Frequently Asked Questions

When developing a new food, Burns Pet Nutrition usually carries out a palatability trial using pets belonging to, and living in the homes of, Burns’ own staff. That is the only testing on animals which the company does.  We do not carry out, commission or have any involvement in animal testing or experimentation which involves caged or confined animals, nor do any of the companies which supply ingredients or products to Burns.
As the founder of Burns Pet Nutrition I have based the formulation of Burns foods on traditional ways of eating. These traditions are rooted in thousands of years of human development during which animals have become domesticated and share the foods eaten by humans. This way of thinking leads to nutrition which provides health benefits superior to any knowledge which might come from experimentation on animals.
Burns Pet Nutrition has been approved as a company which does not experiment on animals by various campaign groups such as PETA (People for the Ethical treatment of Animals) and BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection). Burns is listed in the Ethical Shopping Guide and is corporate supporter of Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) which works to improve the lot of farm animals.
John Burns BVMS MRCVS

The desire to feed a high proportion of meat is founded on two widely held misconceptions. The first is that because meat is good for dogs, more must be better. This is a fallacy which is fostered by some members of the pet food industry, especially in the USA (“The first ingredient is meat!”) and by BARF enthusiasts who try to persuade us that dogs are carnivores when they are not, they are omnivores. High “meat” inevitably also means high fat and high protein.
I started Burns Pet Nutrition on the principle that to achieve optimum health, dogs should be fed in a certain way i.e. on a diet similar to a home-made diet of brown rice, meat and vegetables in the proportion of a third of each. A diet high in meat is not what Burns is about. Our prepared foods are intended to be low in fat and protein and high in complex carbohydrate and this is achieved using whole grains and vegetables as well as meat. A high meat diet is only appropriate in certain limited circumstances e.g. underweight or very active dogs which have an increased energy need. When I first introduced the complete food, I was worried that a commercial food would not give as good results as home-made but surprisingly they were better. I think this was because clients at home were putting too much meat in the mix and not enough brown rice and vegetables.
The second misconception is that a high-meat diet is “better value” because meat is an expensive ingredient. Non-meat foods such as grains and vegetables are often described as “cheap fillers”. In general, the “meat” which is used in most pet foods is inexpensive because it is a waste-product from the human food industry. It is mostly non-muscle tissue. This may not be inferior from a nutritional point of view but it is not meat as commonly understood. In many moist foods the “tasty meaty chunks” are actually formed pieces which look like meat but consist of soya.
This is not true of Burns foods which are designed to promote health rather than reinforce accepted opinion.Brown rice is an expensive ingredient yet it forms the basis of most Burns foods. The Penlan range uses organic brown rice and, depending on the variety, lamb heart which is ordinarily eaten by humans or organic chicken. The vegetables are grown by us. Local people who eat them say that they are superior to those sold in supermarkets. Likewise the free-range eggs which are used in the Penlan Range. These are expensive ingredients compared to those used in most other pet food brands. The overall quality of the Penlan Range is actually much better than that eaten by most humans.In addition to promoting pet health, the core values of the Penlan Range are local employment, minimal environmental impact and high farm animal welfare standards.
I accept that not everyone shares these values but that is what Burns is about.
John Burns BVMS MRCVS

This usually indicates that there is a build-up of waste matter in the animal’s system or may be due to a dietary intolerance which may be the same thing. Vomiting and diarrhea are ways of discharging offending material from the system.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team

The main reason why a pet refuses food is that IT IS NOT HUNGRY! However, the owner concludes that the pet no longer likes the food and decides to try something else (usually tastier) in order to get the pet to eat. The pet will eat this tastier food for a time until it tires of that. The owner will then seek out something else in order to stimulate the pet’s jaded appetite. And so it continues. The owner does not seem to realise or care that the pet is simply not hungry. There is a parallel here with how some parents care for their children. We indulge them with sweets and expensive toys instead of devoting time to them. The best way to indulge a dog or cat is with your time, through the stimulus of play and walks rather than with food.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team

Some dogs and cats seem to be always hungry and want to eat non-stop. This can happen even when it is clear that the pet does not need more food. This excessive desire for food seems to be like an addiction. Many humans are similar in this respect. Sometimes there is no solution to this problem of feeling guilty that the pet is being deprived. Very often, the desire for food is conditioned. That is, the pet has learned from past experience that if the owner is eating then they will be given food. The best way of dealing with this is the same as for the fussy pet - by providing diversion and stimulation in the form of a walk or play. The more you give food on demand, the more the pet will expect it.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team

Grass eating is an intuitive action to stimulate vomiting as a means of discharging toxins from the system.

Raw food advocates claim that it is more “natural” for dogs and cats to eat raw food which is a reflection of their origins in the wild. Cats have to some extent remained independent and separate from humans. They are obligate meat eaters and they hunt, kill and eat prey. But this is not the case for dogs. Fourteen thousand years of close association with man have resulted in a creature very different from the wild animal. Dogs have adapted to eating the same food as humans for many generations. Until fairly recently human nutrition was based on cooked whole cereal grains and this forms the basis of the diets we have formulated for pets. It is sometimes claimed that cooked food has been damaged or “denatured” by cooking. Cooking is intended to denature food. When we consume protein, we do not want that protein to be assimilated into our system intact. If we eat chicken, we do not want to build our bodies with chicken protein; we want to build human protein. The purpose of the digestive system is to break down complex molecules to simple molecules which can be absorbed and utilised. Cooking begins that process and makes food more easily digested and absorbed. Denatured (cooked) protein is less likely to be recognised as a foreign protein which can cause an adverse reaction.

How the food is presented is of minor importance compared to what the ingredients are or their proportions. Moist foods tend to be tastier than dry but that is mainly because moist foods tend to be higher in protein and fat. Dry food is more convenient and usually more economical. When comparing the analysis of moist and dry foods it is necessary to allow for the difference in moisture content. A moist food with a declared 10% protein and 80% moisture has 10g of protein in 20g of dry matter i.e. 50% protein on a dry matter basis. A dry food with a declared 20% protein and 10 % moisture has 20g of protein in 90g of dry matter i.e. 22.2% protein on a dry matter basis. The dry food although appearing to have twice as much protein actually has less than half as much protein on a dry-matter basis.

Health problems are more likely on a low-quality food and they often develop without showing outward signs. For example, the liver and the kidneys may lose as much as 75% of their function before signs of organ failure appear.

It is much easier and much more common to overfeed than underfeed. Recommended feeding amounts are only a very rough guide and as such should only be used as a starting point. Two similar individuals may require very different amounts and this will only become apparent with experience. Also, the amount will probably vary from summer to winter. A pet which spends a lot of time outdoors will probably need more food in winter in order to generate body heat. Remember you can undo the value of good quality food by overfeeding.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team

This depends on the individual pet and what you want to add. We rarely recommend adding other pet food to the Burns but home-made food especially vegetables may be acceptable. If a health problem is present, more care is needed and the diet may need to be controlled strictly. If there is a possibility of underlying food intolerance it is important to restrict the number of different components of the diet. A prepared pet food cannot by its nature be tailored exactly to suit every circumstance and we sometimes even recommend adding other home-made foods depending on the individual’s needs. We do not necessarily agree with the advice which other manufacturers give that adding to the diet will “upset the balance”, but it is not advisable to add things regularly to the food in order to get the pet to eat more. Over a period of time this will result in the pet eating more than it would otherwise and could undo the benefit of the Burns food.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team

Yes. Many pets which are overfed do not put on weight because they discharge the excess rather than store it as fat. This discharge of excess tends to occur in those pets which are physically active. It is the less active ones which become overweight.
For further advice please contact our Pet Nutrition Advice Team