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Evaluation of characteristics and palatability of dog kibbles made with pea starch vs other starches
C. PERERA (1) (1) Roquette America, Geneva, IL, U.S.A..

Pea starch is a non-traditional carbohydrate source that has not been commonly used in extruded dog kibbles. A study was conducted to evaluate characteristics of  extruded kibbles with pea starch for adult dogs and their palatability, comparing those made with rice, potato and corn starches which are commonly used in dog kibbles. Kibbles were made incorporating 30% of each starch into a nutritionally balanced formula (dry matter 92-92.5%, crude protein 26-29%, crude fat 15-16%, crude fiber 3-4.5%) while keeping all the extrusion parameters constant for each run. The products were evaluated for the color (Hunter, Miniscan XE Colorimeter), shape, density, hardness (texture analyzer TA HD plus  with 30kg load cell) and for palatability (palatability study with adult dogs at Summit Ridge farms). Both potato and pea kibbles showed more radial expansion showing disc shapes whereas corn and rice kibbles showed spherical shapes. There was no difference in the color among  the kibbles made with different starches. Density of the kibbles varied from 305-345g/L in which potato showing the highest density, whereas the hardness (by compression) varied from 6.54-14.35kgs  in which pea kibbles having similar  hardness to potato. The feeding trial showed that the average intake ratio for  potato and pea diets were 0.506 and  0.494 respectively. Based on the Wilcoxon signed rank test results there was no significant difference in  consumption of potato vs pea diets (P= 0.3803) by the adult dogs. With Chi2 probability P =0.7518 there was no significant difference in preference by first choice  between potato and pea diets either. Overall results showed that pea starch can be successfully incorporated in the dry kibbles for dogs.