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Originally Posted by pstinard  I heard back from Primal about their mixes and grinds.
I'm satisfied with the speed and honesty with which they replied. I can only recommend their complete nutritionally balanced foods. It's very dicey to suggest that there are "many recipes on the internet" that can help me customize their non-balanced mixes and grinds. They might want to rethink that advice. At least all of their foods are tested safe for dangerous bacteria and microorganisms. It would be nice if they could coordinate the proper nutritional balancing of their mixes and grinds with professional nutritionists. |
I'm attaching a copy of the Recommendations for Selecting a Commercially Available Pet Food from the American Animal Hospital Association and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. I'll also quote these recommendations below:
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Recommendations for selecting a commercially available pet food.
1. The manufacturer should employ at least 1 full-time qualified nutritionist. Appropriate qualifications are a PhD in animal nutrition or boardcertification by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition or European College of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition.
2. The manufacturer should test its diets with AAFCO feeding trials. If AAFCO feeding trials are not conducted, the manufacturer should, at a minimum, ensure that diets meet AAFCO nutrient profiles through analysis of the finished product.
3. The manufacturer should own the plant or plants where the food is manufactured.
4. The manufacturer should practice strict quality-control measures. Examples include certification of a manufacturer’s procedures (eg, Global Food Safety Initiative, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, or American Feeding Industry Association); testing ingredients and endproducts for nutrient content, pathogens, and aflatoxins; materials risk assessments; and supplier audits.
5. The manufacturer should be able to provide a complete nutrient analysis for any dog or cat food of interest (not only the guaranteed analysis, which is listed on the label, but the average [typical] analysis as well). The manufacturer should be able to provide exact values for all nutrients. This should ideally be provided on an energy basis (ie, grams per 100 kilocalories or grams per 1,000 kilocalories), rather than on an as-fed or dry-matter basis, which does not account for the variation in energy density among foods.
6. The manufacturer should be able to provide the number of calories for any food on any requested weight or volume basis (eg, per gram, per pound, per cup, or per liter).
7. The manufacturer should conduct and publish research in peer-reviewed journals.
Recommendations are on the basis of information included in the nutritional assessment guidelines published by the American Animal Hospital Association and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.
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These recommendations are from an excellent article titled "Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats" that's probably behind a paywall at the following link:
https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/ab...ma.243.11.1549
I'll probably review this article and other recent articles on the same topic at a later time.
I'm going to do my due diligence and ask Primal (and Wellness, the manufacturer of Bella's dog food) additional questions addressing these points. I'll let you know what I find out.