Once again: CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT CANNOT CONTAIN FEATHERS OR FECES BY DEFINITION!! It is a very common misconception that it does. If an animal-based ingredient contains anything other than flesh, skin and bone, it is by definition by-product. That means when you grind up a whole chicken, organs and all, to make Bob's chicken gravy, you are using chicken by-product. There are at least 10 grades of chicken by-product available to the pet food manufacturer. They range from about 8% to 25% ash, lower being better. You cannot tell by the label on the bag what quality is being used; company repuatation and price are the best guide, along with the results you get from feeding it. Performance Foods says they use the best grade of by-product available. Pet food labels are woefully inadequate for telling us the true value of the food. If you have 3 bags labelled "chicken, rice", "chicken by-product, rice", and "chicken meal, rice", you really can't tell which is better. While there is more meat than rice, it could be 1% more, or it could be 3 times as much, you have no way of knowing. Sigh... It sure makes it hard for pet owners to know what to do. Linda Iroff Oberlin OH [Posted in FML issue 3242]