Hi Laurie, diarrhea seems common with Black Hawk (see the comments on the Black Hawk reviews). If it’s an allergy or intolerance then you may find any grain free foods are fine as grains are the most common causes of this, or it may just be an issue with the Black Hawk or one of the ingredients they use. The company was bought up my Masterpet and a while later revised their formulas.

Yes that’s indeed what it is and those who don’t check ingredients lists are getting totally fooled by it.

In essence I think their still cheaper than stuff like Royal Canin and some Hills products, those guys are seriously taking fake pricing to the limit as nothing in their formulas is worth that much.

Hooray for that! Vets are trained in PET FOOD NUTRITION not CARNIVORE NUTRITION. Pet Food Science is Tobacco Science. Previously, Medical Doctors were paid by Tobacco companies to say “Tobacco is good for you”. Today, vets are paid by Pet Food companies to say “processed food is healthier than fresh food”. Just like Coca Cola is healthier than water.

Dr Francis Pottenger (Medical Doctor) conducted the world’s longest/largest cat-diets study over ten years (1932 – 1942) using 900 cats over 3 generations of cats using RAW MEAT vs COOKED. Guess which diet produced the healthiest cats? The Answer = uTube “Pottenger’s Cat-Diets Will Effect Future Generations”. Also, Pottenger is on wikipedia

Hi Sam, the question as to whether a dog is a carnivore or omnivore is open to debate, but science tells us they’ve descended from wolves (carnivores) and have a number of carnivores traits – a short digestive tract, stomach acid to cope with raw and rank meats, and a dental structure and chewing habits of a carnivore. Herbivores and omnivores produce the enzyme amylase in their salivary glands which aids in breaking down starchy carbohydrates. Dogs don’t produce amylase in their saliva but they do further down the digestive tract, which gives them the ability to digest carbohydrates in an omnivorous diet. Therefore by design they are carnivores who’ve adapted to survive off an omnivorous diet.

Your second question is also a good one. You’ll find in my reviews I often discuss by-products as a bad thing, but we know dogs (and cats) have a natural diet of offal which is fundamental to their health. Many organs are rich in nutrients which aren’t found in muscle meats, so it could be said by-products are fundamental to the diet of a cat or dog. The issue with by-products in the pet food industry is the quality of the ingredient (or lack of quality), as by the time it gets into the bin labelled “For pet food only” most nutritional parts have been removed, including organs which can be sold for human consumption, leaving us with waste. The quality of meat in a pet food is always difficult to quantify, whether it’s listed as “chicken”, “chicken meat”, “chicken by-products”, “poultry by-products”, or the generic “meat by-products”.

I was also wondering how you define good quality meat vs poor quality meat? Just because something is a waste product from another industry does this necessarily mean it is poor quality? Sorry to bombard you with questions! Overall I think your website is a really great resource for evaluating the various pet food out there as it can be quite overwhelming!