When was pet food invented

Commercial pet food is a little over a hundred-year-old practice. You may wonder how we went from feeding table scraps to processed kibble in such a short time. For ages, pets hunted and ate scraps from the table. This changed in when an electrician named James Spratt was visiting London to sell lightning rods.

He was fascinated when he saw dogs at the docks waiting for sailors to throw them stale biscuits. Looking for business opportunities, he invented the fibrine dog cake. The biscuits were similar to what the sailors threw out, with the addition of vegetables, beetroot, and meat. He targeted an elite crowd with his advertising and utilized new marketing techniques like billboards. Fibrine dog cakes were one of the most heavily advertised products of the 20 th century.

The company pioneered the concept of life stages. In , another company started competing, and they introduced Milk-Bones. In , WWI just ended and technology like cars and tractors eliminated the need for horses. This created a surplus of horses. A man named PM Chapel saw the opportunity to buy up cheap horse meat and sold the first canned dog food under the brand name Ken-L-Ration. They promoted their food as using lean, red, government-inspected meat.

In WWII, necessity became the mother of invention for the pet food industry. All available metal was sent for the war effort. The metal used to make cans for dog food was no longer available. Companies innovated to keep up with demand and found that by using by-products from cereal manufacturers they could a shelf-stable food that could be sold in bags.

This led to the first dry food for dogs. The ability to create a dry, cheap food with a high-profit margin began attracting larger corporations to the pet food industry.

By this time, more people were taking notice and were sold on the convenience. It only took roughly 45 years for pet food companies to convince people that pet food should be the only food your pet should eat, and that dry kibble was a healthy option for a pet in the s. Purina previously had been selling food for farm animals that was plant and grain-based for pigs and chickens. This was the first time a balanced food was marketed requiring additional vitamins and nutrients.

Purina began experimenting and developed the first dry kibble through the process of extrusion. The marketing was so intense and still is that it is difficult for anyone to believe otherwise.

However, this change was not negative overall. It may have started off as a way to cheaply feed dogs without a thought about the nutritional content but today the dog food standards are far and away better than 50 years ago. In the first specific legislation regarding pet food was introduced and called the Foodstuffs Legislation original copy for the UK.

Since they were published they have been updated non stop as research was conducted round the clock. Slowly, but surely, scientists discover what the perfect man-made meal for a dog is and how it can be manufactured safely and cheaply. Without these rules and laws manufacturers would be free to put whatever they want in their product at the expense of your dog like the early days of biscuits and the Ken-L-Ration. History has shown that humans and dogs have gotten along for thousands of years and many scholars wrote about the importance of a good diet.

Sadly, when the dog food industry boomed the focus was more on the money but thankful history was corrected with the introduction of these governing bodies.

At this point in time every country and continent had their own internal method of establishing good practice when it comes to making pet food. This massive piece of legislature lays down food safety requirements, traceability and the responsibilities feed business operators have over their product. Using scientific research, these new rules ensure that the food your dog will eat in the EU, anyway is safe and has a minimum level of nutrition. Since , it has been a constantly evolving piece of legislation which tightens how much manufacturers can get away with.

The latest update was in which should demonstrate how pet food standards are still actively working to continuously improve the pet food industry. In , the NRC released the guide on the nutritional requirements of dogs and cats. This guide differs from the legislation as it specifically discussed the nutrients and minerals dogs and cats needed rather than how safe it is. This important piece of work is why your shop bought dog food now has more vegetables, less meat and many more beneficial additives such as fish oil, prebiotics and fibre.

These guidelines have been updated as little back as and are constantly evolving. Puppy food in particular is well researched. However, a balanced view would see modern dog food as a mixture of wet dog food which may be canned or in pouches as well as dry dog food made with the extrusion method.

Not only that, the regulatory bodies which started as a way to market processed food effectively ended up being a group which pushed the quality of the food as far as they can and continue to do so today.

As technologies continue to improve more and more products and innovations are made such as dehydrated dog food and bespoke dog food packages so who knows what the future holds! The history of the food humans have given their dogs is tens of thousands of years long and has been constantly involved.

Humans have always shown an interest in how to feed their dogs and varying opinions on what to give them. What our research has shown though is that humans more or less controlled the evolution of doggy diets and our influence is the reason they eat what they eat.

They began with a raw diet and the spoils of the hunt, to wheat and barley from crops, to whey and milk, dog biscuits, canned horse meat and now a mixture of wet dog food and dry kibble.

In our opinion, James Spratt and the industrial revolution had the biggest impact on dog food and that was only years ago in a history which could have gone back 45, years. Your email address will not be published.

Questions this article answers: What did dogs eat before dog food? When was dog food invented? When was dog kibble invented?

Listen to the podcast episode! Credit — Flickr Sonja Pauen. Credit — Sci-News. Could this be what early dogs looked like? The science of veterinary nutrition emerged in the late s. Our understanding of animal science and nutrition also continued to evolve throughout the 20 th century—the first pet food specifically formulated for the unique nutritional needs of puppies was introduced in the early s—as more people came to view their dogs and cats part of the family.

In the mids, the U. Most commercially-prepared U. The Association of American Feed Control Officials AAFCO , an organization of state and federal regulatory officials, develops model legislation for pet food safety regulations, that can then be adopted by states. AAFCO first included language for pet food in their model bills in Today, there are dozens of specialty diets available, including diets for specific breeds. My Cart. Home » History of Pet Kibble. History of Pet Kibble In James Spratt, of Cincinnati, Ohio developed a biscuit made of wheat, beet root, vegetables and beef blood, hence, the first processed dog food was created.

The idea for this product was sprouted from watching stray dogs eat hard biscuits thrown away by sailors and migrants coming off the ships in port at Liverpool.