History of Pet Food in America – Part 1

In part one of this two part series, we explore when and where pet food production in American first began. In the not too distant past, dogs and cats were not the cuddly family members they are in many households today. In fact, most domestic pets were kept outside of the house in barns and out buildings and fed whatever leftovers the family had, or left them to fend for themselves altogether.

No one gave much if any thought to the nutritional value of what their pets ate, or if it was even any good for them to eat table scraps or whatever their owners had on hand. Most cats were kept by households to control rodents and other pests, and that’s what they relied on for their daily sustenance.

In 1890 an Ohio electrician and lightening rod salesman named James Spratt was on a visit to London, England, and noticed dogs being fed leftover hardtack crackers on the dock, which were a staple in the diet of sailors, soldiers and explorers of the time. Suddenly, the first idea for a premade shelf stable pet food product was born. Spratt’s first recipe consisted of a mixture of wheat, beef blood, vegetables and beetroot baked into square biscuits. Eventually Spratt reformed the design into cakes and added other ingredients which included meat and fish. The cakes began to catch on as an affordable and nutritious alternative to table scraps for pets.

In 1908 Carleton Ellis, an organic chemist, was asked by a local slaughterhouse on the Lower East Side of New York City to find a use for the excess milk surplus they had. Ellis was credited with the invention of margarine, along with non-food products used in commercial industry. Ellis came up with a recipe consisting of the milk combined with minerals, meat and ground bone products and designed the bone shape that we know today. The first nutritional dog biscuits, called Maltoid, were then manufactured by the F.H. Bennett Biscuit Company, who later sold the product rights to Nabisco in 1931, renaming the product Milk-Bones. To this day, Milk-Bones are made exclusively in Buffalo, New York.

By 1922 Ken-L-Ration began to manufacture canned dog food made from horse meat, which was abundantly available at that time. When WWII broke out, metal became in short supply and due to rationing, dog food shifted back to the dry variety. By the 1950s, General Mills along with Ralston Purina began using cereal box manufacturing equipment to produce dry dog food.

1950 also saw innovations in cat food production, with the understanding that cats have very different nutritional needs and tastes than dogs. Companies like Friskies, which originally focused on dog food production, began introducing cat food formulas along with 9-Lives, whose mascot, Morris the Cat, known for being finicky, became a household name in popular culture.

By the 1960s, with growing awareness about pet nutrition becoming more of the norm, the first puppy and kitten formulas also hit the market. The pet food industry also began producing gourmet varieties based upon the finicky nature of most adult cats. Dog food production expanded to offer an array of options in both canned and dry food formulas catering to specific breeds based on age, size, flavor preference, and nutritional requirements.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of History of Pet Food in America and make sure to enter for your chance to win a Year’s Supply of Pet Food from SweepsPet absolutely free!