I think you have to remember that tinned dog food is the very same as tinned human food. While it might not kill you to eat it once in a while, it certainly is not a great idea to feed it for life. All that the manfucaturers have to do to pass the 'ok-to-sell-to-the-nation' test is to trial* their food for 6 months, if the dogs do ok, it is fit for sale.

*the food companies I went to used farm dogs as their trials... when I asked how they know other factors aren't involved (like the farmer throwing them scraps too) they said they ''who doesn't'' (but still write 'complete and balanced' on the label)

Originally Posted by Helena54
''Chappie... it can be fed to dogs with EPI as it's fish based and cereals which can't be bad.''

We (CHC) have working contacts at dog food manufacturers. As their is no external trading standard telling them what is and is not acceptable, they decide the rules themselves. Under 'cereals' they are allowed to put in peanut shells, and from the horses mouth to my ears I was told the husk, that they throw away when getting at the barley grain, they classify the husks as waste, but filler which is called 'cereal' in the dog food.

You might say 'well I knew it wasn't that good anyway' but it is worse than that. These 'cereals' that are not bio-availible to the dog's system, sit there for a long time (inviting parasites like worms, as they can digest this food stuff) and can cause problems (like bowel cancers) in the long term.
Not only this, but the body is working so hard to try to digest this impossible food, that the toll is a shortened life span (research done in the 70's on lab rats) for the exhausted body.

I also know plenty of people that have jumped off bridges, but I wouldnt recommend it and it's not advisable !!

It contains meat 'derivatives' and 80% water .....Fact !

It was just advice as many people dont know. It's not advisable to keep dogs on tinned food, it pased through their system way too fast to even take out any of the so called vitamins/minerals they say they have added.

[QUOTE=Malady;1233126]I also know plenty of people that have jumped off bridges, but I wouldnt recommend it and it's not advisable !!

QUOTE]

no wouldn't recomend that ...

It depends on who you advise to jump off a bridge. So by that I would say it does depend on the dog.

Obviously I wouldnt advise ANYONE to jump off a bridge !!

Depending on the dog does not detract that each tin is 80% water, that is fact, so by all means pay for 20% of processed rubbish and meat 'derivatives' (not actual meat) and jump off a bridge if that's what you insist on !

Jess - do you mean the bioavailability of nutrients from the cereals, rather than the bulk cereal itself?

Wouldn't the non-digestible matter just be moved through the gut and out?

I feed Genesis, Occassionly i might buy a tin of Chappie or Butchers tripe.As a treat for Nellie & Mav. Flynn HATES wet dog food inc ND(& other tray foods) they also sometimes get a raw chicken wing/leg

The nutrients within the 'cereals' are not bio-availble to the dog. We think we are feeding nutritious cereals (barely/rice etc) but we are being conned. Yes it passes through, but as I mentioned it is not un-harmful.

Feeding seems to be as confusing as training

All I can ever go on is my own personal experience. I give my Benson Nature Diet mixed in with kibble. Sometimes, I'll give him a tin of Butchers.

My previous Boxer, Winston, was fed on tinned Butchers all his life...nothing else bar the odd scrap here and there. He lived to be 12 years old and never developed any stomach/digestion problems.

A lot of what I read, both here and in other places, suggests that tinned food is not all that good for dogs. But for a Boxer to last 12 years on the stuff, surely it can't be all that bad?

What if that same boxer could live to 16 and at 12 have the health of a 6 year old?