Let's start with the simplest thing: Wolves are omnivores and will eat pretty much anything they come across from bread to garbage and from roadkill to berries, grass, and eggs. Do they prefer meat? Sure, but let’s not imagine it’s always steak. More often than you might imagine it’s frogs, snakes, insects, rats, and mice.
As I explained in an earlier post, most of the animals that are considered pure meat eaters actually eat a fair amount of plant material, and what meat they do eat tends to start with the offal of diseased, sick, young, or very old animals.
So what do zoos feed wolves? Whatever they can get ahold of that is cheap and not too diseased. The problem is that good cheap meat is rare enough that a zoo cannot depend on it for feed, nor is a dead deer or a pig head the kind of thing that makes for a clean zoo enclosure or an attractive display for the kids. So what's the solution? It tends to be raw or frozen chicken and a lot of bagged kibble.
When it comes to bagged kibble, a lot of zoos simply feed Purina or some other complete dog food, but the zoo business in America is large enough that Zupreem, an offshoot of Science Diet, began making specialized zoo food more than 50 years ago, including a bagged kibble developed just for wolves, bears and other non-domestic canines.
What's in it?
Basically, it's low-fat dog food made of corn and chicken fat, a fact that reflects the low-energy output of wild zoo animals in relatively small enclosures. Captive wild animals do not run 10 miles every day. Keeping zoo animals entertained and not fat are the #1 and #2 burdens of being a zoo keeper.
Of course Zupreem Omnivore kibble is not the only the food a wolf may get; a can of Zupreem Canned Feline Diet (canned chicken with chicken meal and processed corn) may also be stirred in, along with a couple of pieces of fresh or frozen chicken or rabbit. In short, a lot of zoo wolves are eating corn and chicken, supplemented with chicken and corn.
3 comments:
I think most of us will agree Science Diet (and anything else made by Hills) is as bad as Ol' Roy. I have a friend who spent a considerable amount of money having her vet test her dog for allergies. The test results she received noted her dog was allergic to chicken -- so the vet promptly sold her a bag of Science Diet specially formulated to address food allergies. If I remember correctly, high on the ingredient list was hydrolized chicken feathers. (She eventually had the dog seen by a different vet who discovered the dog had a long standing ear infection. Once treated properly the dog's "allergic" symptoms disappeared.)
Science Diet makes a lot of dog foods and most are middle-of-the road product indistinguishable from any other dog food. My problem with Science Diet is that they paid kickbacks to vets for a long time (and maybe still do).
Ol' Roy is not bad dog food. In fact it got a pretty high Consumer Report rating a few years back. It's made by Mars, the same folks who make PEDIGREE®, IAMS®, WHISKAS®, and ROYAL CANIN®. It's simply the house brand of Walmart. It's usually very fresh and quite low cost; an excellent deal if you can stomach the fact that Walmart pays its workers crappy wages.
I can't speak to feathers (never seen feather meal in a dog food label I have looked at), but chicken meal is excellent stuff -- pure chicken with simply the water take out. Ditto with chicken and meat by products. See AAFCO definitions >> https://www.aafco.org/consumers/what-is-in-pet-food
Quibeynfarm's comment is arrant nonsense of the kind propagated by the pet foolish, for whom a little bit of (erroneous) knowledge is a dangerous thing. Where to begin? I cannot speak to the validity of the allergy test mentioned but assuming the vet had ruled out the common environmental causes of "allergy," true food allergies are always to a protein and chicken is often the problem because it is so common. Allergies are almost never to grain although many manufacturers would try to convince you otherwise.
The diagnosis of any allergy is a process of elimination, and food allergies require the animal to eat a unique form of protein for an extended period of time. It is very difficult for an owner to comply with these strict requirements; to be determinative the dog cannot eat *anything* other than the prescribed food. Because the pet foolish are so loath to feed Hills Prescription Diets, an entire industry has grown up offering "limited ingredient" formulas with exotic proteins not commonly fed. The problem is that these over the counter foods are made on the same equipment as your detested Ol' Roy. Tests have shown that they almost always include traces of yes, chicken. So they are useless in diagnosing a food allergy, yet people buy them because they are told that they are "better" than Science Diet.
Hydrolyzed protein formulas are among the most sophisticated and thoroughly researched of all therapeutic diets. Animal or plant protein is processed so that the resulting molecules are so small they do not trigger an allergic reaction. Vets have found that clients find it easier to feed these foods than other elimination diets.
If the client you mention had completed the recommended trial conscientiously and the dog still had symptoms of allergy, the vet could have safely ruled out a food allergy and might well have gone on to discover the ear infection. Perhaps the original vet should have seen it to begin with but the food suggested was by no means a scam.
The first four ingredients of Hills Z/D are Corn Starch, Hydrolyzed Chicken Liver, Powdered Cellulose, Soybean Oil, which it took me less than five seconds to check. No feathers if not a "prey model" recipe. In fairness there are very highly specialized Royal Canin allergy formulas that do apparently contain hydrolyzed "feather meal," but despite Royal Canin's ingredients looking terrible on paper, the company has a very successful track record and if I had a sick dog I would not second guess my vet in favor of advice from the likes of you.
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