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Ethoxyquin is a toxic preservative which I was aware of in guinea pig foods. It's caused lots of health problems for guinea pigs so I've been ordering my pellets online. If you visit a few of the most knowledgeable guinea pig forums you'll find almost everyone orders pellets online and noone uses a food with ethoxyquin. Then I noticed it in the ingrediants list for a few fish foods. A search shows this is not just in a few cheap foods. Even some of the more expensive pet foods that might be considered higher quality contain ethoxyquin. Sometimes companies try to pass it off as an anti-oxident. Ethoxyquin isn't approved for humans except at extremely low amounts and only in select foods. Such as animal meats since there is no limit on the amount in livestock feeds some remains in the products we get from those animals. If you want to know exactly what this chemical does try running a google search on it or reading these sites:
[link=http://www.petcaretips.net/ethoxyquin.html]http://www.petcaretips.net/ethoxyquin.html" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]
[link=http://www.theaviary.com/ethoxy.shtml]http://www.theaviary.com/ethoxy.shtml" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]
[link=http://www.avianweb.com/ethoxyquin.htm]http://www.avianweb.com/ethoxyquin.htm" style="COLOR: #C000C0[/link]
From guinea pigs and birds to dogs and cats ethoxyquin is being used in high amounts in many pet foods. You might want to check the label on what your feeding.

Funny they never told us about this in animal feeding and nutrition. I could ask a friend who's in the class to ask the professor if you want to know something that's not what you find on the internet...

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there isn't a limit on the amount, however there wouldn't be able to be too much as, as was pointed out, it is an insecticide, and it would make the fish sick.

There is no money in a fishfood that gets a reputation for killing fish.

If it wasn't ethoxyquin, it'd be something else. The way these foods are stored and packed, weevils and other pests are a problem.


Yes there are probably better options to Ethoxyquin, but there are also worse ones. You also wouldn't buy food with weevils in it, and you wouldn't pay the money for human grade pet food, it'd be extravagant.

There are plenty of other products banned for humans that simply are not researched enough or that a small percentage react to. to say they shouldn't be fed to other species would be a bit strange. This doesn't apply to ethoxyquin necessarily, as i believe there was a trout trial somewhere, but yeah, just cause we can't handle it doesn't mean other species can't.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

It's been proven other species can't. It's found even more in food for pets where people may not care as much how long they live. Why does anyone buy a small animal food that has been proven over and over again to shorten lifespans and kill pets? They don't care or they don't know. It has been proven in scientific study and the experiences of many people that ethoxyquin severely affects guinea pigs. It's surprising if they live 3-5yrs being fed something with ethoxyquin and the health problems that show up are consistently the same. Guinea pigs fed on the 3 known guinea pig foods that don't use ethoxyquin will live to be at least 5yrs old but my oldest just passed away at 9yrs.
The same is being proven in hamsters, gerbils, and birds particularly by those using foods from a certain company that uses quite high levels of ethoxyquin. As of yet I don't know any study that proves it's harm to dogs and cats but I don't research the food for those animals. We did discuss it in my horse nutrition classes and that there were many other options and most of which were higher quality foods anyway.
From what I've seen ethoxyquin isn't needed. Out of the feeds that don't use it most are cheaper and I've had higher bug problems using small animal foods from companies that use lots of ethoxyquin than from companies that don't. My guinea pig pellets and horse feeds without ethoxyquin have never had bugs even when I leave them sit around open in the garage or stable. When I was using other brands especially the small animal foods from the company that uses the highest level of ethoxyquin I was pitching a fair amount of food nearly weekly from bug infestations. One led to a moth infestation taking over the whole house. Although the fish didn't complain about the snacks.

Do you have links or access to the studies? i'd like to have a bit of a looksee



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett