Just bought a new bag of food, one of the ingredients is TALLOW.  Never heard of this before.  Anyone one know what it is??

Thanks.

beef fat.

Oh, not too bad then, 

Thanks

Beef Tallow
AAFCO: Fat with titer above 40 degrees Celsius, obtained from the tissue of cattle in the commercial process of rendering. Also called Beef Fat.

Dogs and cats like the taste of this fat, so it is often used to make low-quality food more palatable. Beef tallow is very low in linoleic acid and much cheaper for the pet food industry to use than a good quality vegetable oil or nutritionally rich chicken fat.

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That's from this site,they list it in the ingredients to avoid..

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients

Beef fat not suitable for animals?  What will they come out with next? :-)  I don't really have any issue with animals having palatable foods :-D

I believe the point they are making is that there are better quality alternatives and that tallow is often used by the low end brands.It doesnt say it's not suitable,just a cheaper,lower quality ingredient.

Tallow is also a base for lots of soaps this being one of the reasons some dogs like to eat it.
It generally is beef tallow but can come from other animals apart from cows too.

I don't understand this lower quality idea.  It's just an ingredient used in a complete diet.  Nothing will be missing in the round and if this is what the dog enjoys and suits them, why ever not?
The trouble with sites like the one linked is they appear to be authoritive but they are not a Goverment appointed food agency or an accademic body or anything like that.  They are just individuals with quite specific views who have invested in a web site.  Their opinions really have no greater value than yours or mine.

Fair enough Isabel but isn't it better to be informed of what is actualy in your dogs food rather than just buying one without a clue? Obviously the OP wants to know or they wouldn't have asked ;)

Yes, and the OP was told that it was beef fat usually.

Yes you are right charlie72 it is a low priced, low quality ingredient and the stench (cannot be called smell) in soap manufacture is disgusting before adding perfumes, so not sure what else they must add to hide the smell in dog food.

> the stench (cannot be called smell) in soap manufacture is disgusting before adding perfumes

and yet, like you say, dogs find it highly desirable.  Must be the perfumes :-)

Some dogs (not all) find it desirable in soap Isabel, they wouldn't like it in the basic form, something has to be added to disguise the stench before adding to pet food, otherwise owners would not feed it to their pets their homes would need fumigating :) 

> they wouldn't like it in the basic form

Wouldn't they?  It must be the purfume then :-)

Sorry but I have never found a dog yet that is put of by what we consider a disgusting smell think of what they will roll in and scavange and they are usually highly delighted at their acheivements.

> and yet, like you say, dogs find it highly desirable.

And I have been known to forget this and then have to rescue bars of soap from jaws of dog.....

Just to add,  the Tallow is way down the list of ingedients -

Wheat   (My dogs have no problem with wheat)
Fresh Tripe  (They adore!)
Wheatfeed ??
Barley
Meat and Marrowbone Meal
Oats
Maize
TALLOW!!
Chicken Meat Meal
Linseed
Chicken Fat
Herbs, Vitamins, Minerals.

I'm sure the tripe will hide the smell :-D

Sure tripe smells disgusting but tallow is on a different level altogether, there must be something in the food to hide the tallow smell from humans otherwise as I said in my previuos post they wouldn't feed it to their pets, the house would stink vile I'm not saying that all pets would turn their noses up to it though.

> there must be something in the food to hide the tallow smell from humans

I think it is a lot worse during the rendering process, like cooking tripe , once it is done it does not look or smell a lot different to suet.

Isn't Lard the same as beef fat?   Lard doesn't really have a smell.

The dog food smells ok, the dogs enjoyed the taster I've just given them.

My dog once ate a dead koi carp that he found and dug up.  Now that really smelt bad!!

> Isn't Lard the same as beef fat? 

Yes, lard is beef fat.  People used to use it a lot for frying before worries about cholestorol.  They swore by it for flavour when making things like chips :-)

Usually the smellier the better for dogs IME although I do have one that wouldn't eat tripe or fish to save herself (a posh bird ;) )

Beef OTOH rates quite highly on the list of common intolerances in dogs so perhaps better that more people are aware of what tallow is so that should they have a dog which is intolerant of beef and its byproducts they know to avoid foods containing tallow :)

Always learning, after all.

One of my dogs ate a rancid and I do mean rancid rotten eel, while I was chasing after her bits were dropping off and so my other dog rolled on the bits. That was an interesting journey home in the car.

I thought Lard was pig fat?

Oh I think you are right. I am mixing it up with dripping.

Mixing lard with dripping - that will certainly fur your arteries. :-D

Larding it on :-D

I've had dealings with Tallow, its not too bad (smell wise) when it comes in, as it has to be kept to a certain temperature to keep it liquid, if the tallow was really a high smell that would mean that it is probably going rancid....
Jane

It's odd isn't it, we worry about what we feed the dogs, buy nice expensive food, with good wholesome ingredients, tasty and healthy.  And then they find the most disgusting, vile, smelly remains of various creatures, or piles of stinking poo and they have a wonderful feast!!   Makes me wonder sometimes...

Maybe they know better than we do, what is a good diet for themselves!

> Wheatfeed ??

Quote taken from Farming Direct "A byproduct of flour milling. It contains fragments of bran, seedcoat and some flour. Rather dusty but a useful animal food"

N.B; the seed coat is not digestible so Im presuming they mean useful in terms of stool passing, for example, rather than nutritionally useful ;)

Used a lot in economy dog food products.
Jane