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Minerals
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Minerals

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Clay minerals: Do these ingredients have merit in petfood?

These ingredients already exist in small amounts in some animal feeds and petfoods, but are they truly serving a functional purpose?
June 13, 2013
Greg Aldrich, PhD
There are several petfoods on the market that contain clay minerals such as montmorillonite and bentonite. Inclusion of these earth elements at small amounts are purported to benefit our pets.
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Betaine: natural ingredient for next generation of petfoods

In petfoods, betaine can provide a partial choline supply from beet juice
May 8, 2012
Greg Aldrich, PhD
Betaine has become more common in pet diets in the last decade as natural and unique ingredients have become the driving force behind new petfoods. Betaine is a nearly pure chemical nutrient that hails from natural origins, and it certainly isn’t mainstream.
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Sodium selenite: Does this petfood ingredient warrant concern?

After decades of safe use, critics of the petfood industry have planted seeds of doubt and confusion about this essential ingredient
January 10, 2012
Greg Aldrich, PhD
Selenium is an essential trace mineral for dogs and cats. Due to wide variation in selenium content among ingredients used to make petfoods, most manufacturers will include a supplemental source in their trace mineral premix. The predominant form used in petfood is sodium selenite, which has been used for decades without much issue.
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Bones: a not-so-novel source of essential pet nutrients

Niche categories as well as conventional petfoods increasingly depend on bone to meet many pet nutrient needs.
July 7, 2011
Greg Aldrich, PhD
In human foods, bones have long been a staple for making ingredients like soup stock and gelatin; however, people don’t often eat bones directly. Rather, any bone that lands on our plates as a function of eating a steak, drumstick or chop often ends up being discarded or shared with the family pets.
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Potassium chloride: popular potassium source for petfoods

Potassium chloride is nutritionally effective, reasonably priced and readily available
January 10, 2011
Greg Aldrich, PhD
When balancing the macro-mineral portion of a petfood, calcium and phosphorus are usually the first priority, magnesium seldom requires adjustment, and sodium and chloride, if inadequate, are easily met with a pinch of salt (sodium chloride). All that remains is potassium.
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Calcium carbonate: safe, effective, economical for pet diets

This is the ingredient most often used for vital calcium fortification.
October 11, 2010
Greg Aldrich, PhD
Calcium is a vital nutrient for growth and sustained pet health. It is a principal structural component of bone and teeth, facilitates blood clotting binding-proteins, serves as a key conductor of nerve signals, initiates muscle contractions, activates select physiological enzymes and buffers pH changes.
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Dietary phosphorus sources

This critical dietary element comes from common origins with uncommon names
August 12, 2009
Greg Aldrich, PhD
Phosphorus is an absolutely critical dietary element. Metabolically, it is involved in the structural composition of bone, is a vital part of genetic messaging in phosphodiester linkages of DNA and RNA nucleotides, is involved with transport of energy through high-energy phosphate bonds (ATP), plays a role in systemic acid-base balance and is involved in fat and protein utilization via phospholipids and phosphoproteins.
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Dealing with choline chloride

It's an "Intel inside" type of molecule -- but also a problem child
July 28, 2008
Greg Aldrich, PhD
Dogs and cats, like many other species, require choline. It's the "Intel inside" kind of molecule that allows others to function to their full potential. Almost all commercial petfoods contain supplemental choline, predominantly from choline chloride. However, putting choline chloride into the formula can have profound effects on the way the ingredients are combined and processed during production due to the molecule's hygroscopic (water-loving) nature.Dogs and cats, like many other species, require choline
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