>Animal derivatives are the bits of the animal that humans don't eat but dogs would eat should they presented with the whole animal
That is a nice way of looking at it :) However when a dog is presented with a whole animal,lets say a rabbit,he is getting 2 kidney's,1 liver,1 heart,4 feet,2 eyes and a nice amount of muscle meat etc etc. However no-one know what the dog is getting or from which animal,unless this is specifically stated,when one feeds a food with derivatives in.He could be getting 20 sets of beaks,a few hooves,some feathers and loads of other cheap and indigestable items,and possibly,with a capital P, some nutritious liver and heart(unlikely,as these items are usually used for the human food chain),who knows?? The consumer certainly doesnt,there is no way we can know,as when a food lists derivatives it enables the manu' to change ingredients from batch to batch using whatever he so pleases. My opinion is when one feeds a food with un named ingredients it is best to take the rose coloured specs off ;)
>Does that not serve to show rather well that what some seem to regard as "better" ingredients means nothing in terms of results
If i can get similar results by feeding cleaner,healthier ingredients then i would be silly not to do so.Naturediet can sort out dickie tums like chappie sometimes does,but it also contains better(there's that word again

),healthier ingredients which stands to benefit the dog in many other ways other than it's digestion.In other words you get more bang for your buck with ND then you would a food like chappie.