You need to know what's really in the food you are feeding your dog. As your dog, cat or pet's guardian, the greatest gift you can give is every chance at good health! The gift of good health starts with the quality of nutrition that affects every aspect of your dog's well-being.
The diets of our pets are a far cry from the primarily raw protein diets with a lot of variety of their ancestors. Canines and felines cannot live healthy lives without eating meat. Your pet's teeth are designed for tearing meat and their stomachs are built to break down meat into important nutrients. One increasingly good popular choice is a holistic raw diet -- a diet that has been popular for European pets for decades that supplies higher quality protein sources coming from high quality meat, with only natural preservatives, no by-products and no food coloring.
Cat Dog Pet
Do you know what's really in dog food? Many dog foods are manufactured so poorly that vitamins are supplemented. Heat processing, standard in the pet food industry, destroys important nutrients with up to 100% loss of certain vitamins, up to 60% loss of amino acids, and up to 10% loss of fatty acids. Probiotics and enzymes are destroyed, and fats used in processing can be toxic or rancid. But that is not the worst of the story, and why you should know what is really in the dog food you are feeding, and why a holistic diet should be chosen.
Not all of the pet food manufacturing companies use poor quality and potentially dangerous ingredients, but the vast majority do. Commercially rendered meat meals are often highly contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella, sourced from animals that died from disease, injury, or natural causes, that may not be rendered or cooked until days after death. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins resulting from the bacteria. These toxins can cause disease.
Multinational pet food producers through advertising have a tremendously loyal market in which to capitalize on their and others' waste products, and have a reliable source for such bulk materials.
In 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that euthanized animals were being used in pet food. Pet food manufacturers have vehemently denied the report; however, the American Veterinary Medical Association has confirmed the Chronicle's story as to what is really in the dog and cat food.
Companion pets and zoo animals are euthanized with sodium pentobarbital and then processed and rendered. The sodium pentobarbital poison does not break down in the processing and goes into many commercial pet foods and feed for cows, pigs and horses.
The FDA's Center For Veterinary Medicine concluded that it is highly unlikely a dog will experience any adverse effects from exposures to low levels of pentobarbital found in popular commercial pet foods, but such foods would not be allowed for human consumption. Furthermore, informed consumers who love and want the best for their dog companions would not choose to feed such ingredients if they knew what was really in their dogs' food.
Part of the "witches brew" processed into dog food is slaughterhouse waste including possibly diseased and cancerous meat, grains considered unfit for human consumption, rancid grease and different fats, stabilized with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage. These fats are sprayed directly onto dried kibble to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable.
The most commonly used antioxidant preservative is ethoxyquin(EQ) that has been found in dogs' livers and tissues months after it had been removed from their diet. EQ has been proven to have a synergistic effect that may lead to the development of certain types of cancer and may promote liver disease and other medical problems.
Governmental rules require ingredients to be listed from the largest amount to smallest. Protein is crucial to your dog's health, yet sources such as soybean meal, corn glutens, corn meal, whole corn, and ground or crushed corn is what is really in many dog foods as protein ingredients. While dogs do need some grains, too many commercial dog foods use grains as a substitute for meat. As a result, most dog foods list grains long before meat in their ingredients, but proponents of holistic dog food know meat should be the number one ingredient in any decent dog food. Ideally, the meat should be high quality human grade, making your dog's chances for developing a protein deficiency very low. A good holistic feeding plan provides the proper level of vitamins and minerals -- greater than many commercial dog foods --so you don't need to give your pet supplements.
Sadly, protein deficiencies are common among dogs and result in health issues such as excessive shedding, damaged whiskers, poor appetite, compromised immune systems, gas, burping, smelly stools, diarrhea, vomiting, chronic skin and/or ear infections, smelly breath, brown teeth, dull and/or smelly coat, and personality issues associated with aggression or timidity.
Up until now you my not have realized what is really in dog food. Now that you have been exposed to some facts, become informed about what's really in your dog's food to give your pet companion the best chance at good health.
What's Really In Dog Food (Are You Slowly, Unknowingly Poisoning Your Dog Or Cat?)
We have existed as a company since 1985, but it was a love of dogs, the dogs that have been a part of our life, and the passing of one dog in particular, Rusty, that inspired the creation of http://www.CalloftheDog.com and http://www.CalloftheDogShop.com -- created to provide the things your dogs and pets need. Visit us for great information and quality dog supplies! Be sure to see our About Us page as well.
The two sites are dedicated to the dogs we have loved so deeply, and who have given us so much love in return. Purebreds and mixed breeds, but mostly rescues in need of a home. We educated them, but each one has had something to teach us in exchange.