(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
I have no results to report, as of yet...but my husband just purchase some of this food for our 6 month old puppy. First ingredient is chicken; second corn; and third is another meat. She seems to like it!
http://www.propacpetfood.com/
with the quote marks in the right place. You'll find plenty.
Some brands even at Costco.
Yes, there are lots of meat based foods out there that contain little or no corn. But they aren't found in grocery stores. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with corn (though some animals become allergic) the problem is it's just cheap filler, and there isn't a digestive system in the world that can digest it, except maybe cattle ;~D. It just goes right through them, relatively unchanged, and makes for more poop.
Of the grocery store brands, the best is probably Purina One. But the better, more expensive foods are found either in pet stores, farm supply stores, or vet clinics.
I buy chicken and rice cat and dog foods that are packaged locally for the farm and feed supply in my area. I read the labels and the ingredients and compared the labels and it's comparable in protein and fat to the premium foods like Iams and Nutro. If one of the first three items on the list of ingredients are corn, it's just a filler food.
The first ingredient, IMHO, should be meat. And it should be the named meat in the flavor, such as "chicken, beef or lamb." And in my house, nothing is allowed that says "animal" or "animal" byproducts. Here's the hint. If the type of meat is named, that's what it is. If it just says "animal" it's horse, waste products from slaughterhouses, the remains of euthanized and dead animals brought to rendering plants, and whatever else they end up needing to grind up. I am philosophically opposed to horse slaughter, so I don't buy any of that. Most of the grocery store brands contain lots of unnamed "animal" byproducts. It's cheap.
Good pet food will cost over a buck a pound, not $10 for a 40 pound bag. I don't recommend a particular label, others do. Some of the best stuff is local, I'd go to your local feed and farm supply and read labels.
I just want to say how terrible for the pets and their owners that this happened, but it is something we humans should watch out for too, as they say this is likely what affected those who were subsequently persecuted and put to death as witches in Salem, Massachusettes during the witch trials. I have read that there was probably a bad batch of aspergillis fungus that made the people act nutso, and they paid with their lives too.
As for whether or not there are non-corn based foods for our pets,we use Nutro Nuggets that we get either at Petsmart or at our local feed store, it has meat(lamb, beef or chicken) as the #1 ingredient, and they have both cat and dog dry food. We have three couch critters that love the Natural Choice variety. Our one cat, the supreme ruler of all animals within our home, will not eat anything other than Whiskas, so I let her have her way. Nutro is a little more expensive, but more than makes up for that in that the dogs have firmer waste products that are less frequent than with other foods(to put it in the most acceptable words), and really seem to get more nutritional value from it, as we have them(A red heeler, a pomchihuahua, and a terripoo) on free choice and they eat approximately a cup and a half between them daily. I would say they are really happy with it as they get no otherfood from the table scraps or anything.
This is what my new puppy eats:
http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/dogs/dry_intro.asp?pCode=dry