Ingredients list on two other possibly OK commercial foods

[JediMasterThrash]

I took a chance on trying out a couple foods I saw on pet discounters.When I got them in the mail, the ingredient lists seem to check out pretty well.First is Gardner's Hermit Crab Food. Some old members might remember a lot of discussion about Gardner's food. Supposedly Gardner sold a new species of crab that we determined to be large E's with a diet to give them a dark brown color, and supposedly Gardner's special brand of food was responsible.Well, when I saw it, I figured it was a good chance to pick it up and see what the ingredients were and what the crabs thought of it.Meat Meal, Bone Meal, Coconut Meal, Seaweed, Soybean Meal, Mangrove Sap, Trace Eleemnts. Contents are balanced for the proper development of cuticle skin during molting.Crude Protein: 21%Crude Fat: 4.9%Crude Fiber 10%Ash 2%However, the first two ingredients on Gardner's are "meat meal" and "bone meal", which are ambiguous foods and can sometimes be red flags.The other one is the really interesting one. It's a moist food for hermit crabs, and reminds me somewhat of moist cat food. It is amazing in the fact that it has a really nice, sweet, fresh smell that never goes bad. This is due to the fruist I assume. Whenever I open the can to feed some to the crabs, my cats think it's supposed to be for them and go wild (probably due to the salmon.Zoo Menu Hermit Crab Food:Salmon, Fresh apples, fresh carrots, ground corn, dextrose, soybean meal, fish bone meal, brewer's yeast, kelp powder, gums, banana flavorings, vitamin mix (rice hulls, choline chloride, riboflavin, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine HCL, vitamin B12 supplement, metadione sodium bisulfate complex (source of vitamin K activity), calcium carbonate, alpha Di tocapheryl acetate (source of vitamin E), vitamin A acetate, folic acid, calcium pentathenate, vitamin D3 supplement, D-biotin), waterCrude protein 4%crude fat .5%Crude fiber 1%Moisture 78%Lots of vitamins added, which may or may not be good. And high mositure content just because it's a moist food. But salmon and fresh food top the list, and the crabs seem to really like it.Info on HBH Hermit Crab Variety Bites can be found in this thread:http://www.hermitcrabassociati...iewtopic.php?t=63905

[JediMasterThrash]

quote:Originally posted by Dodger:"Meal" usually = scrap. Just sayin'. Actually that's a myth.Here's a quote from Willow:quote:In doing MUCH research into dog and cat foods, I have found that lots of people don't like to see "meal" in the ingredient lists.....BUT, all dried ingredients can be called "meal". If it says just "chicken" (for instance), it's really chicken meal, because chicken needs to be dried before being used in pet food. And if it just says "chicken", that actually means the food has LESS chicken than if it said "chicken meal", because the chicken was weighed before being dried......I know I'm not good at explaining. "By-product" is the word you want to avoid, not "meal".However, the first two ingredients on Gardner's are "meat meal" and "bone meal", which are ambiguous foods and can sometimes be red flags.[Edit] trying to look up info on those two ingredients. It appears that MBM (meat and bone meal" is often a cheap filler food. I'm curious why it is listed as separate ingredients. Just trying to hide a proprietary blend of meats? Or is it really just filler garbage?I haven't fed my crabs that Gardner's yet. Just got it to read the ingredients list (wasn't posted on the web). Just tried the moist stuff so far.

[Crabby Abby]

quote:However, the first two ingredients on Gardner's are "meat meal" and "bone meal", which are ambiguous foods and can sometimes be red flags. From fda.gov/pet food labelling:"meat" is defined as the "clean flesh of slaughtered mammals and is limited to...the striate muscle...with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh." On the other hand, "meat meal" is "the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents." Thus, in addition to the processing, it could also contain parts of animals one would not think of as "meat." Meat meal may not be very pleasing to think about eating yourself, even though it's probably more nutritious. Animals do not share in people's aesthetic concerns about the source and composition of their food."Both make me feel like this ->