Corn used as a Dog Food Ingredient

[rannmiller]

Good point.

[magtie]

I've always avoided dog food with "corn" listed as an ingredient. Brown rice, or potato is a far better carb source...for both humans and dogs

[rannmiller]

I've always avoided dog food with "corn" listed as an ingredient.

I agree! There's a company in Reno that makes their own dog food for people, charge $70/bag for it, and it has corn in it! I was a little appalled. They might as well be a "prescription" food if they're going to do that.

[RawFedDogs]

Brown rice, or potato is a far better carb source...for both humans and dogs

As a carnivore, a dog has no dietary need for carbs in any form.

[pomsfurever]

oh I've always wondered why corn was bad

[sarah_1349]

For real.

[naread]

After my Rottie got sick with cancer. I was doing some research about the diet he was on (Science Diet). I could not find anything concrete. Then when I got a new puppy, I was speaking to the breeder and he told me that any food with its main ingredient being corn or a derivative, is not good for their digestive system. I can't help but wonder if this is what went wrong with Lennox. He was not even 8 yrs old. I also asked someone from the local german shepard rescue and was told the samething and he recommended Nutro and another that I cannot recall the name.

[rannmiller]

Well when you think of it, let us know and/or look it up on dogfoodanalysis.com

Nutro is okay but some people's dogs have been getting sick while on it, then again, some aren't. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.

[BabyHusky]

Theres many dogs that have gotten sick from Nutro so I think everyone shouldn't even bother risking it. After all, if you want to risk it that much, lot of dogs do fine on the cheapest dog chow...but we don't want to live off of greasy mcdonalds, why should our pups?

[claybuster]

What's up with that corn? I'll tell you what I know. Things changed around 2000-02, for the worse in regards to politics and economics behind corn. A longtime staple ingredient in dog food, and dogs had done very well with corn in the diet. I fed corn diets for many years, never had a bit of trouble. All the stuff about allergies and corn being a bad ingredient is total nonsense. Yes, an excellent filler ingredient in many respects (and a bad one), and can really pump some calories. When my feed pulled the corn about 4 years ago, there was a temporary 200 point cal drop (kibbled yellow corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal), but it was never a harmful ingredient.

Holistic feed makers and "all natural" feed makers like mine shifted off the corn.
Politics and economics are the reason, not the allergies. God's given corn is slowly disappearing. Genetically modified foods (GM) is unfortunately
the direction we have gone full speed ahead with, and corn is not what it use to be in regards to "natural". No dogs don't graze on corn, but that doesn’t mean it can't be a good ingredient for dog food. It is not natural in respect to the fact the DNA of the plant has been altered. There lies your "natural" and "holistic" aspects of corn. They altered the corn to become pesticide resistant, roundup ready. If needed the farmer can use amounts of pesticide that would normally kill the plant. GM foods are produced with differing reason. White Rice for example has been modified to increase beta-carotene, corn for the pesticide, tomatoes for longer shelf life.
I think almost 60% of the corn crop produced in the US is GM corn. I guess because when it comes to the corn and corn going to the animal feed industry, it is most likely GM corn and would rather not see it as an ingredient in my dogs food. But that is now and up until about 4-5 years ago a different story, a longtime great stable in dog food.

Now I know a lot of folks with working gun dogs like mine that feed Purina Pro Plan and Diamond products, both with corn. I don't know where their corn comes from and I understand many dogs today are doing very well on those feeds and don't have a bit of trouble in the field. I don't want to bash anyones feed
because I know we all feed what we think is the best and try to do the best for our dogs. All I know is corn throughout the years has undergone significant changes that warrants people to look at other options.

Thanks for reading, sorry this was lengthy.

Charlie

not that I am a big fan of the source, but here is some further reading:
Genetically modified food - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia