Corn used as a Dog Food Ingredient

[imported_admin]

Corn, Corn Meal or Corn Gluten are hard for dogs to digest. Any dog food that has Corn as one of the leading ingredients should be avoided. Dogs that have eaten corn over a long period of time have developed skin conditions, endless scratching, tumors, moles, warts, blindness, deafness, bloating, ear aches, ear infections, inflamed kidneys, inflamed liver, heart conditions, and death.

[rothlm]

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[threedognight]

My only response to that is I have yet to see packs of dogs roaming the corn or wheat fields grazing so why are we feeding them unnatural foods?

[RawFedDogs]

rothlm,
Which pet food company page did you copy and paste that from? There are not 3 accurate sentences in the whole post.

EDITED TO ADD: Check out this page: http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/contrast.html

[LPacker79]

Hell, which company are you working for anyways? Science Diet or Yuck-Enuba? I've heard that spiel from both the SD and Yuck-Enuba reps that come to the Petsmart I work at.

FYI, there are PLENTY of grainless foods out there, I've been using them for over a year. My aged Siberian (11-13 years old) has never looked better.

[rothlm]

It is amazing that I was invited to join this forum, yet am criticized for giving MY information and opinion. So, what is the point of this forum??? Ridiculous. I am always happy to discuss dog food and nutrition, including grain-free alternatives, with persons NOT so ignorant and arrogant. This board is a complete waste of time. I am glad I visited, however, as I now know NOT to waste my time in the future.

[threedognight]

Well...............................goodby! :mrgreen:

[angelar]

Can I politely ask where the original post got this information? From what I've learned, whole ground yellow corn is 99% digestible by dogs. It is an excellent energy source and one of the best natural Omega 6 fatty acid (Linoleic Acid) sources aside from meat. Dogs and cats require this acid in order to maintain healthy skin and coats. Without it, pets may experience dull coats, dry skin and even hair loss.

You're right about the other two though.

Corn meal is finely ground corn kernels. The outer skin and germ gets removed which is where the fiber and nutrients come from.

Corn Gluten meal is the by-product of corn syrup and/or starch manufacturing, and is the dried residue after the removal of the bran, germ and starch.

;)

[RawFedDogs]

Can I politely ask where the original post got this information? From what I've learned, whole ground yellow corn is 99% digestible by dogs.

Dogs cannot digest whole corn in it's natural state. That tells me that there is no need for corn in a dog's diet. If he needed corn, over millions of years of evolution, he would have developed a method of digesting it. Ground corn is still corn.

As a quick funny little side note: I had some corn in a deer feeder one time and one of my dogs got into it. His next poop was 80% corn and 20% stool. The corn was still in whole kernels. I could have washed them off and no one would have known that they had been previously eaten.

[Brattina88]

Unless an individual dog is sensitive or allergic to corn or wheat, they are no better and no worse than other cereal grains, as long as they are used as a source of carbohydrates and not as a main source of protein, especially in combination with excessive use of gluten as another main ingredient.