ATPF’s Position Statement on Low Copper Pet Foods

Can’t thank you enough on this reply. Bravo!!

This ticks me off. My doberman was diagnosed with copper liver storage disease in January after being affected probably before I adopted him but not clinically or to the extent of it affecting his bloodwork enough for vets to be concerned until 2021 when he was very sick. No one took my seriously when I raised concerns about him having days when he seemed unwell and irritable.

Because I don’t want to feed a “prescription” low copper diet, I had to email tons of companies inquiring their copper levels. Most are 2-3, sometimes 4 times the minimum copper requirement. Royal Canin refused to provide me with any information on their hepatic diet, told me to ask the vet.
There’s simply no way for me to contact every company about this. A reduced, less, or low copper label would be SO helpful!! I don’t care about the wording, anything that immediately lets me know the food might be a potential candidate for my dog is helpful. Having a disclaimer that it’s not a therapeutic level is fine. For people with a breed susceptible to copper issues, feeding a food with lower levels might still be helpful to mitigate issues or just be a peace of mind.

I found Nature’s Logic Distinction Sardine had the same amount of copper as one RX food without synthetic vitamins and since he’s been eating that, the liver enzymes that have been elevated for a year and a half finally went to normal after a few months.

Even with commerical raw, dehydrated, freezedried, cooked, etc. it’s hard to find a low copper food, so it’s not just a kibble issue.

Thank you Susan

Hi, It is my opinion that copper is in excess in many commercial food and the reason why AAFCO does not want to allow for “lower copper” labeling is because they simply do not want to alert consumers that copper is a big problem. It is also my opinion that all breeds of dogs are being harmed by this industry wide problem and not just dogs genetically predisposed to copper storage faults.

It is my opinion that the most dangerous commercial foods with respect to copper are the expensive, all natural brands that add in a lot of beef or lamb liver, higher than 5% of the total meat in the formulation and worst of all are the brands that have 5% or higher amounts of ruminant liver and then proceed to indiscriminately dump in a copper containing, mineral premix. Although it may be the case that their poultry formulas containing poultry liver need a copper boost to reach AAFCO minimum levels, a number of these companies are adding the premix to all their formulas regardless of the endogenous copper already in the muscle and organ meat. I could be wrong– Maybe they are batch testing copper levels and titrating the mineral pre-mix into the various formulas but that is seriously doubtful in my opinion.

Because of my concern, I was using brands that do not add any mineral premix. To my chagrin, I have since learned that some of these brands use so much beef or lamb liver plus heart that their copper levels are quite high despite not using any supplemental copper. For example, Steve’s Real Food For Dogs “Lambmu” (lamb and emu) freeze dried formula contains a whopping 80 milligrams per kilogram dry material (that is about 11 fold above the AAFCO minimum of 7 milligrams per kilogram– Unfortunately, none of us have any idea if 2 fold, 5 fold or even 11 fold is within a “safe” range because there are no studies on this with regard to safe or optimal vs toxic and minimal. So, even the experts have no idea.

But, the worst of it is that the industry does not care and neither does the American Veterinary Medical Association. Obviously they know but instead of discussing diet with respect to copper with owners whose dogs have elevated liver enzymes, they don’t even mention it and instead recommend meds and tests.

Now that I have another dog with rising ALT, I have become hyper aware of copper levels and am taking matters into my own hands and doing mainly homemade and diluting all my existing stash of freeze dried raw foods if there is any suspicion of copper over two fold above AAFCO minimum. I have only purchased foods recommended by “The List” but I am now suspicious of a number of these brands having too high of copper levels. My homemade foods from now will not contain liver and I will supplement with human toddler vitamins to make sure my dogs are getting Retinal Palmitate (active vitamin A) or I will use 5% chicken liver in my recipes but no more beef liver.