cancer, arthritis, obesity, heart disease, dental problems. Accordingly, life expectancy is reduced.

What the owner can do (from worst to best)

Continue to feed only commercial feed. In this case, you should make sure that the feed you purchase meets the standard of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), although it must be recognized that this respected organization (the goal is to develop uniform rules for food labeling) , both the US Food and Drug Administration and government regulatory agencies allow the questionable labeling practices described above. Make sure that the selected feed has undergone chemical analysis (which, however, is not entirely informative, as again illustrated by the story of the shoe, crankcase oil and sawdust “feed”). Therefore, it is better if the food has passed long-term tests. But since all this nevertheless does not guarantee its quality, it is necessary to change the brand of food at least every six months.

Vary your diet. You can add raw vegetables, fruits and meat to industrial feed. It is recommended to use chopped parsley and alfalfa stalks, finely grated mocha and zucchini from raw vegetables. Boiled - carrots, corn, green peas and green beans, broccoli.

Cook your own food. Since you know exactly what you're putting in there, this seems like the best option.

Who produces what and how much does it earn?

Heinz - 9-Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles "n Bits, Meaty Bones, Recipe, Vets. US turnover - $1.2 billion
Mars - Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, Whiskas. Turnover in the USA is $678 million.
Nestle - Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog. Turnover in the USA is $1.4 billion.
Ralston-Purina - Alley Cat, Cat Chow Special Care, CNM Clinical Nutrition Management, Deli-Cat, Dog Chow Senior, Meow Mix, Pro Plan, Purina Cat Chow, Purina Dog Chow, Purina Fit Trim, Purina Hi Pro, Purina Kibbles, Purina O.N.E., Purina Puppy Chow. Turnover in the USA is $1.5 billion.

Once again about the technology of dry food production

To a person at least a little familiar with biochemistry, it is absolutely clear: under the influence of high temperatures, part of the food that even we! We are going to eat it, it becomes either of little use or harmful. At heat treatment very complex processes occur: isomerization (it seems that the molecule consists of the same atoms, but now it is folded in a way that is not “convenient” for the body, or even harmful) and fat oxidation (oxidized fat tastes rancid, and it becomes mutagenic and carcinogenic properties). But fats are still digested. But proteins, these most difficult to digest food components, become almost indigestible.

What happens to protein molecules during heat treatment? I would like to remind you: protein is a very long thread consisting of all kinds of amino acids (there are 20 types of amino acids in plant and animal protein). This thread, bending and intersecting with itself many times, is secured to itself by its own amino acid residues, supporting special form, which is a biological machine - a substrate. The thread sections here are spacious. They are accessible to digestive enzyme molecules that can approach almost all parts of this protein molecule and cut it into many fragments, which will then be absorbed by the body. This is the process of digestion.

And once again about enzymes. Enzymes are proteins (i.e. proteins) that control chemical reactions, which form the basis of the life activity of any living organism - from a flower to a person.
The action of enzymes: improves digestion (breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, fats), eliminates possible discomfort after eating (feelings of heaviness in the stomach, belching, bloating); anti-inflammatory effect (at the gastrointestinal tract level); reduction of putrefactive processes in the intestines; reduction of gas formation, elimination unpleasant odor from mouth; normalization intestinal microflora and etc.

Now imagine what it’s like for the body of a dog that has been eating dry food since puppyhood. It’s no wonder that since mass production of dry food began, the average life expectancy of dogs has dropped by almost half. Without vital enzymes, which a dog can only get from raw natural food, the body quickly wears out, ages and breaks down. The lack of enzymes in the diet plays an important role in the development of almost all degenerative diseases - cancer, kidney, liver, heart failure, diabetes, bloating of the intestines and stomach, and as a result - torsion of the stomach or intestines, obstruction, allergies, etc.

Now let's look at the production of dry food. This process is somewhat similar to baking bread. When you bake bread, you mix all the ingredients according to a specific recipe and get a homogeneous mass. Then this mass is baked and a finished product with a homogeneous structure is obtained. Just like when baking bread, when making dry food it is very important that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. This is where things get tricky because high-moisture ingredients like meat don't mix well with dry ingredients like corn or wheat flour. To solve this problem, when producing dry food, the components are dehydrated before mixing. Concepts such as food with chicken or fish only mean that this component has been dried and crushed. The dried ground meat product mixes well with ground corn, wheat or other grains to form a smooth flour. Therefore, components such as chicken by-products are more often used in dry food. In the production of dry food, the resulting homogeneous flour goes through a pressing process. During production, dry food is subjected to high temperature treatment (150°C) - extrusion, which leads to a loss of nutritional value of the original products, fatty acids are decomposed. For example: the molecular structure of fat processed at high temperatures resembles the molecular structure of cellophane, i.e. a completely inedible substance, and boiling fat turns into benzopyrine, a substance that is carcinogenic, a real poison. This equipment operates as a high temperature pressing furnace. Hot water and steam are supplied to it, which significantly increases the pressure inside it. Inside the oven are paddles that stir the dough as it moves. Then, at the end of the oven, the dough passes through a “meat grinder” with small round holes or holes in the shape of stars, seeds, depending on what shape the “crackers” should be. When the "crackers" leave the high-pressure pressing oven and enter low atmospheric pressure, they expand and become porous. If you break the cracker, you will see that its structure resembles a honeycomb. Although the cracker swells due to the pressure differential described above, its structure is maintained through a process called starch gelatinization. Gelatinization is a reaction between starch granules and water, resulting in the rupture of these granules and the formation of fairly strong and stable units. Thanks to this process, the “crackers” swell well and at the same time do not crumble into powder and retain their shape. Since the production technology of dry food involves gelatinization of starch, the starch content must be relatively high and is usually 40-60%. (To find out the starch content of dog food, add up the protein, fat, moisture, fiber and ash content and subtract the resulting amount from 100%). Since stamping dry pet food is a cooking process using water and steam, and oil and water do not mix well, adding large amounts of fat to dry pet food is not possible. Instead, warm water is sprinkled onto the crackers. liquid fat after they come out of the oven. The porous structure of the swollen cracker allows fat to penetrate inside. When the fat and crackers cool to room temperature, the fat hardens. The fat on the surface of the cracker is exposed to oxygen and can oxidize. To prevent oxidation, antioxidants such as vitamin E, ethoxyquin, and BHA are added to the fat. Without these preservatives, the food would quickly become rancid, but with these preservatives the dog gets liver and kidney diseases and good allergies. Most dry foods have lower digestibility and higher fiber levels. This helps to increase the excretion of water in feces and reduce its excretion in the urine. In turn, this increases urine concentration and increases the risk of urolithiasis.

What happens to protein molecules during heat treatment?

Protein- a very long thread consisting of all kinds of amino acids (20 types of amino acids are present in plant and animal proteins). This thread, bending and intersecting with itself many times, is fixed on itself with its own amino acid residues, maintains a special form, which is a biological machine - a substrate. The thread sections here are spacious. They are accessible to digestive enzyme molecules that can approach almost all parts of this protein molecule and cut it into many fragments, which will then be absorbed by the body. This is the process of digestion.

Now imagine that you have a beautiful macrame at home, which has been captured as a toy by a family of growing kittens. After a few days, this macrame will turn into a tightly matted ball of closely intertwined threads. The same thing happens with food proteins when they are boiled or fried, not to mention the fact that during the production of dry food they are “coked” or autoclaved. The digestive enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract may be able to pinch off some fragments from the surface of this ball. However, most of the protein mass will leave small intestine where food is digested and absorbed, in colon, which does not absorb nutrients for the body. Here, in large numbers, tens of times greater than the number of cells in the whole body, live many putrefactive bacteria of the luminal flora (only the parietal flora of the large intestine is necessary and beneficial for the body - these are bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, forming the mucoid layer of the large intestine, without which healthy life is normal any organism is impossible). And everything that is in the cavity of the large intestine is intensively drained as a result of the powerful absorption of moisture by the walls of the colon and is then excreted as excrement.

Have you noticed that the excrement of animals living in the wild has almost no odor, while human excrement, dogs eating dry food and the wrong food on the contrary, do they smell intense? This is explained simply: the body, supplying its putrefactive bacteria with incompletely digested protein mass, breeds these bacteria in large quantities and intensifies the processes of decay. A significant amount of very harmful rotting products is absorbed into the large intestine, then enters the liver, poisoning it, penetrates into the general blood circulation, poisons the brain and other organs of the body, and is then partially excreted by the lungs. At the same time, the breath takes on the smell of his excrement.

Enzymes- these are proteins (i.e. proteins) that control chemical reactions, which form the basis of the life activity of any living organism - from a flower to a person.

Action of enzymes: improved digestion (breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates, fats), elimination of possible discomfort after eating (feelings of heaviness in the stomach, belching, bloating); anti-inflammatory effect (at the gastrointestinal tract level); reduction of putrefactive processes in the intestines; reduction of gas formation, elimination of bad breath; normalization of intestinal microflora, etc.

All living tissues and, accordingly, fresh food, both plant and animal, are replete with enzymes. Heat-treated food (boiled, fried, baked “until crispy” - as they like to repeat in advertising of dry food) is deprived of enzymes, because Proteins are destroyed at high temperatures.

For millions of years, animals, including dogs, ate foods rich in enzymes. Based on this, they were formed digestive system, which is still trying to work on the basis that along with food that satisfies hunger, enzymes should enter the stomach to help digest it. In addition, enzymes contribute to maintaining animal health by preventing premature aging body.

Now imagine what it’s like for the body of a dog that has been eating dry food or boiled cereals and meat since puppyhood. It’s no wonder that since mass production of dry food began, the average life expectancy of dogs has dropped by almost half. Without vital enzymes, which a dog can only get from raw natural food, the body quickly wears out, ages and breaks down. The lack of enzymes in the diet plays an important role in the development of almost all degenerative diseases - cancer, kidney, liver, heart failure, diabetes, bloating of the intestines and stomach, and as a result - torsion of the stomach or intestines, obstruction, allergies, etc.

Now let's look at the production of dry food. This process is somewhat similar to baking bread. When you bake bread, you mix all the ingredients according to a specific recipe and get a homogeneous mass. Then this mass is baked and a finished product with a homogeneous structure is obtained. Just like when baking bread, when making dry food it is very important that all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. This is where things get tricky because high-moisture ingredients like meat don't mix well with dry ingredients like corn or wheat flour. To solve this problem, when producing dry food, the components are dehydrated before mixing. Concepts such as food with chicken or fish only mean that this component has been dried and crushed. The dried ground meat product mixes well with ground corn, wheat or other grains to form a smooth flour. Therefore, components such as chicken by-products are more often used in dry food. In the production of dry food, the resulting homogeneous flour goes through a pressing process. This equipment operates as a high temperature pressing furnace. Hot water and steam are supplied to it, which significantly increases the pressure inside it. Inside the oven are paddles that stir the dough as it moves. Then, at the end of the oven, the dough passes through a “meat grinder” with small round holes or holes in the shape of stars, seeds, depending on what shape the “crackers” should be. When the "crackers" leave the high-pressure pressing oven and enter low atmospheric pressure, they expand and become porous. If you break the cracker, you will see that its structure resembles a honeycomb. Although the cracker swells due to the pressure differential described above, its structure is maintained through a process called starch gelatinization. Gelatinization is a reaction between starch granules and water, resulting in the rupture of these granules and the formation of fairly strong and stable units. Thanks to this process, the “crackers” swell well and at the same time do not crumble into powder and retain their shape. Since the production technology of dry food involves gelatinization of starch, the starch content must be relatively high and is usually 40-60%. (To find out the starch content of dog food, add up the protein, fat, moisture, fiber and ash content and subtract the resulting amount from 100%). Since stamping dry pet food is a cooking process using water and steam, and oil and water do not mix well, adding large amounts of fat to dry pet food is not possible. Instead, warm liquid fat is splattered onto the "croutons" after they come out of the oven. The porous structure of the swollen cracker allows fat to penetrate inside. When the fat and crackers cool to room temperature, the fat hardens. The fat on the surface of the cracker is exposed to oxygen and can oxidize. To prevent oxidation, antioxidants such as vitamin E, ethoxyquin, and BHA are added to the fat. Without these preservatives, the food would quickly become rancid, but with these preservatives the dog gets liver and kidney diseases and good allergies. Most dry foods have lower digestibility and higher fiber levels. This helps to increase the excretion of water in feces and reduce its excretion in the urine. In turn, this increases the concentration of urine and increases the risk of urolithiasis.

The main foods for dogs are products of animal origin (meat, fish, milk), with the addition of cereals, flour and small amounts of greens and root vegetables. These foods contain all the substances a dog’s body needs: proteins (protein), fats and carbohydrates.

Proteins play a huge role in the life of the body. They are the main carriers of life. The body synthesizes 14 types of proteins itself, and the remaining 8 enter the body through food. Foods of animal origin contain more protein than plant foods. Protein deficiency negatively affects the functioning of the body. And when protein breakdown prevails over its synthesis, the body begins to “feed” on its own tissues.

Fats. The most valuable biological part of fats are polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are not synthesized by the body and are therefore essential (found in edible vegetable oils). Based on their value, they are classified as “F” vitamins. They normalize cholesterol metabolism, stimulate the body’s immunological defense system, and have a beneficial effect on the appearance of the skin. Fats are part of the protoplasm of cells, participate in cellular metabolism, influence the digestion process and are an important source of heat.

Carbohydrates(sugars and polysaccharides) are part of almost all body tissues, participate in metabolism and are a source of energy. Excess of them in food is processed by the body into fat. One of the most important and valuable carbohydrates is fiber. Taking it regularly helps maintain normal blood sugar, cholesterol and fat levels. Fiber promotes the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract (prevents the development of constipation) and cleanses the body of harmful or unnecessary substances.

A dog's need for food is calculated based on its live weight, living conditions (enclosed, tethered or free, in an apartment), degree of workload, coat condition, time of year, temperature, whelping period or feeding of puppies, age and gender. To ensure the normal functioning of the dog’s body, daily norm feed required (per 1 kg of live weight): proteins - 3-4 g (12-16 large calories (calorie is the amount of heat required to heat one liter of water by one degree Celsius), fats - 1-2 g (9- 18 large calories), carbohydrates - 12-15 g (48-60 large calories). Characteristics of dog food are given in Table 1. The increase in calorie content of food depends on the degree of workload of dogs. Heavy work is performed by shepherds, sled dogs, guards (at checkpoints and tight leash, in unheated rooms in cold weather), patrol, search and watch dogs, and hunting - during the season of training and especially hunting. Moderate work includes the work performed by service and hunting dogs during training and training. Increased calorie content of food is necessary for short-haired dogs kept outside in cold weather.

Characteristics of natural dog food

100 g contains digestible substances (per g)

Foods Proteins Fats Carbohydrates High calories

Meat and meat products- are the main food for dogs. In terms of digestibility and digestibility, meat foods rank first in a dog’s diet. A wide variety of meat is suitable for feeding the bullmastiff: beef, lamb, horse meat, glop, meat of wild animals, sea animals (seal, seal, walrus). Raw, completely benign meat is very healthy and is fed to the bullmastiff in the form of small pieces or minced meat. The bullmastiff swallows large pieces very well, since the dog by nature does not chew food, so it is better to cut the meat into small pieces so that the food is completely and more easily digested. The bullmastiff's meat diet should be 2/3 daily ration or at least 1/2 (here we are talking about a meat diet in general, i.e. pure meat + by-products). The meat of old, emaciated animals is of little nutritional value. Meat from calves and lambs in large quantities causes diarrhea. Since meat is the main supplier of protein, and it is impossible to do without it, making proper diet dogs, it should be 23 of the daily ration, i.e. about 300 g - for a puppy 2-3 months old, 400 g - 4-5 months, 500 g - up to a year. 500 grams is enough for an adult dog. The rest of the meat diet can be meat by-products. When planning the diet of your bullmastiff, do not forget that excess meat (for example, completely pure muscle meat) is harmful to it, because in addition to protein it also contains purines, and they are the first cause of urolithiasis and allergic rashes.

Bones. Cartilaginous bones are very useful - brisket, ribs, etc., which dogs eat without leaving a trace. The nutritional value of raw bones is higher, and raw bones are easier to digest. Boiled bones are not digestible and can cause a big problem for the dog (blockage and injury to the digestive tract). Large beef bones can be given from time to time. In addition to the pleasure, your bullmastiff will also benefit - the dog’s teeth are cleaned with bones. Don't give it to your dog tubular bones, especially bird ones - sharp fragments can injure the intestinal mucosa and lead to even more dire consequences: obstruction, perforation and internal bleeding. Meat products should only be purchased in stores and markets where veterinary supervision exists. Meat bought on the street can be contaminated, and not only with worms, but with brucellosis, tuberculosis and other terrible diseases.

Fish- a complete food product, contains protein, phosphorus, iodine (sea fish). Before giving your dog fish, remove the fins and bones. For a puppy, the fish can be passed through a meat grinder. Seafood - squid, shellfish - consists of almost 100% easily digestible protein. It is better to arrange 2-3 fish feedings per week. Capelin is well suited for this (give directly with bones and entrails, after passing through a meat grinder), as well as squid. Older bullmastiffs can be given capelin whole or cut into small pieces. Digestibility is good, and there is no danger that your dog will cut his digestive tract with sharp bones, since the bones are very soft. Giving with bones (thin and soft) has tangible benefits, since the dog actually receives fish and bone meal with a high content of phosphorus and iodine. There is no need to arrange more than 2 fish days, since the substance contained in fish destroys thiamine (vitamin B1). As always and in everything, moderation is necessary. river fish It is better not to give it, or give it only in boiled form because of the possibility of infecting the dog with tapeworms. Salted fish it is necessary to pre-soak to remove excess salt, which can cause salt poisoning.

Vegetables, herbs, root vegetables. Bullmastiffs simply love vegetables and this should be taken advantage of. The daily supply of vegetables does not exceed 200 - 300 g. Cabbage, beets, lettuce, spinach can be given raw, finely chopped or grated as an additive mixed with the main food before distribution. It is better to lightly stew the beets and cabbage. Young spring nettle, rich in vitamins, is well suited in spring, which is cut as finely as possible and doused with close to boiling water. Only fresh nettle is suitable for adding to dog food. Onions are allowed in small quantities, boiled or stewed. Garlic, rich in vitamins, is fed to dogs in small pieces in treats (meat balls, bread pellets, etc.). Good quality, well-washed vegetables are eaten. You can chop all the vegetables that you have on hand - carrots, zucchini, beets, pumpkin, cabbage, eggplant, bell peppers, herbs, onions, garlic and lightly simmer with the addition of 2-3 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil. Pumpkin is good with porridge as a remedy for worms. If you decide to give carrots or other raw vegetable, then it is advisable to chop it and add 1 tbsp. spoon of oil, mix. Don't forget to give garlic - it is an anthelmintic (1 clove per week for adults and 0.5 for puppies, otherwise you can spoil the stomach with garlic acid). Some vegetables contain a record amount of protein, for example, soy, asparagus, eggplant (Hare Krishna vegetarians don’t even eat it, calling it a “living vegetable”), rivaling meat products, and at the same time contain almost no purines. They can replace a small part of a dog’s meat diet (not all!). Potatoes are poorly digestible, so they are given boiled, well mashed, but it is better not to give them at all. Sea kale is very useful; it contains a lot of iodine, which is useful for metabolism and for the formation of pigment, especially brown. If your puppy has problems with coloring his eyelids and nose, or if you want to give your Bullmastiff a deeper red color, give him heavy doses of seaweed (but overdosing will cause diarrhea). Bullmastiffs do not refuse fruits and berries: apples, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, pitted apricots and everything else. It is possible to be allergic to citrus fruits. If your dog is not allergic to them, feed them, but do not forget that everything must be done in moderation.

Dairy You can give any, especially since dogs love them very much. Fermented milk products are especially useful: kefir, yogurt, fermented baked milk, bifidok, cottage cheese. They form the intestinal flora. Cottage cheese and cheese contain a lot of calcium and are essential for a growing puppy. Low-fat cottage cheese is especially useful, since it contains all the essential amino acids. Give cottage cheese at least 2 times a week, 0.5 kg. It is better to give 250 g, but every day. In terms of nutritional value, digestibility and digestibility, milk is the most valuable food product for dogs, especially puppies, lactating, sick and malnourished dogs. Milk is given to dogs raw. It is often added to porridge and crackers, which are readily eaten by dogs. Goat's milk is very useful, it is 1.5 times fatter than cow's milk, and in its nutritional value and mineral composition it is close to dog milk. But in some cases, dairy products, especially milk, can cause digestive upset! (this happens due to the lack of enzymes that are produced in the dog’s body as it grows, and if for some reason these enzymes are not produced in adult dog, then she cannot digest dairy products). Even if there is no enzyme in the body of an adult dog, it will begin to be produced if you gradually begin to accustom it to milk (gradually, in small portions). Salted cottage cheese is soaked in water before feeding. To enhance the nutrition of puppies, nursing and sick dogs, they are given raw chicken eggs and mixed in milk. Chicken eggs are rich in protein and fat, but to avoid allergies, chicken eggs can be given: 1 egg - 2 times a week.
Cereals. The best cereals for a bullmastiff are rolled oats, buckwheat (possibly in chopped form), rice, preferably yellow or brown. Buy cereals that are not of the highest quality, preferably with an unrefined top layer of grain - they contain more B vitamins. You can add vegetable oil (no more than 1 tablespoon) to well-cooked porridge. We do not give pearl barley and pearl barley, due to poor digestibility, it actually leaves the body in transit and causes severe peristalsis, and can also cause diarrhea.
In the diet of our bullmastiffs, we use “brewed” oatmeal, i.e. Bring the cereal to a boil, turn it off, close the lid and that’s it. Let it stand and swell. You can first boil the vegetables in water for a few minutes, and since oatmeal contains enough fat, you don’t need to add oil. But one must be accustomed to such brewed oatmeal from childhood. Typically, puppies begin to try this kind of porridge (finely ground) already at 2 months. Due to the content of cellulose particles in oatmeal, it cleans well gastrointestinal path from slags and fecal stones. No diarrhea or abdominal bloating was observed. We give rice only when necessary, for example, for diarrhea, since rice (especially refined white) contains very few vitamins and minerals, mostly carbohydrates. Semolina should only be given to emaciated animals. Bullmastiffs are prone to obesity, so do not forget about this.

Bread, crackers, flatbreads. The daily supply of baked bread is limited to 200 - 300 g, since feeding it in large quantities causes severe fermentation and gas formation in the intestines and often leads to constipation. Bread added to milk enhances its beneficial features. You shouldn't get carried away with bread, unless it's a cracker for fun.

Water. It is a very important nutritional element. Water makes up more than 70% of animals' body weight. Loss of 15% of water by the body leads to death. Animals have two main sources of water: metabolic water - formed as a result of the oxidation of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the body, and water supplied with food and drink. When the amount of water taken with feed increases, the animal drinks less. The total amount of water required by a dog is equivalent to the energy requirement in kcal/day. The quality of water is determined by the amount of substances dissolved in it and its hardness. The water is suitable for humans and also suitable for dogs. Hard water containing a large number of magnesium may cause urolithiasis.

Salt. Dogs have a completely different salt balance (they need 20 times less salt than humans), so excess table salt for them it is poison. Never salt dog food to suit your human taste; it’s better not to salt it at all. It will be enough if you give your Bullmastiff a piece of herring from time to time. In addition, it is rare that anyone does not feed the dog with leftovers from the family dinner; this will be enough. Some dog nutritionists suggest not giving your dog salty food at all. This is hardly reasonable and consistent with nature. Indeed, in wild life, a predator, having picked up a prey, first of all licks its blood, and it is the salt compounds that are dissolved in the blood. But if you feed raw meat, it is better not to add salt to your bullmastiff's food. Salt retains moisture, which leads to obesity.

Remember! Dogs digest proteins best, followed by carbohydrates and fats. Fiber is poorly digestible in dogs, so you shouldn’t get too carried away with feeding your dogs plant-based foods in their raw form. Fats should make up 5-10% of dry matter in the diet, depending on age, physical activity and conditions for keeping the dog. The amount of vegetable carbohydrates in the diet should not exceed 1/3 of the dog’s diet.

What do they actually put in animal feed? and what you should pay attention to if you still decide to feed dry food

The author of the article is Richard Pitcairn (UK), Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, a practicing veterinarian and a supporter of natural nutrition and a holistic approach to the treatment of pets. This article is just one chapter from a big book about a healthy lifestyle for dogs and cats.

I personally have nothing against dry food manufacturers and have no plans to liquidate their business. Perhaps they are doing their best by producing balanced foods at an affordable price. I simply strongly believe that ANY prepared food, be it dry, canned or frozen, cannot be the optimal diet for promoting human or animal health. I am convinced that all of us - both people and animals - need a variety of fresh, unprocessed food every day. Are you surprised that I suggest feeding your pets regular food? Does this seem wrong to you? But many people think that the only correct way is to feed their dogs and cats with ready-made commercial food. This is considered correct and natural. In fact, this is simply a generally accepted opinion that has formed over the past few decades, and is very far from the truth. Think for yourself. Can a diet consisting of cheap foods that have undergone repeated heat treatment, stored for years in iron cans or synthetic bags, compete with fresh food? natural food, rich in an incredible amount of useful substances in its natural and not synthetic form? Never.

Every sensible person should have two important objections to nutritional value prepared animal feed (canned, dry, semi-dry):

First: ready-made foods do not contain some of the ingredients that we expect to find in them (adequate quantity and/or quality of proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals).

Second, commercially prepared foods contain ingredients that we hope are not in them (including all sorts of slaughterhouse waste, food scraps, inedible fillers, heavy metals, sugar, pesticides, herbicides, drugs, artificial colors, synthetic flavors and preservatives) .

When you feed your dog ready-made food, you are creating a new problem: the toxins and wastes present in so-called “balanced” feeds in reality only increase the body’s need for high-quality nutrients, vitamins and fatty acids, which are needed to combat toxic damage to the body. If there are not enough of them (which usually happens), your pet is expected serious problems with health.

What is missing from ready-made food?

Dry food manufacturers make great efforts to produce a competitive, in-demand product from cheap raw materials. Using computer analysis, they select the ingredients needed to ensure their products meet or exceed generally accepted minimum dietary requirements for dogs and cats.

In addition to the list of ingredients, which usually include terms such as “meat products” or “animal products,” food labels tell us the chemical composition of the food produced, i.e., how much protein, fat, carbohydrates, etc. what is contained in the feed, what is its moisture content, etc. Based on this information, we compare foods with each other based on the level of proteins and other things in different lines and brands of food, and in addition, these labels convince us that these foods meet the minimum nutritional standards for our pets.

Let's assume that you want to choose for your active dog food with the highest protein content. All you have to do is compare the labels of different foods and choose the one with the highest percentage of protein, right? Unfortunately, not so. There are two reasons that make simple label comparisons difficult: First, not all proteins are the same; Some of them are better absorbed by animals, some are worse, and some cannot be absorbed by carnivorous animals at all. Secondly, you cannot compare the "crude protein percentage" of two different foods without taking into account their moisture content. This is especially true when you compare dry and canned food in terms of protein content. Now a little more detail.

Labels can be deceiving

In order to evaluate the protein content (the most important nutrient for an animal) in a feed, you must know two important terms.

1. Biological value of protein (i.e. nitrogen balance index). The biological value of protein depends on the unique composition of amino acids for each food product - these unique “building blocks” from which the body constructs its own tissues. Amino acids are divided into replaceable and essential. For humans, 9 out of 20 amino acids are considered essential, for dogs - 11. If a protein contains all the essential amino acids in the required proportions, then the biological value of the protein is assumed to be 100. Proteins that have an insufficient content of essential amino acids have a lower biological value. It is easy to assume that the biological value of a protein that lacks at least one essential amino acid is zero. If we compare the biological value (and not the percentage content) of proteins in various products, then eggs have a biological value of 100, fish meat - 92, beef and milk - 78, rice - 75, soybeans - 68, yeast - 63, wheat gluten (on food bags it is often written not “gluten”, but “gluten” ") - 40. If a protein has low biological value, then it must be present in food in large quantities to meet the body's need for an essential amino acid. In this case, the remaining amino acids will enter the body in quantities exceeding the needs. This is how overload of individual metabolic cycles occurs. These excess amino acids are deaminated in the liver and converted into glycogen or fat. For normal protein synthesis in the body, all essential amino acids must be supplied from food at the same time. The absence of one or more essential amino acids in the diet slows down protein metabolism and can lead to protein metabolism disorders.

2. Digestibility of protein (like any other product). In fact, this is one of the parameters of the biological value of proteins, because indicates the extent to which the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of an animal (and even a person) can absorb a certain protein. Even if a protein contains all the essential amino acids, but the body cannot break it down and absorb it, the value of this protein is also zero. For example, a dog’s body can absorb up to 70% of protein from one source, 90% from another, and only 10% from a third. Some proteins are practically not digestible, because... The gastrointestinal tract cannot break them down for further use. An example of a source of such proteins is animal hair and human hair.

In addition to the above, prolonged exposure to high temperatures used to sterilize many industrial feed, destroys most proteins, even those that really have high biological value. The reason is that, under the influence of high temperatures, some proteins interact with sugars, forming complexes against which digestive enzymes are powerless, and they remain undestructed and undigested.
Manufacturers must only list the percentage of crude protein on their food labels, not the percentage that can actually be digested and used by the animal. This gives manufacturers the opportunity to use cheap sources of protein in their foods that turn out to be poorly digestible for the dog, and you may not even know it, because the label promises you 30% crude protein! Many people have no idea what is behind the words “meat and by-products” on the labels of the vast majority of prepared pet foods. This is what dog and cat food manufacturers often really mean when they talk about using by-products from the meat industry: ground poultry feathers, connective tissue, leather, horse and cattle hair, and even chicken and other poultry droppings. All these “by-products” are actually used in the manufacture of many animal feeds. All of them have a high content of crude protein, which, however, has extremely low biological value for our pets and remains largely undigested (remember how much dry food your dog ate for breakfast, and how much he “took” outside in the evening in the form of a well-designed chair).

To understand how deceptive the promise of a certain percentage of crude protein in commercial food can be, imagine two dog cans A and B, each of which, according to the label, contains 10% protein. The source of the protein contained in can A is good quality beef, the biological value of which is 78. Moreover, this beef has undergone mild heat treatment, so the digestibility of the protein in it is approximately 95%. Now a little math: 0.1 (10% crude protein) X 0.78 (78 - biological value of protein) X 0.95 (95% digestibility) x 100 = 7.39% We have just calculated the actual percentage as a percentage healthy protein in this food. 7.39% is the protein your dog will actually get from this food. Now let's remember about can B, the source of protein in which is chicken feather flour, with a biological value of 40 and digestibility of 75%. 0.1 X 0.4 X 0.75 X 100 = 3%. Those. In reality, your dog will only get 3% healthy protein from this can of food. Of course, it is better to give the dog canned food A, because... they contain more healthy protein, despite the fact that both manufacturers correctly indicated exactly the same crude protein content in their cans. Due to the use of such cheap, tough, fibrous ingredients as protein sources in prepared foods, dogs can actually absorb no more than 75% of the declared protein from them. All canned meat for dogs and cats makes it even more problematic for them to absorb protein, because... The finished “juicy pieces” are finally sterilized at high temperatures before preservation. Dried blood powder (powder made from the dried blood of slaughtered animals is another cheap pet food ingredient) contains even less digestible protein.

The remaining basic chemical components of animal feed, such as carbohydrates, fats, fiber, etc. just like protein, they vary greatly in quality and digestibility depending on the “raw materials” used.

Sources of carbohydrates in canned foods are typically non-nutritive sources such as sugar (sucrose), propylene glycol, and corn syrup (a type of glucose). Some manufacturers even manage to use waste from confectionery production (for example, half-eaten donuts from fast food restaurants) and spoiled, rotten cereals that are considered unfit for humans as sources of carbohydrates. Of course, expensive pet foods can also contain high-quality, nutritionally valuable grains as sources of carbohydrates. Alas, when reading the ingredient label on your dog’s food, you will never understand what exactly the manufacturer put in this food (except perhaps sugar).

Fats for dog and cat food are most often animal fats that cannot be used for human consumption. Most often these are fats that have expired or were stored in violation of storage rules. These rancid fats are very toxic to living organisms. Fighting them, the body depletes its supply of basic vitamins: primarily C, E, B.

The word "fiber" on a dog food package may indicate that fiber was used in production. whole grains and vegetables, but it could just as well mean that a special “filler” has been added to the food as a source of fibre, such as wool, peanut hulls or even newspaper.

In short, the chemical analysis on the food label says nothing at all about its real nutritional value. To prove this, a well-known American veterinarian prepared a mixture consisting of the same proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates that were indicated on a bag of dog food from a famous brand. His own mixture consisted of: old boot leather, used car oil and wood chips. The result of a chemical analysis with the percentage of proteins, fats and carbohydrates showed full compliance with the dog’s needs. But could a dog eat it? Of course, things haven't gotten that far in the dog food industry, but this example clearly shows that pet food labels don't tell us everything. I would recommend especially beingware of foods that have such terms in the list of ingredients (NB! I specifically print them in both English and Russian, because they are not always translated in the same way in Russia, and it is better to look at the composition in your native language manufacturer, besides, I found it difficult to translate part of it myself, because I’ve never really studied dog food labels - note Elf):

meal and bonemeal (flour and bone meal)

meat by-products (meat by-products)

dried animal digest (obviously, this means flour from animal products)

poultry by-product meal (meal from poultry by-products)

poultry by-products (poultry by-products)

digest of poultry by-products (obviously flour from poultry by-products)

chicken by-products (chicken by-products)

dried liver digest (as far as I understand, this is dry powder from the liver of various animals)

fish meal (fish meal)

fish by-products (fish by-products)

The Pet Food Institute, which represents the interests of pet food manufacturers, is constantly seeking permission from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use these and other collective terms to refer to ingredients in pet foods. . Manufacturers say such umbrella terms give them the opportunity to use low-cost blends for each ingredient. Some of these "collective" ingredients sound like: "animal proteins", "vegetable products", "plant fibers (plant fiber)". For unscrupulous feed manufacturers, such terms provide ample opportunities for interpretation and inclusion of obvious waste in the production of feed. As a result, for lunch your dog can get such “animal proteins” as leather and wool of cattle, such “vegetable fiber” as sawdust. These fears are not entirely unfounded. In the early 1990s, there was a scandal in the United States involving a large commercial bakery that used tree pulp as a source of fiber in one of its human breads.

Mathematics and feed moisture

The second factor that makes it difficult to compare different foods based on their nutritional value is moisture. Here we need math again. For example, the label on canned dog food says it contains 6% protein. And the package of inexpensive dry food says that it contains as much as 20% protein. Much more than canned food, right? No not like this.

To compare the actual percentage of any nutrient in a food, you must calculate what percentage of that nutrient is based on the dry weight of the product. To make it clearer, imagine that you squeezed out every last drop of moisture from a can of food, and measured the percentage of protein in what was left. This is called the percentage of protein content in dry matter. Then, in the same way, they squeezed the dry food out to the ground, measured the percentage of protein in it and compared the two results obtained. And, believe me, as a rule, in canned food there is more protein after removing the water than in dry food.

In short, to correctly compare nutrients in feed from different manufacturers, it is necessary to “discard” such a component as moisture (it is also indicated on the labels). Here's how to do it: look at the moisture content on the food packaging, subtract this number from 100% - this will be the dry weight of the food. Suppose the moisture content of the selected canned food is 75%, then its dry weight is 25%, and the moisture content of the dry food is 10%, which means its dry weight is 90%. All nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, etc., are not contained in water, but in this dry residue. As for water, it passes through the body and is simply excreted in the form of urine, nothing more. Therefore, it is necessary to know how much protein and the rest actually falls on the dry weight of the feed.
Now that you know the dry weight percentage of the food, you can calculate its protein content. To do this, divide the percentage of protein (or any other substance whose content in the feed needs to be assessed) by the percentage of the dry weight of the feed. In our example with canned food it turns out: 6% : 25% = 24% - i.e. The actual percentage of protein in canned food is 24%! Now the dry food from our example: 20%: 90% = 22.2% - this is the real protein content in this dry food. It is now clear that the canned food in our example contains more protein than dry food. If you carry out such a calculation of various foods, it turns out that almost the majority of dog foods contain at least 22% crude protein, and cat foods - 32%. However, let's not forget that we are talking here about raw protein, and not about what will actually be digested and has biological value for animals. This is why, when looking at the label of ready-made dog or cat food, you should not trust what is written on it: the actual content of nutrients in this bag or jar may be completely different. The label will tell you honestly how much crude protein (carbohydrates, etc.) a food contains at a given moisture content. But to understand how much your pet gets, you need to know the biological value of these proteins, digestibility and percentage content in the dry weight of the food (since the water in the food is just a “transit passenger”).

What about vitamins and minerals?

All sorts of vitamins, minerals and amino acids are usually added to pet foods, but their amounts are rarely specified. In addition, some vitamins present in raw food ingredients or specially added by manufacturers are lost before your pet even touches the food. Vitamins, amino acids and minerals can be destroyed under the influence of high temperatures (which is inevitable in the production of ready-made food), under the influence of oxygen (an open bag of food is no longer sealed, which means the food and vitamin supplements in it begin to react with oxygen). Vitamins and minerals can lose their properties by reacting with each other or with other ingredients, or when stored on store shelves for long periods of time.

Vitamins A, E and B1, which are very important in the body’s fight against various diseases, are especially susceptible to destruction. For example, researchers point out that many cat foods are so low in vitamin B1 that they cause a deficiency of this vitamin in the cat's body after just a few weeks of feeding them. Another study says that the production method used by a very famous brand of cat food converts vitamin B6 into a form that is useless for cats, and as a result, consumption of this food leads to vitamin B6 deficiency in the body. As for fat-soluble vitamin A, its absorption is negligible if you choose a low-fat diet for your pet. This is especially true for dry foods low in fat. To this we can add the fact that vitamin C exists in open bags of food for no more than 2 days. And vitamin E often does not even have time to travel from producer to consumer, being destroyed at the stage of transporting feed.

Minerals added to feed are most often artificial, synthesized mineral complexes that are far from the complex organic structures within which they exist in nature and enter the body of naturally fed animals.

Without a doubt, there is still a lot we don't know about how nutrients interact within the body itself. For example, vitamin E reduces the body's absorption of iron (necessary to prevent anemia). How many other different interactions exist between minerals, vitamins and amino acids is anyone's guess. But the fact that this is happening is beyond doubt. Feed manufacturers, trying to produce a completely balanced feed, add to it a huge number of various vitamin-mineral complexes and individual vitamins and minerals. It is far from a fact that in order for them to be absorbed by the body, they all must be given at the same time. Thus, the list of vitamins and minerals contained in the food at the time of production or putting it into a bag (jar) is far from what the dog will actually receive when he starts eating it.

Another missing ingredient - life

All industrial dog food - canned, dry, frozen, sold in large supermarkets or local veterinary pharmacies - is devoid of one more ingredient, which seems to me the most important of all. This key ingredient is practically ignored by scientific nutritionists, but we ourselves periodically feel its presence. This ingredient is only found in fresh, uncooked, unprocessed foods. It's called "life energy". Without going into philosophy and theory, I will say that I am sure everyone knows the difference between strawberries just picked from the garden and taken out of a jam jar.

Almost everyone knows that raw food contains many more vitamins and minerals than cooked food because the cooking process destroys and depletes many of the nutrients. When dietary standards for dogs and cats were created, it was assumed that raw food, not cooked food, should be used to feed them. Therefore, absolutely all types of ready-made food, being prepared in industrial ovens, sterilized at high temperatures, etc., are not adequate to what has been established by dietary standards for domestic animals.

Living examples telling about the amazing changes in animal and human health that occur when switching to healthy natural nutrition fresh products only confirmed my belief that only boiled food (not to mention ready-made food) is not capable of maintaining human or animal health at a high level. This is confirmed by my 20 years of clinical practice as a veterinarian.

Dangerous ingredients in prepared foods

Now that we've established what's missing from commercial dog and cat foods, let's move on to what's missing that shouldn't be there. Several years ago, Prevention magazine published a letter from a reader suggesting we take a closer look at the pet food industry:
“Some time ago I worked in a slaughterhouse at a poultry plant in Maine. Our daily output was approximately 100 thousand chickens: Directly in front of me on the assembly line were inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture. The inspectors cut off damaged and diseased parts of the chickens and threw them into special waste baskets Periodically, these baskets were emptied and their contents sent to the dog and cat food factories. So, the next time you hear the dog or cat food manufacturers praising high quality products used, will you believe them?"

A similar story was told in one of the local newspapers. It talked about the use in the production of feed of animals that are found dead along highways. (Just recently, in winter, there was another local scandal with manufacturers famous brand feed in the USA, due to the fact that one of its local factories began to use stray cats and dogs in the production of food. The producers explained their action by saying that it was allegedly a necessary measure due to the danger of mad cow disease. - my addition, Elf).

I think it’s easy to guess the real “quality” of such food. At the same time, it is very difficult to find out which feed manufacturers use such sources of animal proteins as tumor and other tissues of sick animals, hooves, wool, feathers, skin and other disgusting fillers that we sometimes hear about. It is a generally accepted fact that the production of pet food is based on those products that, for various reasons, turned out to be unclaimed in the human food industry. And at the level of common sense, one can understand that the cheaper the dog/cat food, the more questionable its quality and the more shocking the actual list of its ingredients may be.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, there is no federal inspectorate that monitors what is used in pet food production. Only a few states monitor the canned pet food industry. But even there there is no supervision over dry food. In addition, all but two or three states have laws allowing animal feed manufacturers to use so-called 4-D sources - tissue from animals from the slaughterhouse that are dead, dying, incapacitated or diseased at the time of their arrival at the slaughterhouse (4-D). - the name is derived from four words denoting substandard conditions in a slaughterhouse: dead, dying, disabled, deseased - Elf). Other ingredients banned by the Department of Agriculture for human use, but not banned for use in dog and cat food, are moldy grains and rancid animal fats. Today, feed manufacturers can, of their own free will, request the Department of Agriculture to have a federal quality inspector permanently present at production. These foods are packaged with labels indicating that they were produced and packaged under the constant supervision of the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

How can the consumption of such low-quality products affect the health of the animal? Doctor of Veterinary Sciences and Federal Meat Inspector P.F. Mac Gardgele, based on his many years of practice, concluded that feeding dogs sick and dead animals and other unhealthy slaughterhouse waste, as well as the presence of spoiled animal fats in food, increases the risk of cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Dr. Mac Garge has discovered that meat waste used in feed production can contain significant amounts of hormones, enough to cause cancer in laboratory animals. High content he explains hormones for two reasons: firstly, synthetic hormones that are added to animal food to stimulate rapid growth, and meat meal (dry meat powder - translations vary on feed packages, in English it is “meat meal” - Elf), which is mostly produced from waste of various glands and embryonic tissues from pregnant cows. Both are naturally rich in hormones that remain active for a long time. High levels of hormones are especially dangerous for cats because... they are extremely sensitive to them.

Debra Lynn Dadd, author of The Toxic-Free Home and Office, writes in her study of the meat industry, which did not directly address the dog and cat food industry:
“Each year, approximately 116,000 mammals and nearly 15 million birds die before being slaughtered. Another 325,000 carcasses are discarded after slaughter, and more than 5.5 million large body parts are removed from carcasses because they are considered diseased. Shocking fact: 140 thousand tons of poultry are culled every year due to various diseases, mainly due to cancer. All these sick animals that cannot be released into the trade are sent to pet food factories."

What you shouldn't add:

Since I graduated from veterinary school in 1965, I have been continually amazed at how the health of pets has deteriorated year after year, generation after generation. Nowadays, it is not a surprise to see a young animal with problems that were previously found only in older animals. Young veterinarians, who do not have the opportunity to look at the situation from the perspective of time, believe that such degenerative changes in young animals are "normal". They simply do not realize that just a few decades ago such a situation was simply nonsense.

I am sure that in addition to the poor quality of industrial feed ingredients, an important role in general deterioration Various chemical additives play a role in the health of pets. Take a look at the label on a typical canned dog food. One of the ingredients listed will be corn syrup. But what does this famous sweetener do in canned meat? You will be surprised, but it provides moisture. The FDA allows the use of corn syrup in its hydrogenated form as a humectant and plasticizer - i.e. it gives the product moisture and elasticity. Nutrition scientists tried to develop a similar product for use in the human food industry, but were forced to admit that despite America's sweet tooth, canned dog food is so sweet that "people just won't eat it."

Chemically extracted from corn starch, corn syrup has the same energy value, and the same pros and cons, as sugar, and causes the same problems in the pancreas and adrenal glands that can result in diabetes. In addition, corn syrup is indigestible to animals. Not only does it dilute other nutrients with “pure calories” containing no vitamins, minerals, proteins or fats; corn syrup also overstimulates insulin production and increases stomach acidity, causing the production of gastric juice high acidity. All this interferes with the normal absorption of proteins, calcium and other minerals that are present in food. And finally, corn syrup inhibits the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, which can lead to dysbacteriosis.

Here are some other unwanted ingredients found in pet foods:

Propylene glycol - this component is known to cause various diseases in dogs. It is used to maintain the structure of the product, for hydration and to maintain a certain level of humidity. At the same time, it inhibits the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

Potassium sorbate (Potassium sorbate) is a fairly common preservative, similar in chemical composition to fat.

Ammoniated glycyrrhizin is a sweetener. It is considered a potential drug that needs to be carefully studied first.

Sucrose - This is regular table sugar.

Propyl gallate - Manufacturers add it to slow down the process of product spoilage, however, there are suspicions that it causes liver damage.

Ethoxyquin - originally developed for rubber production, used as a preservative. Veterinarians have strong suspicions that it causes serious health problems in dogs.

Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) - This virtually unstudied preservative is considered by many scientists to be responsible for liver damage, metabolic disorders, germinal abnormalities and increased serum cholesterol levels.

Sodium nitrite - this component is widely used as a preservative and red dye. When used in food, sodium nitrite produces potent carcinogens. Another class of common artificial additives is usually not even identified or required to be specifically listed on food labels. These are artificial food colors, approved for production without any serious and time-consuming research:

Red No.3

Red No. 40 (probable carcinogen)

Yellow No. 5

Yellow No. 6

Blue No. 1

Blue No. 2 (according to recent studies, increases the susceptibility of dogs to fatal viruses)

Similar dyes were banned for use in food production for both humans and animals back in the mid-1970s. These included Red No. 2, which has been shown to promote cancer and birth defects, and Violet No. 1, a carcinogen linked to skin problems.

Despite all the protests from pet owners to the FDA to ban the use of artificial colors in pet products, they continue to be used. To compete with each other in the huge pet food market, manufacturers are adding food coloring to make their products more attractive and more reminiscent of natural ingredients, such as raw red meat. There are companies that sell their foods in their natural form, without dyes - these foods come in various shades of gray-brown. Of course, such food does not look so attractive to many ordinary buyers. However, think about it - cats and dogs do not distinguish colors, but we do. So for whom do feed manufacturers decorate their products with dyes? Of course, for us, so that we are attracted by their appearance.

Another huge class of food additives is synthetic flavors. They are called “safe” and approved for food production without any reliable serious study of their effect on the health of our dogs and cats. They go under the name "artificial flavors" and do not even require FDA approval for their use. Since we have no idea what these additives can do to the body, anyone who cares about the health of their pet should avoid consuming any food (dry, canned, treats, etc.) that contains food flavorings and flavor enhancers. Just like you should avoid eating such human products.

The Hidden Threat (this chapter, it seems to me, has more to do with Western agriculture than with the poor Russian one - Elf)

In addition to chemicals that are directly added during the preparation of feed, there are also those that “add” themselves. The content of these substances in food is an important factor in the development of many chronic diseases, especially in animals, for which the quality of industrial food is highly questionable. It is almost impossible to predict what chemicals may end up in your dog or cat's food. The process of food contamination with chemicals begins with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, which are used for industrial crop cultivation (to this have now been added mysterious transgenic, i.e. genetically modified, varieties of vegetables, fruits, wheat, the effect of which on the body has not yet been studied - Elf) . The process continues with antibiotics, growth stimulants, hormones, tranquilizers, which are fed to birds in poultry farms, cattle, which in turn eat chemically grown hay, oats, etc. Then, after the slaughter of livestock and poultry, their carcasses are treated with antibiotics, preservatives and other chemicals for longer storage (transportation to stores, export, etc.). And only as a last resort, various chemicals are added during feed production.

The problem that our pets have to face is divided into three parts:

1. Depletion of energy and nutrients. In order to fight toxins, the body is forced to expend additional energy and reserves of vitamins and minerals that it could otherwise use for more useful needs. The body uses several different natural mechanisms to detoxify and remove toxins and waste. This process primarily occurs in the liver (detoxifier of the body), kidneys (excretory system), skin (excretory organ additional to the kidneys, toxins and waste products are eliminated primarily by depositing them in wool (in our hair), which then this is immediately reset) and immune system(mechanism for responding to hazardous substances in organism). This process involves certain enzymes (enzymes) and associated vitamins. The more toxic the chemical that enters the body, the more effort the body needs to neutralize and remove it, the more vitamins and enzymes are spent on this process. This in itself is a fairly serious risk factor, given that in our environmentally deprived world the body already has to deal with toxins every day. (NB! - it is for this reason that adding vitamins and minerals to the diet of our pets is important even with high-quality natural nutrition - Elf)

2. Accumulation of toxins. The body is able to neutralize and eliminate various toxins, since the mechanisms of detoxification and elimination have been developed over many millennia of life in nature, which contains enough natural toxins and poisons. If it were otherwise, neither we nor our smaller brothers would have survived. However, in the last hundred years, and especially in the last few decades, a huge number of chemical toxins have appeared that we have never encountered before. Needless to say, this fact greatly impacts our bodies’ ability to detoxify and eliminate these harmful toxins? In 1989, according to various sources, there were already 70 thousand different chemical compounds used by humans. Every year about 3 thousand more are added to them. When you imagine these numbers, it becomes clear why the effects of the vast majority of these chemicals on the body are not studied. In 1990, a study was conducted to determine the impact of 2,000 chemicals (i.e., just 3%) used in everyday life on their potential to cause cancer in animals. The result of the study was stunning - half of the tested substances actually provoke cancer in various animal tissues. If the body cannot neutralize and remove the toxin, it begins to be deposited in the tissues. In addition, toxins deposited in tissues can still interact with each other.

3. Interaction of accumulated toxins. If two different chemical compounds- substance A and substance B accumulate in the body, then there can be 4 types of interaction between them:
no
- A acts on B, making it more toxic
- B acts on A, making it more toxic
- A and B mutually enhance each other's toxicity.

Now let’s imagine that there are more than two such toxins. And three - A, B and C - then the options for interaction between them increases to nine. The variety of mutual reactions and effects increases exponentially depending on the amount of toxins accumulated by the body. At chemical analysis you may find that there are over 100 different toxins in your body. This means that they can also interact with each other in 10 thousand variations, causing significant harm to the body.

When scientists studying a certain chemical speak about the degree of its danger to the body, they are only partly right. They talk about the dangers of this substance in its pure form, but cannot predict how it will behave in reaction with tens of thousands of other chemicals that could potentially enter the body. And if just over three percent of all chemicals used today have been studied, and only for their potential ability to cause cancer in living tissues, then can we expect that the interactions of these substances with each other will be studied?

Toxins in meat for feed

Lead is considered one of the very dangerous toxins found in the environment. Most lead comes from bone meal, used in animal feed. Although a rich source of calcium and other important minerals, the bones of cattle in America contain very high levels of lead due to the long use of leaded (leaded) gasoline in cars in the United States. Lead is released into the air, settles on plants, which are then fed to cattle as fodder. Today, the only safe bone meal is that produced from the bones of animals that do not live in car-heavy countries like the United States.

There are quite a few toxins besides lead - remember the permission for the use of 4-D products in feed production, i.e. meat and offal of animals that died or were about to die due to illness, i.e. animals whose tissues have already become toxic for consumption by other living beings.

Finally, many poultry and meat farms are located in highly contaminated areas, adding toxins to still-living meat sources.

All this makes the situation with feeding our pets very difficult. On the one hand, they are carnivores that need to eat meat, bones, and offal. On the other hand, how can we protect them from most of the toxins that may be found in meat foods? Unfortunately, meat is the most contaminated product in the United States in terms of toxins. (NB! Let us remember that most of the food sold in Russia is imported from the USA, however, I think that European food, given the gas pollution in Europe, cannot boast of meat that is cleaner from toxins - Elf).

How to protect your pets?

Can we allow our pets to eat food that is known to make them weaker and sicker? What can we do to provide them with healthy food?

Firstly, we must together fight against the use of various chemicals that have potential dangers not only for animals, but also for people. Not only for the sake of us and our pets, but also for the sake of those who have not yet been born. Start by at least being careful about what you and your animals eat, and strictly avoid all kinds of foods that contain such chemical additives. In addition, remember that we will not be able to maintain health (neither ourselves nor our pets) if we consume food that is over-processed, denatured, devoid of life, freshness, and loaded with chemicals every day.

Choose your food sources carefully for both yourself and your pet. Be interested in where this meat, these vegetables come from, be active, study and look for proven food sources.

Switch your pet to natural food, and you will quickly see the difference between ready-made food and raw natural food.....

c 2002 Elf - translation from English of an article from the book by Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats by Richard H. Pitcairn, D.V.M., Ph.D. & Susan Hubble Pitcairn.
Study by the American Animal Welfare Institute, Sacramento, 1996.

While conducting various researches, I often remember the monologue “Horatio has many friends that our sages never dreamed of,” especially when I discover empty niches for business right “under my nose.” Actually, it all started with training in a and . Gradually delving into the essence, I learned that those same estruders are used not only to prepare food for pigs, poultry and cattle, but by changing the recipe they “rivet” food for dogs.

Of course, whether such nutrition is good or bad is debatable. Having studied the topic a little, I was surprised to find that dry food is good (or almost good), but its constant use for dogs and cats is not recommended. I read a lot of information and expert debates on this subject, but for me personally, the “point” was the fact that most (if not all) high-level specialized nurseries practically do not use dry food when growing. Agree, who knows best “what is good and what is not so good” is the one who makes money from it. I think it will be difficult to dispute such a statement. Then the question creeps in, what do they feed their pets? And they use natural minced meat with mineral and vitamin supplements to feed dogs and cats. Moreover, their suppliers are small specialized companies, and small workshops engaged in its production. True, it is extremely difficult to find such a product in stores due to a banal reason: there are only a few such small producers throughout the country. Why not an idea to create your own business?

Why is the production of natural food for cats and dogs a successful business?

There are several reasons:

• First, as paradoxical as it sounds, the real cost of natural food, along the chain:

mini-workshop – shop – buyer

2 times lower than dry food. Why is this happening? It's simple, the cost of producing dry food is higher due to the energy intensity of the production cycle itself, plus the costs of delivery and marketing, maintaining a large plant, and markups from intermediaries. In small production, the cost of raw materials is higher, but other items are practically absent and the output is cheaper.

By the way, if I have enough strength and, most importantly, desire, I will publish an article with the cost of production of natural food, but already at the first stage I came to the conclusion that if you set a price for a product similar to dry food, you can use for production not only meat of the second category, but even the first ( mechanical collapse). What is used to prepare sausage and other meat products.

• Secondly, people who are passionate about their pets (the so-called “dog people” and “cat people”) spend even very decent money on the maintenance of their pets. Moreover, marketing research of large manufacturers of dry dog ​​food has shown that the demand for their products is stable and does not depend on financial, economic and even political crises. But the factors that really influence demand are truly radical in nature, I don’t want to voice them, I can only say that if this happens, then there will be no need to talk about business at all.

But not only is demand stable and inelastic. The trend towards a “healthy” lifestyle for pets is quite real, which in fact provides huge advantages for natural food. From this position, the mini-workshop will have stable demand and, as a result, stable profits all year round, regardless of financial winds and economic storms.

It sounds funny, of course, but to be honest, dog hair salons, sewing workshops for dogs, and so on sound even more absurd, but at the same time it’s all real.

• Third, organizing the production of natural dog and cat food is very simple and does not require large financial investments. Honestly, this business can be called an idea with minimal investment.

How to organize a mini-workshop for the production of natural food for pets?

Actually, all the main technological nuances of organizing such production are similar to creating a workshop for the production of semi-finished meat products, which I talked about in the article about equipment. I won’t repeat myself, it’s better to talk about the features.

After purchasing the equipment and setting up the workshop itself, we will need a recipe and specifications (technical conditions) for the production of certain types of feed. Moreover, small capacities allow you to be mobile and set up production large assortment products. Where can I get the recipe?

It is best to contact specialized veterinary institutes; they can easily provide a huge number of different variations of food. But my advice, after receiving “scientific” data from the relevant authorities, contact nurseries and thus “kill two birds with one stone.” On the one hand, from a practical point of view, they will be able to give recommendations on what is better for dogs or cats, on the other hand, close cooperation will allow us to get a wholesale client in the future.

As for the approval of technical specifications, everything is a little more complicated; on the one hand, you can do it yourself, the procedure is quite clearly outlined. True, this method will take quite a lot of time, on the other hand, you can turn to specialized law firms that will do it quickly but of course more expensive. But you will have to go through this procedure.

The last step is to establish sales. It is clear that the bulk of dog and cat food is sold through specialized stores and this is where a problem arises: such retail outlets do not have refrigeration equipment for storing natural food. It is very expensive to buy and “give away” such equipment, and they are unlikely to dare to buy it themselves. The only way out is to sell it through regular stores; they definitely have such equipment. But such implementation will require you to invest in local advertising.

To be honest, the business idea for the production of natural dog food is one of the few that requires a “massive” advertising campaign using local newspapers, magazines and even television. At the same time, such investments in advertising will also quickly be recouped.

We put an ellipsis on this, after all, the plans remain to publish a full-fledged business plan in this area, you can ask questions right there in the comments or in the group on VK, do not forget to subscribe to the site and join our group.

Interesting on this topic

Oh yes Pushkin!

Pet owners are a solvent audience that does not spare money for their pets, this is exactly what entrepreneur Andrei Pushkin thought, who successfully launched a chain of hotels for cats several years ago. And in 2018, he introduced a new product to the market - Hati raw meat food for cats and dogs, counting on high demand. But there is no excitement yet, and the entrepreneur has to make a lot of effort to make sales.

35 years old, entrepreneur from Moscow, founder of a production company natural food for animals Hati. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, after which he worked as a financial analyst at the Airports of the Regions holding company, then at the state corporation Rosatom. In 2014 he opened a hotel for animals "Sir Cat" in the center of Moscow, which has grown into a network of four establishments. The Hati project was launched in 2018.

From cats to dogs

In 2014, Andrei Pushkin, who had previously worked as a financial analyst for seven years, launched his first own business project - the Sir Cat animal hotel. He was prompted to do this by his desire for self-realization and his love for animals.

“In the office, I lacked a complex task that I could carry out from start to finish.” There you are a cog in a big machine, not an independent unit. In “Sir Cat” it warms my soul that I came up with and did this project with my own hands. Although some said, well, the man quit Rosatom to take care of cats,” recalls Andrey.

This business is developing successfully; today Sir Cat is a chain of four hotels in Moscow. But in 2018, Andrey wanted to implement some new project from a different area. “Since I was constantly moving around in the animal world, my thoughts involuntarily went in this direction. In pet hotels, I saw that some owners brought raw meat as food for their cats. And I started thinking about creating natural food for animals,” says Andrey Pushkin.

Another reason to turn to this niche was the dog chihuahua breed, who often visits Andrey. She ate canned food all the time. At some point, the entrepreneur began to think about why people consider it normal to feed their animals canned food, while they themselves eat the freshest food possible. And why, when choosing food for themselves, do people look at the expiration date, but do not do the same with food for their pets?

Andrei thought that the rules of healthy eating that people apply to themselves must also be applied to pets. We need food that will become an alternative to industrially produced ready-made feed.

Andrei hoped that food made from natural raw meat would be in demand among Moscow dog and cat owners. Therefore, I decided to launch production of such food - and founded the Hati project.

Step by step

When developing his product - sausages in a polyamide casing made from raw meat and offal (there are options with the addition of vegetables and cereals) - Andrei Pushkin relied on the feed requirements existing in Europe and the USA. Together with Russian veterinarians, the project team worked out the recipe and the ratio of ingredients.

After this, it was necessary to resolve the issue of what packaging to produce the food in: sell raw meat in pieces, in the form of nuggets or sausages. When working through each option, the idea with sausages seemed to be the most optimal.

“It was important to decide on the form of production at the investment stage in order to buy suitable equipment. If you change your mind later, it will be too late. We had to take responsibility, although we did not know whether our customers would like the sausage format,” says Andrey Pushkin.

The necessary equipment was purchased in Belarus. But the project team had to struggle with it before they were able to produce sausages of the required weight.

“The equipment arrived, so shiny and beautiful, and at first we looked at it like sheep at a new gate. They didn't know what to do with him. While we were setting up the equipment and making the first pilot batches, we used about 100 kilograms of raw materials,” says the entrepreneur.

All sausages in the first batches were of different weights. And in accordance with GOST for the production of food for pets, the deviation in the mass of each product should be no more than 1%. Here, some sausages weighed 90 grams, the next – 120 grams.

“I looked at all this and I didn’t feel good. We haven’t had time to think about sales yet, but with production we’ve already stepped on such a rake. Although, according to the passport, the equipment was supposed to produce an error within 1%,” recalls Andrey.

The situation was rectified after calling the manufacturer. Its representatives explained that some changes needed to be made to the design of the “syringe” that delivers the meat into the package. When this was done, sausages of the required weight began to be obtained.

Andrey first offered to test the finished products for free to his friends and acquaintances who have pets. He asked them for an honest assessment of the feed. The response was positive, but a number of changes were made thanks to feedback. We switched from a 7-layer casing to a 2-layer casing and reduced the diameter of the sausages from 45 to 32 millimeters. As a result, the product is frozen faster in the blast freezer (30 minutes), defrosted faster at the customer's home and removed from the package more easily.

Supplier search

For production, it took about 3 months to find a suitable premises, since meat shops have certain requirements (for example, the presence of flushes in the floor, tiled floors and walls up to two meters, electrical power 50 kW, etc.). Andrei Pushkin looked only at finished premises, so as not to spend money on renovations at the start. The required workshop was found in Korolev, near Moscow.

It also took a lot of time to select suppliers. The HatiFood project was not suitable for private traders offering to buy meat in small quantities. In this case, you would have to independently organize the slaughter process to obtain a veterinary certificate, or do without it. Therefore, we looked only for large and reliable suppliers whose meat was accompanied by necessary documents. The founder of Hati selected only farms that do not use antibiotics or growth stimulants.

Although pets, being predators, have natural defense mechanisms against harmful microorganisms, nevertheless, each batch of products is sent to the laboratory for testing to determine the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. As a result, in order to find reliable suppliers, I had to change several dozen enterprises. “We found those we are working with now through trial and error,” adds Andrey.

How and from what food is prepared for four-legged animals

The entire carcass of the animal is used to make Hati products. Not the trimmings, which are no longer suitable for preparing food for people, but all parts of the carcass. The first butcher of the project could not come to terms with this.

“He was horrified. What is it like to use tenderloin or sirloin for animal feed? For a long time he disagreed with the fact that meat does not need to be salted and peppered, that there is no need to add water to give the mass elasticity. He suggested adding onion, which dogs should not eat. In the end, we didn't work well together. This man was bothered by the fact that we feed the dogs good meat"- says Andrei Pushkin.

As a result, another butcher was hired for this position, who at first also asked similar questions, but still managed to overcome his previous professional habits and now strictly follows the cooking recipe.

Hati sausages are made from chicken, beef, turkey and rabbit. By-products of the first category are added to the composition, and in some varieties - whole vegetables. The production does not use dyes, flavors, preservatives, gluten, grains or synthesized additives.

It takes one working day to produce one batch. First, the butcher removes the meat from the bones of the carcass. Then the meat and offal are chopped and then mixed with the rest of the ingredients. After this, the product is extruded (packed) into a casing, clamped with clips and entered into a blast freezing chamber. The process of packaging 200 kg of product takes about 3-4 hours.

Hati food is stored in freezers. To feed the animal, the food must first be defrosted and placed in a bowl, freed from packaging.

Price issue

Now Hati sausages made from chicken cost 49 rubles per 100 grams, from turkey – 59 rubles, from beef – 79 rubles, from rabbit – 99 rubles.

Some buyers ask again if there is an error here. “They are surprised that this price is per 100 grams, not per kilogram. But beef of this quality cannot cost 79 rubles per kilogram. Even kits for dogs, which are “non-format” for human consumption, are more expensive,” Andrei gives calculations.

Some buyers compare the cost of Hati food with the cost of canned meat and industrially produced dry food. They are cheaper than the products produced by Andrei Pushkin’s enterprise. “But this food either does not contain meat (meat and bone meal, hydrolyzed animal protein is used), or there is meat of quality “for dogs”, that is, stringy trimmings, minced cutlets and everything that cannot be sold in an unprocessed form for human consumption,” - he explains.

After the launch of the project, the project website became the main platform for sales of Hati products. Now for orders over 2,500 rubles, delivery within Moscow is free. If the order is for a smaller amount, delivery will cost 189 rubles.

Over time, social networks began to bring more purchases. The project has pages on almost all social networks, but Instagram turned out to be the most popular. The founder of Hati suggests that this is due to what a potential buyer sees here real reviews other buyers. This makes it easier for him to decide to buy a new product. In order to increase the number of sales through social networks, it is planned to increase activity in them, primarily in VKontakte.

The project cooperates with the MoscowFresh online store, which purchases Hati products and then sells them independently. Now there are plans to master offline sales: an agreement has already been signed with one pet store, negotiations are underway with another.

“We put our Hati food freezers in the store and see how sales go. For us it's new economy(you need to recoup the cost of the freezer) and a new channel. We don’t have such experience yet,” says Andrey.

Hati cooperates with breeders - they are authorities for those who buy dogs or cats from them. Therefore, their recommendations on choosing pet food are listened to. “They are sometimes trusted even more than veterinarians. We can motivate breeders to cooperate with us with a one-time payment for an attracted client or a percentage of sales. This sales channel shows itself well, but the problem is that there are only a few breeders who know how to sell, and most importantly, know how to do it on social networks,” sums up Andrey Pushkin.

Most often, owners of small dogs buy Hati food. Feeding large dogs such food is too expensive for their owners. It is cheaper to prepare porridge, to which they add a little meat. Now the buyers of the project are only residents of Moscow and the Moscow region.

Startup mistakes

Andrei Pushkin says that his first project - the pet hotel "Sir Cat" - very quickly became popular. And to attract clients, he and the team of this project had practically no effort. Andrey expected that this would be the case with Hati.

“We assumed that we would now offer the market a new product - natural food for animals, and they will immediately tear it away from us with our hands. It was our mistake, of course, just by turning on advertising, nothing happens. Each buyer must be “accompanied,” says Pushkin.

“There are two cases when sales occur as if “without our efforts.” The animal doesn’t eat its food well, and the owner is forced to constantly change food, and then he finally finds us. Or the owner is already feeding his pet natural raw food, and we simply make his task easier and save time,” Andrey Pushkin shares his observations.

“We thought that we would publish a beautiful photo of meat and everything would fly in terms of sales. We are used to “Sir Cat” that people correspond in the comments to our posts, and we “sleep”. Now at Hati we immediately respond to comments as soon as they appear. It seems obvious that this should be so, but for us it was a discovery,” explains Pushkin.

Its founder invested about 8 million rubles in the launch of the Hati project. For faster payback, he plans to launch new products in the near future - cookies made from natural meat. Their composition will be the same as sausages. To produce them, you will need to buy an oven in which they will be baked and dried.

Another new product in the assortment is jellied meat for dogs. To prepare it, they will use the bones from which the meat for Hati sausages is cut. Now these bones are thrown away, and when producing jellied meat they will become an ingredient for it, and not waste.

“It’s too early to talk about payback periods. We have only recently existed and are just exploring the market. To break even, we need to increase our sales by at least six times. And we will try to reach this figure by the end of the year,” Andrei Pushkin cites the figures.

Dry animal feed is used very often on farms. Entire shops and supermarkets are opened for four-legged pets, fashionable clothes are sewn for them and houses are built for them. The owners are ready to give a lot to their pet.

Market analysis

One of the most important conditions when caring for a pet is proper nutrition. Feeds are divided into:

• dry;
• wet.

About 70% of the dry food market is occupied by imported producers. The largest importers are:

1. Hungary.
2. France.

Domestic food is not so popular due to the fact that imported products have managed to gain the authority and trust of buyers over many years. In addition, many supermarkets offer their own products.

Entering the market will not be easy, but if you seriously engage in this business, then there is every chance to beat your competitors, given that there are not so many of them. You need to assess your financial and financial capabilities of your clients and choose one of the directions:

When opening a business, it is advisable to make standard-class food. There should also be a choice for animals of different ages; 70% of food is bought for cats, and dogs prefer to be fed regular food.

The main power of production must be directed to fulfilling the requests of the average-income buyer. To make sure that a given business is relevant, you can look at the following numbers:

• sales increase by 20% annually;
• People in Russia spend 1 billion dollars a year on animal feed;
• business has been developing in Russia for only 20 years, the competition is not that big yet.

Registration and organization of business

No special licenses or permits are required for feed production. It is enough to register an individual entrepreneur or LLC and start making money. You must register with the tax service.

Required Documentation

To open an individual entrepreneur you need:

1. Submit documents.
2. Pay the fee.

Self-registration will cost 4,500 rubles. If you contact a law firm that will prepare and submit documents, the amount can increase to 7,500 rubles.

Opening an LLC costs more. You can do this yourself at a price of approximately 30 thousand rubles, and with the help of lawyers - 45 thousand rubles.

Please note that a law firm charges 10-15 thousand rubles for opening an LLC from start to finish, and 3 thousand only for preparing documents.

Premises and equipment

You will need little equipment to produce dry food. All the work will be done by only two devices:

1. Estruder.
2. Crusher.

It is cheaper and more expedient to buy a ready-made line; it will consist of:

• two extruders;
• crushers;
• mixers;
• feeders.

Additionally, it is necessary to install drying equipment, weighing equipment, and dispensers.

You also need to consider the following:

Depending on the business plan, the line power is selected:

• for medium-scale production, extruders with a capacity of 500 kg/hour will be sufficient;
• for larger production - by 5000 kg/hour.

To understand what points you should pay attention to when choosing equipment, you need to understand the dry food production process itself. The extrusion process is the processing of raw materials at high temperatures under high pressure. The result is a porous air product.

In order for food to be better absorbed by the animal under the influence of the above factors, carbohydrates are broken down into mono- and dimer sugars.

The cost of an extruder ranges from 40 to 750 thousand rubles.

The process is as follows:

Why shouldn't you risk buying cheap equipment? A breakdown can lead to downtime and lead to losses. It is also worth remembering that at first people will be afraid to buy a product from a previously unknown company. At any moment, prices for raw materials may rise; this factor must be included in the business plan.

Raw materials and suppliers

Raw materials used for the production of dry food:

• wheat or corn flour;
• soy flour;
• meat or fish meal;
• vitamins and minerals.

Please note the following rules:

1. Raw materials must be of high quality and fresh.
2. It is stored in refrigerators.
3. Since it is cheaper to purchase large quantities at once, everything should be packaged in sealed packaging and inhibitors should be used. Otherwise, the raw materials may become moldy.

Each company hides the composition of its food, so through trial and error you need to develop your own unique recipe.

Since the products will be manufactured in large quantities, you must either have your own vehicles or have an agreement with a transport company.

Staff

Only 3 people can operate the line. The rest of the people will deal with organizational issues:

• director;
• accountant;
• marketer;
• Sales Manager.

The number of personnel depends on the scale of production.

Sales of products

Sales of products are carried out in the following ways:

In order for your products to become recognizable, you need to make good advertising, for this you can:

• advertise products in veterinary clinics;
• make presentations at animal shows;
• post information in the media and on the Internet;
• distribute flyers;
• advertise on billboards.

Financial component of business

If you manage to promote your brand, the business will not only quickly pay for itself, but will also constantly gain momentum. In the first place is a good food formulation and a reasonable price that will attract buyers.

Cost of opening and maintaining

To open a small business, you will need at least 1 million rubles, and for large production - from 6 million rubles.

Included in the price:

• business registration;
• renting or purchasing premises;
• purchase of equipment;
• payment of taxes;
• Payment of utility services;
• payment of wages;
• purchase of raw materials;
• advertising.

In total, you will need to spend about 1.2 million rubles to open. Monthly expenses will be about 300 thousand rubles.

Amount of future income

To produce one ton of dry food, you will need to spend about 50 thousand rubles. The profit will be 100 thousand rubles.

In one shift you can produce 1 ton of dry food. The wholesale cost of this quantity will be 15 thousand rubles. In total, in 22 working days you can earn approximately 150 thousand in profit.

Payback period

Business profitability is 20%. This high rate. If the event goes well, the business pays for itself in 2-3 years.

To start producing dry food, an entrepreneur must not only have enough financial resources, but also confidence in his abilities. Due to the great competition, the main emphasis should be on the marketing plan, then such a business will generate a steadily growing income.