Why not use pork in pet food?

[tigereye]

True most reading will state that dogs are not omnivors because the myth about the stomach thing, but there are other readings that prove otherwise. But leaving that aside. Dogs are not wolves. I never known a pack of chihuahuas LOL. If all dogs come from wolves that is a different story.

I like to give my dogs Tripett it is only tripe, nothing added and you can get it in beef, lamb. My dogs go CRAZY over it. I think most dogs go CRazy for it. There are nutritional benefits to it.

What I am trying to say is that if all dogs came from wolves its been awhile that these breeds came about. We can not compare what they use to eat because of better research shows benefits. We as people eat differently then we did 100 years ago because of better research.

I just believe that protien for meat source (because protien can come from other sources) is the best for energy. I don't think high fat contrbutes to good energy because of the problems. Low levels to moderate levels of fat is fine. But pork which companies use in there kibble is the whole pork they throw in and pork is know to have a lot of fat. Maybe as a treat once and awhile but not as a meal everyday.

but don't forget all animals with skeletal muscle store carbohydrates in muscles and the liver and other organs,including us. So wolves including dogs that eat raw do get some amount carbs.

[mom5cats]

Friskies makes a turkey and bacon canned food. Hound and Gatos makes a port-flavored canned food, and By Nature makes a pork and sweet potato dry food. The latter two can be found on chewy.com. I have not tried them - the canned food is expensive and I can't imagine my cats liking sweet potatoes.

[Patchie]

I feed my dogs cooked pork once a week. It's harmless if it's cooked properly but don't even try feeding it when you're in raw. I have read some articles that suggest freezing raw pork for few weeks before feeding it in order to eliminate bacteria but I won't take the risk.

[ActiveMom]

I wondered about that too way back then and found this article.

How come pet food never contains pork?

[hazelrunpack]

Interesting article, and entertaining, but I think it glosses over the underlying reason for the cultural bias that steers many people away from a pork-based diet for their pets. Religious bans on food in that area of the world were in response to health issues--pork can harbor Trichinella roundworms that can cause trichinosis if the meat is not prepared properly, so it was declared taboo. Although trichinosis has been nearly wiped out in developed parts of the world and the US meat supply has been declared 'safe', if I were feeding raw, I'd probably still avoid pork, both wild and domestic, and probably bear meat, for the same reason. Some species of Trichinella roundworms can be killed by freezing the meat for a while before consumption, but there is at least one species that is freeze resistant. To be safe, I wouldn't feed raw pork because of it.

However, properly processed pork doesn't raise any red flags for me. In fact, our dogs are currently doing quite well on a pork formula kibble.

[Honedge]

The simple answer is because chicken and fish are cheap, and beef, shrimp, and lamb conjure the idea that those are "gourmet" pet foods. However, most non-prescription pet foods are mostly corn-based, for cheap carbohydrates.