# Salmon/Fish Meal Mercury Concerns



## WaterBound (Apr 22, 2012)

I am about to switch my dogs from the Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy formula to Nature's Domain Salmon Meal & Sweet Potato Costco food. I have also noticed a lot of high end dog foods use fish meal.

Is anyone concerned that the use of this fish meal contains concentrated levels of mercury, PCBs and antibiotics? Even wild salmon is only suggested twice a week for human consumption. Farmed Scottish Salmon is only suggested once every 5 months. I am more concerned about farmed fish making its way into the high end dog food supply.

Won't the daily intake of mercury affect developing puppies the most? How can we feed our dogs so much fish, when even the EPA suggests much lower quantities of seafood consumption. Certainly nothing close to daily consumption is acceptable for humans. How can it be safe for our dogs to consume it daily?

How are your dogs and puppies doing on dog foods with fish meal? Do you change the diet away from seafoods and if so at what intervals? Any neurological issues?

Finally has anyone ever tested the levels of mercury or other pollutants in dog food with concentrated fish meal, such as the salmon meal in Nature's Domain or Orijen?


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## kateydog (Aug 1, 2012)

WaterBound said:


> I am about to switch my dogs from the Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy formula to Nature's Domain Salmon Meal & Sweet Potato Costco food. I have also noticed a lot of high end dog foods use fish meal.
> 
> Is anyone concerned that the use of this fish meal contains concentrated levels of mercury, PCBs and antibiotics? Even wild salmon is only suggested twice a week for human consumption. Farmed Scottish Salmon is only suggested once every 5 months. I am more concerned about farmed fish making its way into the high end dog food supply.
> 
> ...


Feed it to my 12 week old pup. Sister has fed it (same company Natural Balance, and that is smoked salmon, so I guess you could worry about carcinogens) to her husky for her entire life and she is an extremely healthy older dog with a beautiful coat.

They also have a turkey flavor at most costco's if you are worried about it though.

I plan on switching the flavors every few months. My sisters husky HAS to be on the salmon because of food allergies. She has tried venison, lamb (from natural balance), etc, and the only two she could eat were the lamb and salmon. On the lamb she was gaining a bit too much weight.

My dog has been on it a week or so. Coat is MUCH nicer then it was. Shiny,softer and just beautiful. 

The only knock on Natures Domain is the recall, but I am ok with that. People fail to understand that it was a TON of brands under Diamond involved in that recall, and not just Nature's Domain/Kirkland. It included brands that are like 70 bucks a bag. 

I mean they have had recalls on all peanut butter before...I didn't stop eating peanut butter. 

If you have the budget and are ultra concerned and have the time? Raw/organic (if it isn't organic what is the point, because non organic meat is CRAP, and some of these people eat mcdonalds, and care more about their dogs health then their own, and even worse their KIDS) and read up on this forum, and make sure you know what you are doing, because problems can occur there as well. Personally? I have had both my previous dogs live 12.5 years and be extremely healthy on decent quality kibbles, like Kirkland and up.

Bout the only thing to worry about with a decent quality kibble is bloat. Purdue did a study on bloat. Feed the dogs on the floor. Do NOT feed them elevated. That is a myth and I forget the numbers but bloat occurred like 4 or more times then feeding them on the floor.

You can feed a dog 70 dollar dog food if u want. They are still going to eat grass once in a while and stick their mouth on all kinds of disgusting stuff, because they are a dog and that is what dog's do.

Some of the same people that swear by the ultra premium foods, might spray their grass for bugs or use fertilizers that are 100 times worse then a food could be.

I am sure some people might read this post and be mad but...

Two dogs in 25 years...why would I ever bother with raw/organic? I mean if these dogs all end up living 15 years? Maybe I would consider it. I have seen no proof, NONE showing that they have longer lifespans.

Kirkland Signature Nature's Domain Dog Food | Review and Rating

4 star food. Same nutritionally and almost the exact same ingredients as Taste of The Wild Salmon (the price for this food is RIDICULOUS), better nutritionally then Natural Balance Salmon.

I would be more worried about too much calcium then mercury, because that is what causes shorter life spans and messed up growth.

Hope I didn't come off as offensive, just being honest.


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## Monster'sDad (Jul 29, 2012)

I can't speak about salmon, but if I used a salmon-centered food I would insist it be wild salmon, which would be a pacific species.

The other species such as Menhaden and Herring are not an issue because of their feeding habits and short life span. Chances are if the food says "fish meal" it is Menhaden. 

Since Nature's Domain is made by Diamond, god knows where the fish comes from.


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## Zookeep (May 17, 2012)

WaterBound said:


> I am about to switch my dogs from the Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy formula to Nature's Domain Salmon Meal & Sweet Potato Costco food. I have also noticed a lot of high end dog foods use fish meal.
> 
> Is anyone concerned that the use of this fish meal contains concentrated levels of mercury, PCBs and antibiotics? Even wild salmon is only suggested twice a week for human consumption. Farmed Scottish Salmon is only suggested once every 5 months. I am more concerned about farmed fish making its way into the high end dog food supply.
> 
> ...


I feed Diamond's Premium Edge and 4Health fish varieties. I was concerned about the use of farm raised salmon, so I sent Diamond an email. Diamond's response was that it used both wild caught salmon, and salmon farmed in the Pacific Northwest. I trust the salmon from the Pacific Northwest more than salmon farmed in South America. 

I didn't think to ask about the fish meal. If you send Diamond an email and ask what type of fish goes into the fish meal, I am sure you will get a response. Certain types of fish are better than others. Usually, the smaller the fish, the safer because there is less time for the contaminants to accumulate. The large predator fish eat the smaller fish and the contaminants accumulate.

I don't know where you are getting your information on how often you should eat wild salmon, but it does not sound correct to me. Wild salmon is just about the safest choice out of any fish. Even farm raised salmon has very low levels of heavy metals and PCB's.


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## kateydog (Aug 1, 2012)

From their site.

Salmon meal - Made from whole, fresh salmon caught in the Pacific Northwest, salmon meal is an excellent source of amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids.

Nature's Domain Pet Food | Ingredients

It is just as good as the 60-70 dollar foods by Diamond.

It is rated higher then Natural Balance made by the same company and that food costs a lot more. It is about= to Taste of the Wild.

Most of those other foods also have OCEAN FISH MEAL, do they list what the fish is? Nature's Domain uses Whitefish.

With a GSD. Training-Quality of life/can take them more places> exercise >monitoring calcium while growing>a decent quality food. 

Want the dog to live a long time? Monitor calcium while growing to prevent problems later on and don't be some idiot who wants their ears to come up early, and floods them with it, don't crate them for long periods of time (outside sleep), train them/exercise them, and don't make ANY large breed dog jump up and chase Frisbees in the air at a young age, or overwork them.

You could feed a dog purina crap and they will live 10 plus years if you do that. A 4 star food is FINE. Other things are WAY more important, and you don't have to worry about things that can effect a dog at 12 plus years of age if it can't even make it there.


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## WaterBound (Apr 22, 2012)

Thank you all for your reply. I am glad it appears the salmon meal is from the Pacific Northwest vs Scotland. I am glad others have had good results on fish meal dog food long term.

Unfortunately I hope it is not around Oregon. My friend's sister actually got her PHD documenting all of the DDT and PCBs pollution off of Palos Verdes. She is now working in Washington DC with the EPA.

She also told me the second worst area in the US for DDT, which changes to DDE is off the coast of Oregon. Washington state also is home to the first mining dump site that helped mine the uranium for the first atomic bombs. The Columbia River has radioactive cesium 131 leaching into it from the mining site.

Alaskan wild salmon may be lower in mercury, but unfortunately they have increasing levels of bromated flame retardants which are very carcinogenic. Although Alaskan wild salmon is probably still safer than farmed.

Kamachatka wild salmon also has radioactive pollution from all of the nuclear testing done by the Russians. The Russians even used nuclear weapons to divert whole rivers in Siberia.

As far as I am aware there is only ONE SALMON FARM in the world that has been certified environmentally safe and less toxic. That is farmed Washington Coho. That is because they isolate their farmed salmon in tanks their entire lives with filtered water. It is VERY hard to get and I doubt any of it goes to dog food.

As mentioned each farm is different with Scottish farmed "organic" salmon having the highest levels of pollution such as PCBs tested in all of Europe and North America. Hence the 5 month per one 6 ounce serving advised limit.

One of the reasons farmed raised fish usually have more pollution is because of the concentration of the pollutions in the fish meal feed itself. Anchovies and Herring are young and do not absorb as much methyl-mercury. However grind up a few hundred and you can see how much more concentrated the pollution becomes in fish meal.

Nature's Domain lists their fish meal as coming from lower level mercury whitefish.

Regarding my 2 meal a week of wild salmon. That was for pregnant women and young developing children. It was from the EPA guidelines.

"However, nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury. For most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish is not a health concern."

"Eat up to 12 ounces (2 average meals) a week of a variety of fish and shellfish that are lower in mercury. 

Five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish."
What You Need to Know about Mercury in Fish and Shellfish | Outreach & Communication | US EPA

If you want to get technical many people all over the world consume large quantities of seafood well beyond EPA guidelines. What is it something like for 75% of the people of the world fish is their primary source of protein. Many Alaskans also rely on the salmon to keep them fed during the winter. This still doesn't make me think all of them are doing fine with the methyl-mercury and their nervous systems.

I think I will try and alternate dog food without fish meal 2-1 with dog food that has fish meal. Even the Kirkland Signature dry dog foods have fish meal.

What is a good dog food that does not have fish meal? Or at least uses a low percentage of fish meal?


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## Monster'sDad (Jul 29, 2012)

WaterBound said:


> Thank you all for your reply. I am glad it appears the salmon meal is from the Pacific Northwest vs Scotland. I am glad others have had good results on fish meal dog food long term.
> 
> Unfortunately I hope it is not around Oregon. My friend's sister actually got her PHD documenting all of the DDT and PCBs pollution off of Palos Verdes. She is now working in Washington DC with the EPA.
> 
> ...


You don't have to worry about the herring and herring-like fish. Personally, Menhaden is the best and that is why it is used in so many foods. The Menhaden population is robust and clean. The Kirkland food you mentioned has Menhaden with 99% certainty,

"Whitefish Meal" is a total waste. All that is is fish guts and bones from the pollock ships that harvest fish for the fast food chains and fish stick companies.


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