Some people have reported that feeding dry dog food with lamb helps contain a dog’s allergy symptoms, more so than feeding dog food with beef, chicken or turkey.
Since our dog was showing signs of allergies or something else causing her to scratch a lot more than normal, I was curious about the possible benefits of lamb. The ingredients of a premium dry dog food said All Natural Lamb with Rice. But the ingredients said “lamb meal,” so I looked a little further into what “lamb” or “lamb meal” means.
There are several definitions of lamb which designate an animal and also the meat of the animal (unlike mutton or pork which designates only meat). Many statements define what the age of a lamb is before it becomes a sheep or hogget. Different countries outside the US, such as New Zealand, Britain and Australia, have their own definitions of lamb. Here are a few definitions of lamb and hogget:
Miriam Webster Dictionary:
Lamb: a young sheep: especially; one that is less than one year old or without permanent teeth.
The Farlex Dictionary:
Lamb: a young sheep, especially one that is not yet weaned.
Wikipedia
Lamb, hogget, and mutton are the meat of domestic sheep. The meat of an animal in its first year is lamb; that of an older sheep is hogget and later mutton.
WordNet
Hogget: a sheep up to the age of one year; one yet to be sheared
Other definitions include:
- Lamb — a young sheep that is less than one year old
- Baby lamb — a milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old
- Spring lamb — a milk-fed lamb, usually three to five months old, born in late winter or early spring and sold usually before July 1
- Yearling lamb — a young sheep between 12 and 24 months old.
There is a dramatic difference in the price of lamb meat (around $8.00 per pound) compared to mutton ($3.00 per pound). Do dog food manufacturers who advertise lamb as an ingredient really have lamb?
Dog food companies generally don’t have FDA inspectors watching their manufacturing processes. Since there is no way to distinguish between lamb and mutton ingredients in the dog food after it is processed and packaged, why would the manufacturer use high priced lamb meat instead of lower cost mutton? My cynical side says they probably use mutton more than lamb.
So what’s the story on lamb meal? The AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) definition is:
Lamb Meal - the rendered product from lamb tissues, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
Rendering means to melt down or extract by melting to convert into industrial fats and oils or fertilizer. For a complete definition see the USDA Animal Product Manual.
This is not food for human consumption. You can get sick to your stomach on this topic just Google Images “meat rendering plant” or see “What’s Really in Your Pet’s Food??” on Youtube. I may never buy kibble again after seeing this.
I suppose there could actually be some real lamb meet in lamb meal, but how can you trust the dog food manufacturer and their advertising claim. Do they really use the sumptuous sounding ingredients “All Natural Lamb and Rice?” Maybe it would be more accurate to read “All Natural Mutton Meal and Rice.” In any case, if I want to find out if lamb will help our dog Molly, I’ll probably end up buying real lamb for $8.00 a pound, or try to find some lower cost mutton.
