Why does your chicken-free dry dog food have chicken fat?Updated a year ago

We consider products with chicken fat (not chicken or chicken meal) to be free of poultry and therefore suitable to most dogs who are sensitive or allergic to poultry. This is because the process used to render chicken fat removes the chicken protein which is the source of the allergy.

Think of chicken meat and chicken fat as two separate ingredients that come from a chicken. The meat is where you get the protein from chicken. The fat is just the oily part that has hardly any protein in it.

It's similar to if you cooked a steak. The meat itself has a lot of beef protein. But the tallow (beef fat) that renders out doesn't really contain any of that beefy protein. It's just the fat part.

So when a pet food contains chicken fat, it means it has just the fat/oil part from chicken - not any of the actual chicken meat or protein. The fat provides energy/calories, but no chicken protein.

The protein has to come from other sources like meats, grains, etc. The chicken fat is added separately, just for palatability and nutrition from the fat itself.

So in summary - chicken fat provides fat but no protein from actual chicken meat. A food with chicken fat could be completely chicken-free in terms of its protein sources.

What if my dog is sensitive to chicken fat?

If your dog is sensitive to chicken fat as well as chicken protein, we recommend our Ancient Grains Ocean Fish which does not have chicken fat.