# fish recipe is it safe???



## Cookie_chihuahua (Mar 17, 2015)

My boy been eating acana pacifica for over half year and this is the only recipe I gave him due to he always had allergies to other meat protein source. Today I just did some research on fish recipe dog food and I found some negative reviews saying fish always contain heavy metals as they are wild caught from the sea, some other toxic and even some companies serve Ethoxyquin with it. My queation is are we still safe to feed fish recipe food to our boys or girls?


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## susan davis (Mar 25, 2011)

If your dog is allergic to all meat proteins, you don't have much choice. I'd try other brands and interchange them with the fish. Maybe they have different fish in different formulas?


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## Momo (Nov 9, 2015)

You should call or email the companies to find out for sure if they contain ethoxyquin. It might be in there even if it's not listed under the ingredients. As for heavy metals there are sadly problems with just about any foods you could think of (pesticides, hormones, preservatives, antibiotics etc) so the only thing I can think of is to rotate foods or maybe try your hand at making your own food using smaller fish like sardines and mackerel.


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## Moonfall (Nov 16, 2012)

Shoot an email to Acana. But, they are one of the best foods out there and that is what I feed my kids (I use the pork or lamb formulas, though). I would be surprised if there was problems with their sourcing.


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## Cookie_chihuahua (Mar 17, 2015)

I just email Acana few days ago and had a clear answer now. They have great customers service and I turst them that they are a good brand out there. Here is the reply from them so any of you guys are feeding your boys or girls pacifica can have a look for more info of the food. 

Monitoring heavy metal levels is a critical control point for us, and part of our HACCP program includes testing for heavy metals. Our fish is tested for all heavy metals including mercury. 

Our guidelines for heavy metals are the maximum tolerable limits (MTL) as determined by the National Research Council. The lab results for our heavy metal testing comes back far, far below the Tolerance Levels set by the National Research Council.

We are confident that testing by government agencies and at Champion ensures our foods are safe for cats and dogs and provides peace-of-mind for those of us who love them.

ORIJEN and ACANA ingredients and foods are free from Ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT or any other chemical preservative. 

Ethoxyquin is commonly used as a preservative for fish ingredients produced in the USA due to FDA requirements. Those regulations have been modified in recent years to allow the use of mixed tocopherols (a natural preservative) in place of ethoxyquin. 
At Champion, we use three kinds of fish ingredients – fresh fish, fish meals and fish oils.

FRESH FISH. Our fresh fish is wild-caught or sustainably farm raised within our region and arrives FRESH – which is defined as ‘never frozen and with no preservatives’. Our fresh fish never contain Ethoxyquin and are preservative-free.

FISH MEALS. Because Ethoxyquin preservatives are commonly used by American fish processors, we work directly with our suppliers (no brokers or middlemen) and we pay a premium to have our fish meals preserved with our proprietary blend of Vitamin E and rosemary extract. Our fish meals are never preserved with Ethoxyquin.

FISH OILS. Produced from wild-caught fish deemed fit for human consumption, our fish oils are preserved with our proprietary blend of Vitamin E and rosemary and are never preserved with Ethoxyquin.


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