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6 NO-NO’s In Dog Food In the light of recent dog food recalls many are asking what is the best diet for their dogs. This is a relatively new problem that has been developing for the past 50 years or so. Before that, dogs lived fairly healthy lives for thousands of years by eating scraps and leftovers from their owner’s or what they could find. It now seems that many of the problems found in our dogs these days are a result of the commercial dog foods that consist of poor quality meats, preservatives, and other harmful ingredients that dogs have not evolved the ability to digest. Some people point out those commercial dog foods also lack nutritional sufficiency. So how can you protect your dog from such processed pet foods, First of all “READ THE LABEL”. If the label lists any of the following, • Chemical Preservatives – BHA, Ethoxyquin • By – Products – beaks, feet, feathers, heads • Corn, Wheat, or Soy – known allergens • Artificial Coloring or Flavor • Sugars or Corn Syrup • Animal Digest – guts If your pet food contains any of the above items, then you need to switch — TODAY! “But what do I do then” you might ask. READ ON But that still does not spell out the dog food to use, so to find out what pet food one needs to use, I recommend the “DOG FOOD RATING SYSTEM”. It will give you a score from A to F for any dog food you like to feed. You’ll want to use the best food you can afford, so always try to feed a pet food with a B rating or up. The best of course is A grade but will cost more. Another potential difficulty with commercial pet food is the pesticides, molds and antibiotics that can be found in the ingredients. In the 1990s there were 2 major dog food recalls of dry dog food by manufacturers because of fungal toxins that were contained within the grain used as a main ingredient. The second of the 2 contamination’s resulted in the death of more than 20 dogs. In 2007, commercial dog food manufacturers recalled over 140 brands of dog food across America alone because of Melamine contamination. This contamination resulted in literally thousands of reports of dogs and cats suffering kidney failure and death after ingesting these products. It’s true that the FDA does have legal control over sites of dog food manufacturing and do attempt to maintain a quality product, but the loopholes that currently exist are enormous. One example of this is the fact that some commercial dog food companies are permitted to label their products as “No Preservatives Added.” But what they don’t tell you is that these companies get the meat and meat by-products from slaughterhouses and other sources that add preservatives before they ship their ingredients to the manufacturers. However, since the dog food manufacture doesn’t actually add any preservatives themselves, they’re allowed to use this misleading label. Although many dog and pet owners continue to believe (even in the light of the above facts) that processed pet food is the best thing to feed their animals, it doesn’t mean that they do not care. We all want our pets to be healthy and have the best possible food that is good for them. And unfortunately, many of these pet owners truly believed they were doing the right things by their pets. Luckily, with tainted food causing many pets to get ill, as well as a few deaths, more and more people are starting to ask questions and find out the truth behind proper nutrition for their pets. AGAIN IF YOU MISSED THAT URL FOR THE “DOG FOOD RATING SYSTEM” CLICK HERE
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