Does Black Hawk use Real Meat in their Recipes?

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on the packs of your pet’s favourite food? The ‘real’ in real meat recognises a new way of thinking about pet food. It's the reason that Black Hawk launched The Real Food Movement® for pets, to encourage pet parents to think twice and realise exactly what is going into the bowls of all family members, whether they walk on two legs or four. When we launched The Real Food Movement® for pets, we wanted to challenge the way that many pet food manufacturers did things and communicated with pet parents.

The movement recognises that we’d all prefer to know:

• Exactly what our pet foods are made of
• To be closer to, and understand ‘the recipe’, and
• To truly understand the ingredients within every kibble or can

‘Real meat’ means the origin of the ingredients is made clear.

Whether it is chicken, lamb, beef or lesser known pet food ingredients like salmon, ocean fish or kangaroo, we all deserve to know what’s going into our pets’ food. Gone are the days when ‘poultry by-product’ or ‘meat and animal derivatives’ is enough information and accepted as a clearly understood source of meat for our pets. We help pet parents truly know what’s in their pet’s bowl.

When Black Hawk claims ‘real’, we’re highlighting that the origin of each meat ingredient is important to us. Real salmon tells us that one species of fish is used, and that this sustainably fished Tasmanian salmon is the primary source of protein, which contributes the most nutritious parts of the diet – we don’t confuse things and name it ‘salmon by-product’ or ‘salmon derivatives’.

We believe in complete transparency in listing the ingredients in our recipes, whether it’s on our packs or our website. And with the wide range of protein sources that are available and used in the production of pet food, we believe you need to know what type of ‘meat’ is present so you can be selective in what is included (or not included) in the food that you feed your dog or cat.

At Black Hawk, the real meat declaration also indicates a level of inclusion (or percentage proportion of the total diet) which is above most other foods, and this is more fitting with the nature of the domestic dog and cat.

When left to their own devices, to select their meals based on taste, nutritional composition and instinct, dogs have been reported to prefer approximately 30% of their calories from protein, and cats a massive 52%^1,2.

This means that dogs and cats instinctively prefer natural proteins like meat, and one might argue that we should give them just that.‘Meaty’ diets simply deliver a lot closer to this ‘natural’ preference.

Black Hawk foods aim not only to fulfil basic requirements, but to go that extra mile in championing The Real Food Movement® for pets. This means bringing ingredients you’re familiar with, including real meat, to your pet’s bowl. All of our recipes are expertly developed by our Black Hawk vets and animal nutritionists, who carefully select ingredients like real meat, vegetables and fruits, that are combined at just the right levels, to provide nutritionally complete and balanced diets specific for dogs and cats.

Sources:

1. Hewson-Hughes, A. et.al (2013) Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in breeds of the domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris. Behav Ecol 24: 293-304

2. Hewson-Hughes, A. et.al (2011) Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in the adult domestic cat, Felis catus. J Exp Biol 214: 1039-1051.