Something fishy

PALMER — Mike Presley isn’t shy when kibitzing about his kibble.

The owner of Budget Feed and Farm has been helping keep Mat-Su Valley farm animals healthy since he bought the business in 2004. But it’s the store’s special formula dog food that’s creating a buzz among owners of his canine connoisseurs.

Alaska Grown Dog Food has increased its production over the past six months from about 2 tons a month to 4 tons, Presley said.

“The difference now, I think, is having more locations where it’s available,” he said. “But largely, we’ve just gotten over that crucial hump that we needed to get over in terms of public opinion. Word of mouth has finally grown to that critical mass.”

That’s the potential Presley saw when he bought the feed store and dog food recipe from Robert Thom. Thom said he actually first developed his formula shortly before 1980, but it was only sold from his Palmer store.

Now it’s still sold at Budget Feed and Farm, and also Steve’s Food Boy in Big Lake, along with one distributor in Eagle River and two in Anchorage.

What makes Alaska Grown Dog Food so unique isn’t what’s on the bag, but what’s inside it. Indeed, the plain brown paper bags are only identifiable by a small, white label stitched into the top.

Unlike mass-produced pet food, Alaska Grown’s protein base uses whole proteins, not cast-offs from other processes, Presley said.

“Most commercial foods use a combination of perhaps chicken or some other type of meat meal, along with mostly soy and wheat and corn and rice,” Presley said. “The problem with that is, they start out in many cases with an inferior quality of base powder they call cornmeal or wheat meal, but it’s been stripped of a lot of its nutrients. It’s a cheap carbohydrate base.”

That’s why many national brands feature “special” formulas, he said.

“The reason they have all the different formulas — like specially formulated for puppies or old dogs or whatever — is because they have to add the ingredients back in.”

Presley said he takes “a whole food approach to dog food.”

The base is Alaska wild salmon meal, along with Alaska barley, kelp and potatoes as the starch binder.

“We use the whole salmon, not just the heads and the carcasses,” he said.

That’s one reason why his food contains 64 vitamins and minerals from the salmon and kelp “in their natural form” without added nutrient boosts. It also boasts about 22 percent usable protein, which is the amount of protein a dog can use from its food. Most mass-produced foods are around 18 percent or less.

“It’s just a much more enriching food. Also, there no corn or wheat in our food, which are both known to be allergens for dogs,” Presley said, explaining that’s why a 70- to 80-pound dog will eat about 1 3/4 cups of his food a day compared to 4 1/2 to 5 cups of a commercial brand.

“When you look at the crude protein ratings on dog food, it says ‘crude’ protein for a reason,” he said. “They want it to say ‘crude’ so that it includes any protein in the bag, whether it proteins to nutrition or not.”

Another reason Alaska Grown is so healthful for dogs is because it’s not cooked, Presley said. Most mass-produced foods are cooked, heated and run through an extruder, where at the last second the product’s injected with either steam or hot oil to cause it to puff up. His salmon meal is not cooked, but dried, then rolled and made into pellets.

A 50-pound bag of Alaska Grown — it comes in 50-, 20- and eight-pound bags — could cost about $43-$46 depending on where it’s sold, but will go three to four times further than a bag of commercial food.

But don’t just take Presley’s word that his locally formulated dog food is superior. If you come into his Palmer Store on South Colony Way, he’ll give you a free four-pound sample bag.

“That’s because we want our customers to know not only if the dog will eat it, but I want people to know what this food will do for their dogs,” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.