Why is Purina feed "bad"?

[Bruins]

Ethoxyquin has been known to cause dogs to become sterile .
Way back in the 90's when I began showing dogs there was a study published linking the use of Ethoxyquin and the increased incidence of sterility . Most people never noticed since most people spay and neuter their pets , though it was commonly seen in show dogs who are kept intact .

 

[CrazyTalk]

Ethoxyquin has been known to cause dogs to become sterile .
Way back in the 90's when I began showing dogs there was a study published linking the use of Ethoxyquin and the increased incidence of sterility . Most people never noticed since most people spay and neuter their pets , though it was commonly seen in show dogs who are kept intact .

Then you should be able to link to such study - as I can't seem to find it, via google or any of the normal venues.


In fact, the only study I can find referencing ethoxyquin and sterility is this on:
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/91/2/219.full.pdf
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/handle/1957/46495?show=full


Which shows that chickens made sterile by a diet high in lineolic acid and low in vitamin A can have this sterility reversed by being fed ethoxyquin.

The only places I can find showing worry about it, don't go past "It's a pesticide", which means they're not viable sources. They're places with words like "Holistic" and "Natural" in their titles -the typical stuff. In my searching I also found several dog nutritionists stating things like (from dogfoodadviser.com):
Quote:

Chickens (and dogs) need fat and protien - if you're not going to be feeding them raw meat every day (which just isn't reasonable for most of us), they're going to need something to keep the meat in their diet from going rancid - ethoxyquin does a good job of that, and has shown little to no toxicity at this point. It's not worth worrying about.

 

[JJSS89]

Not much to add.

 

[matt44644]

All i know is where i live the feed stores sell more Purina than any other brand.

 

[Bruins]

Chickens (and dogs) need fat and protien - if you're not going to be feeding them raw meat every day (which just isn't reasonable for most of us),

Well ,I guess this is where we differ . I do feed my dogs a raw meat / natural diet and have seen much better health and less incidents of disease & illness in the last 3 generations .

 

[CrazyTalk]

Chickens (and dogs) need fat and protien - if you're not going to be feeding them raw meat every day (which just isn't reasonable for most of us),

Well ,I guess this is where we differ . I do feed my dogs a raw meat / natural diet and have seen much better health and less incidents of disease & illness in the last 3 generations .

Good for you - but this thread is about Purina chicken food, not the raw meat diet in dogs.

If you want to serve your chickens raw meat, great. Do that - it's better for them. Most of us don't have time for that (other than occasional scraps) and prefer to feed a balanced, complete, nutritious premixed feed.

The problem with "supplementing" these feeds (and purina is fine) is that most people have no idea what they're doing, and think that just about anything in any quantity is good for the chickens - when the truth is that most of the supplementing that people are doing is making their birds less healthy.

 

[jtn42248]

While I would like to live in a pure world with pure water and pure air and pure food I know that I don't and can't. The breath I just took has pollutants not only from around where I live but, at least microparticles, of pollutants from all over the world. The water I drink is processed and has so many chemicals added to "make it safe" that the creator would have a hard time identifying it as water at all. From my first shiny candy coated peanut as a child to the crisp, juicy, shiny red apple I ate last night I have been eating car wax on pretty much a daily basis (Carnauba is used as a food glaze and wax).

The fact is that we try to provide safe food for our families and our animals. We all do the best we can and for the most part what we are able to get and use as food/feed is safe, treated but safe for us and our animals to eat. Short of a very expensive totally verifiable organic diet it is what is available and what we can afford. Sure I could feed my animals raw animal protein but stop for a moment and think what is in that "fresh" meat. What started out as a healthy "organic" calf grew to be a scientifically manipulated and highly marketable chunk of edible protein.

The point I am trying to make is that whether it is Purina Chicken Feed or 500 dollar an ounce Truffles from Gelson's in Beverly Hills there is no such thing as "pure" food and has not been for a long time. UNLESS you grow it yourself, control its diet, use only purified water to irrigate your garden which you have in a greenhouse with air purifiers, etc., etc., etc.

 

[Dueling Rooster]

Guess i'm one of the lucky few. I grow and sell organic/natural crops. I can. I have a green house, of which, I just picked lettuce to have salad for dinner. And I have been blessed with great water. My well is 605" deep. When tested they tell me I can sell it as is because its so pure.

 

[jtn42248]

Guess i'm one of the lucky few. I grow and sell organic/natural crops. I can. I have a green house, of which, I just picked lettuce to have salad for dinner. And I have been blessed with great water. My well is 605" deep. When tested they tell me I can sell it as is because its so pure.

"=inches '=feet so you have a 50' (foot) well? The point remains that the vast majority of people can not afford 100% certified organic, don't have an extensive greenhouse or the money to build one so they/we do the best we can with what is available.

 

[CrazyTalk]

The point remains that the vast majority of people can not afford 100% certified organic, don't have an extensive greenhouse or the money to build one so they/we do the best we can with what is available.

I think a bigger point that's often missed is that there's very little evidence that organic foods are better for you.

There's this belief that the organic foods in the grocery store are grown on quaint little farms that use chickens for pest control, don't spray any pesticides, and are idyllic peaceful operations. The truth is that you really can't tell a typical organic farm from a conventional one - they both spray pesticides - they just use different ones. Conventional farms pick pesticides by weighing safety with effectiveness. Organic ones pick ones that come from nature - and there are plenty of cases where those choices are significantly more dangerous than the conventional ones.


Industrial farming isn't an organic/conventional issue - both sides do it. Sustainability isn't an organic/conventional issue - it's done by some and ignored by others on both sides. Nutrition isn't really an organic/conventional issue - there are organic farms with terrible soils and conventional ones with fantastic soil and vice versa - and soil nutrients are largely what determines food nutrition.

Organic is about restricting the list of pesticides you can use to those that are natural - not to those that are safest. People confuse those two way too often.


"Pure" is a meaningless term here.