Dog Food - History

History

A rare classical reference to dog food appears in Virgil's Bucolics:

"....sed una

Veloces Spartse catulos, acremque Molossum,

Pasee sero pingui :"

annotated as "Sero pingui : 'nutritious whey,' which Columella, vii. 12, speaks of as dog's food."

In France, the word pâtée (the modern word for dog food) began to appear in the 18th century and referred to a paste originally given to poultry. In 1756, a dictionary indicates it was made of a mixture of bread crumbs and little pieces of meat given to pets."

In 1781, an encyclopedia mentioned an earlier practice of removing the liver, heart, and blood of a downed stag and mixing it with milk, cheese, and bread; and then giving it to dogs.

In 1844, the French writer Nicolas Boyard warned against even giving greaves (tallow-graves) to dogs, though the English favored them (see below), and suggested a meat-flavored soup:

By a misguided economy dogs are given meat scraps and tallow graves; one must avoid this, because these foods make them heavy and sick; give them twice a day a soup of coarse bread made with water, fat and the bottom of the stew pot; put a half-kilogram of bread at least in each soup.

In England, care to give dogs particular food dates at least from the late eighteenth century, when The Sportsman's dictionary (1785) described the best diet for a dog's health in its article "Dog":

A dog is of a very hot nature: he should therefore never be without clean water by him, that he may drink when he is thirsty. In regard to their food, carrion is by no means proper for them. It must hurt their sense of smelling, on which the excellence of these dogs greatly depends. Barley meal, the dross of wheatflour, or both mixed together, with broth or skim'd milk, is very proper food. For change, a small quantity of greaves from which the tallow is pressed by the chandlers, mixed with their flour ; or sheep's feet well baked or boiled, are a very good diet, and when you indulge them with flesh it should always be boiled. In the season of hunting your dogs, it is proper to feed them in the evening before, and give them nothing in the morning you take them out, except a little milk. If you stop for your own refreshment in the day, you should also refresh your dogs with a little milk and bread.

(Greaves, which was often recommended for dogs, is "the sediment of melted tallow. It is made into cakes for dogs' food. In Scotland and parts of the US it is called {cracklings}.")

In 1833, The Complete Farrier gave similar but far more extensive advice on feeding dogs:

The dog is neither wholly carnivorous nor wholly herbivorous, but of a mixed kind, and can receive nourishment from either flesh or vegetables. A mixture of both is therefore his proper food, but of the former he requires a greater portion, and this portion should be always determined by his bodily exertions.

Sportsmen in the country use various mixtures for food ; in some kennels meal and milk are constantly given, and dogs will thrive on this diet during the season they do not hunt; but, when their exertions are required, this food will not be sufficiently nutritious. All the meals are used for this purpose, but wheat-meal is the most preferable, when it can be procured, it being the least likely to produce a heated skin ; barley-meal and oatmeal are most frequently given, and are sufficiently nutritious when mixed with either milk or broth; but, when constantly used, they may be productive of the mange. Potatoes, without meal, will be a wholesome food for dogs which are not exercised, and are sufficiently nutritious when mixed with milk or butter-milk. Many of the so called "doglovers" gave treats to their dogs in the form of dog cookies.

When circumstances render it absolutely necessary to feed dogs principally on barley or oatmeal, the heating effects will be greatly obviated by mixing it with butter-milk. Indeed, butter-milk is an excellent cleanser in all cases of foulness, the mange, canker, &c. When it is most convenient to feed them on potatoes, and the food is not sufficiently relished, let them be mixed with greaves, or other fatty matter, and they will then be greedily swallowed. Greaves are, indeed, a convenient food, and, when mixed with a sufficient quantity of vegetable matter, form a hearty meal for large dogs, who are kept in yards, and are in continual motion.

Animal food should never be given to dogs more than once a day, as he digests his food very slowly, a full meal of flesh not being digested in less than twenty four hours. If full fed with meat, once a day will be sufficient, except the allowance per day be divided, and which will be more salutary, as a dog swallows his victuals very greedily. Hard-worked dogs, as soon as fed, should be shut up, to encourage sleep, for digestion is promoted more by sleeping than by waking. Parsnips, carrots, cabbages, and, indeed, all vegetable matter, will feed dogs sufficiently well for the purposes of their existence. Damaged ship-biscuit is often bought for the purpose of food, and it makes a very good one, when soaked in broth or milk. The broth, or liquor, in which salted meat has been boiled, should never be used for this purpose; dogs, who have been confined on ship-board, during a long voyage, have contracted a very bad kind of mange, owing to their being fed on salt pot-liquor.

No meat should be given to a dog raw, as it is productive of the distemper, and many other dangerous disorders. The best food for kennels near cities, or large towns, is tripe, or haunches of sheep, which, after being thoroughly cleaned, should be boiled half an hour or forty minutes, in a moderate quantity of water. When taken from the water they should be hung up to cool, and the boiling liquor they came out of poured on bread raspings, if possible those of French bread. The quantity of raspings should be so regulated, that when soaked and cold, the mess may be of the consistence of an ordinary pudding before boiling. The paunches, being also cold, but not before, should be cut into fine pieces, and mixed with the soaked raspings. When raspings cannot be got, meal, or biscuit, may be substituted. The mixture may be made to contain more or less animal matter, by increasing or lessening this proportion of paunch, or by adding other animal matter; though the tripe, of all animal substances, is allowed to be the purest food, and tends least of all to make a dog gross. If deemed necessary to render this mixture more nutritious and enticing, the offal, or intestines, of chickens and other fowl, may be procured from the poulterers, and boiled with the tripe Of all substances in general use, except horse-flesh, the entrails of chickens is the one most eagerly sought after by dogs, and fattens them soonest. The venders of baked sheep's heads sell the trimmings for dogs' food, which is exceedingly wholesome and nutritious.

In feeding dogs, their size and strength should be considered, and their allowances should be accordingly. All kinds of bones, except fish-bones, may be thrown to them at any time; indeed, the stomachs of these animals are often benefitted by the action of these bones.

The article even warns against spoiling "favorites":

In the feeding of favorites, much error is frequently committed; for their tastes being consulted, they are too apt to be wholly fed on flesh, and this in great quantities too. It may always be in the power of those who feed them to bring their dogs to live on vegetables entirely, if they wish it. Let the usual quantity of meat a dog eats be minced exceedingly fine, and a small portion of mashed potatoes be mixed with it; it will not be possible for the dog to separate the animal from the vegetable portion, and if he will not eat the mixture, let it remain till hunger obliges him to relish it. At the next meal, let an additional quantity of potatoes be added, and, by these gradual means, the animal may be brought to live entirely on potatoes, or any other vegetable. In a medical point of view, a vegetable diet is often very important. In many cases, a complete change of food forms the very best alternative, and, in others, it is an excellent auxiliary to a medical course. The cases that require a change from a meat to a vegetable diet are eruptive diseases, and other affections arising from too full living; also coughs, and various inflammatory complaints.

It wasn't until the mid-1800s that the world saw its first food made specifically for dogs. An American electrician, James Spratt concocted the first dog treat. Living in London at the time, he witnessed dogs around a shipyard eating scraps of discarded biscuits. Shortly thereafter he introduced his dog food, made up of wheat meals, vegetables and meat. By 1890 production had begun in the United States and became known as "Spratt's Patent Limited".

In later years, dog biscuit was sometimes treated as synonymous with dog food:

The first three prize winners at the late coursing meeting at Great Bend were trained on Spratt's Patent Dog Biscuit. This same dog food won no less than three awards, including a gold medal, at the Exposition in Paris which has just closed. It would seem that the decision of the judges is more than backed up by the result in the kennel. Another good dog food is that manufactured by Austin & Graves, of Boston. They, too, seem to be meeting with great success in their line.

Canned horse meat was introduced in the United States under the Ken-L Ration brand after WWI as a means to dispose of deceased horses. The 1930s saw the introduction of canned cat food and dry meat-meal dog food by the Gaines Food Co. By the time WWII ended, pet food sales had reached $200 million. In the 1950s Spratt's became part of General Mills. For companies such as Nabisco, Quaker Oats, and General Foods, pet food represented an opportunity to market by-products as a profitable source of income.