Cites Medicus, 'Fish Meal for Dogs', Our Dogs 102 (21st Feb. 1936), p. 578.
Description:

'I, like "Medicus," would never, no matter how good the analysis, feed commercial fish meal, at any rate to the kennel inmates whose health is most vital - i.e. puppies and brood bitches - as suggested in your journal of 6th March. I would always entertain fears, such as tha the manufacturers may not be "fly conscious" as dog breeders are (or ought to be), or that diseased fish, even by mischance, may have been included; this, in my opinion, applies to all dried protein foods.

But I fully realise the value of fish, especially for growing stock, and think that the following way of giving its most important content admirable. Most kennels deal in some way with fish shops, and nearly all fish shops collect a great amount of waste, in the form of back-bones, etc., from filleted fish, which they are usually pleased to be rid of, and will for a few pence deliver two or three times a week to one's kennels. This, when boiled down (until the bone is softened) and then mixed with brown rice which has been cooked in the juice obtained from the boiling of the bones, makes, in my and in several well-known breeders' opinions, who have tested it, a feed unbeatable.

...

I must also, before concluding, say a little in praise of fish itself, when given raw, as "Medicus" advised. Raw herring, of course, is a miraculous food for all dogs; mackrel is also good, and has actually a higher protein content than meat.

... I think fish in summer (and it will soon be here again) is unbeatable, and at 3d. to 4d. a pound it is even less expensive than the large quantities of clogging starchy foods which are given, no matter the time of year, in so many kennels.

...

[Those who wish to feed their dogs on fish meal are reminded that among the numerous varieties of food made by the well-known dog-biscuit companies is, and has been for years, a biscuit for dogs containing a proper proportion of the finest white fish meal. - Ed.]' (824)

 

Relevant passages from "Medicus" article:

'As regards dogs, the only really satisfactory form in which it I have found it is in that of "fish biscuits" - similar to ordinary "meat" dog cakes, but having fish meal substituted for granulated fish meal. These are quite wholesome and useful as a change from the ordinary biscuit; but they should not be regarded as a complete substitute for meat fibrine cakes.

But fish meal - used as a meal and mixed up with other ingredients for the feeding of hounds, in kennels, for example - is another proposition, and I should myself be very chary of recommending it. Indeed, before using, and still more before recommending it, I should want a complete analysis.

...

There is, of course, this further disadvantage about fish meal as a dog food - that it is not what a dog really needs. Foods that simply fill up the stomach, requiring neither cunching nor the action of the strong digestive juices with which nature has equipped the dog, will all tend to cause indigestion and its many attendant troubles.

No, I am not in favour of fish meal as a general food for dogs except in the hard biscuit form, and then I look upon it merely in the nature of a change from ordinary biscuits. If I think a dog wants fish at all I give him fresh uncooked fish; then I know that he gets all the iodine and whatever other virtues it may contain generally.' (pg.)