OK--so far:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients

Ingredients to avoid

Corn Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles

"Distillers Dried Grains with solubles (DDGS) is the product obtained by condensing and drying the stillage that remains after fermenting the starch in corn or milo in the production of ethyl alcohol.

"An inexpensive byproduct used as protein filler in cheap dog foods. Its amino acids are poorly balanced, not very digestible, have a high fiber content and nutritional value can vary greatly from batch to batch. Better suited as cattle feed."
 
http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/16812/a-new-set-of-standards-for-ddgs

January 14, 2008
A New Set of Standards for DDGS

"The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) has advised the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that existing regulatory and industry frameworks, as well as prudent contracting practices, are sufficient to facilitate the trading of distillers grains. It also suggests that the federal government develops standards for biofuels.

"The NGFA’s membership encompasses all sectors of the industry, including country, terminal and export elevators; feed mills; cash grain and feed merchants; end users of grain and grain products, including processors, flour millers, and livestock and poultry integrators; commodity futures brokers and commission merchants; and allied industries, such as railroads, barge lines, banks, grain exchanges, insurance companies, computer software firms, and engineering and design/construct companies. In addition, the NGFA consists of 35 affiliated state and regional U.S. grain and feed associations, as well as two international affiliated associations. The NGFA also has strategic alliances with the Grain Elevator and Processing Society and Pet Food Institute, and is co-located and jointly operates with the North American Export Grain Association."

http://articles.directorym.net/AFIA_leads_industry_into_a_new_century_of_opportunity-a914353.html

AFIA leads industry into a new century of opportunity

DDGS

"One of the hottest topics currently facing the industry and nation concerns distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS). AFIA has been participating in a number of working groups to address regulatory concerns and use limitations of DDGS."

http://www.ddgs.umn.edu/info-companion.htm

University of MN "home page" for DDGS information--has various article links.

http://www.ddgs.umn.edu/articles-companion/2004-Hill-%20Alternative%20proteins%20in--.pdf

Alternative Proteins in Companion Animal Nutrition
Pet Food Association of Canada 2004

BTW--this is also a good source for the description of those alternative proteins such as corn gluten, wheat gluten, RPC and so on.

http://www.ddgs.umn.edu/articles-companion/2006-Shurson-%20Effect%20of%20feeding%20DDGS%20to%20horses%20and%20companion%20animals.pdf

Effect of Feeding DDGS to Companion Animals

Paper notes very little research has been done into the issue.

http://www.ifbf.org/programs/commodity/information/ddgs.pdf

Where will all the DDGS go?

Iowa Farm Bureau 2006

Page 1

"People are even putting DDGS in dog food supplements (amaize) http://www.amaize.com and lick blocks for horses, sheep, deer and elk http://www.goldenlyk.com 

"But there's still a challenge to find a market for all those DDGS."

https://ecommerce.4w.com/amaize/secure.htm

Amaize--buy it in biscuits or granule form

http://www.aboutus.org/AMaize.com

Marsland Laboratories
3501 South 6th
Lincoln NE 68502 US

I have not found a link between Marsland Labs and Mars Inc. (so far!)

Three cheers for NV......


One down, only a few hundred others to check on......

Response from Wellness:

Our entire Wellness line is made of human-grade ingredients, therefore, do not contain the ingredients that you are inquiring about.

Even though this is a piece about DDGS in livestock feed, it's interesting from the standpoint that DDGS are not all "created equal"--the composition of them differs from production to production.

http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2008b/080925IlelejiDDGS.html

Purdue University September  25, 2008
Ag engineers: Production issues dragging down DDGS

"An ethanol byproduct suitable for livestock feed could be easier sold and used if it was more uniform each time it is produced, said two Purdue University agricultural engineers.

"Dry distillers' grains with solubles (DDGS), the grain product left over after ethanol is produced from corn, is often chemically different from ethanol plant to ethanol plant and, sometimes, even within a plant, said Klein Ileleji and Richard Stroshine. Those differences can create shipping, storage and livestock feeding challenges, they said.

""The big issue with DDGS is the fact that the product is so variable," Ileleji said. "Obviously, that can have a huge impact on the final product and how it is handled."

""If livestock producers don't have a consistent feed product, it makes it difficult for them to cost effectively formulate a good feed that will provide their animals with the nutrition they need," Stroshine said.

"DDGS can take on different physical properties from batch to batch during the ethanol extraction and post-extraction processes, Stroshine said.

""In that process we break the corn down and let the starch ferment into ethanol," he said. "Whatever is left - the liquid remaining after ethanol is removed, along with the hulls, the germ, the protein and the gluten material - goes into the DDGS. These leftovers are separated into solid and liquid portions. The solids are sent to a rotary dryer, where different amounts of the liquid condensed solubles can be added back. Differences in the amounts of solubles added cause variations in composition and particle size."

"Individual DDGS particles can be larger or smaller, meaning some particles might be holding more sugars, oil and moisture than others, Ileleji said. When that happens, and under favorable environmental conditions such as high humidity and temperatures, DDGS particles can stick together and form clumps, or what Ileleji calls caking. Problems occur when DDGS cake up in bulk shipments transported by rail car or other means.

""When the product cakes up it can be very difficult to unload," Ileleji said. "That makes DDGS expensive to move. Because the product can cake up, two major rail carriers have stopped transporting DDGS.""

If DDGS are so inconsistent that there's a question as to the nutrition they deliver to livestock, it would seem that the same question would apply to their use in pet foods also.

Just read this thread, wonder about Eagle Pack Holistic dry (I use that occasionally for Baby Girl for a little fiber) - though I have been moving to all wet.