What You Need To Know About Commercial Dog Food Before Buying Any More
October 9th, 2009
People tend to think that commercial dog food, especially if it has been recommended by their veterinarian is of good quality and is giving your dog the best chance in life. Right?
Wrong!
While vets should be the best people to advise about dog food, sadly they’re not. Why? Because the top commercial pet food manufacturers now financially contribute to many veterinary schools. They have a foot in the door. They can, and do, influence the students.
After all you generally don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
In most countries of the world, there are, at least some basic laws governing the quality of human food, whether it’s fresh produce, meat or fast food.
In no country are there laws (which are enforced) that insist commercial pet food manufacturers use quality ingredients. That means anything can, and does, go.
After all, if meat is of good quality, wouldn’t you sell it to the highest market - the human market? So, it’s only the poorest quality meat, more often meat by-products (such as hair, intestines and contents, chicken feet, brain, skin, grizzle, fat, etc) that goes for dog food.
This means that the overall nutrient quality is as poor as it gets, as different proteins have different nutritional absorbability.
Pet food is always bulked out with inert (or not as the melamine scam from China testifies) filler. Typically, this filler will be the current cheapest carbohydrate. There’s often a world glut of something, driving down the price. It may be sugar one year, wheat the next.
Do you think the addition of sugar into your dog’s diet will serve to improve his health?
Why do you think that diabetes in dogs is on the increase?
Dogs may bulk out their food in the wild, but it would be on fresh plant matter that’s available, such as fruit or leaves.
Cooking destroys many vitamins and enzymes which are critical to the overall health of your dog.
As most dog food is dried pellets, which keep indefinitely at room temperature, preservatives must be used. Some manufacturers claim they have not added preservatives. Look carefully at the wording. They did not add it. This may be true. But preservatives will always have been added to the meat before it was delivered to the manufacturers.
It’s impossible to keep meat products at room temperature indefinitely without the use of strong preservatives. Preservatives that would never be allowed in human food, because of their poisonous effect.
So your dog may be well fed as far as volume is concerned, but will be starving for quality food. How can your dog remain healthy if he’s fed garbage?
Most people would be appalled at the process that goes into the making of commercial pet food. That would be a really good incentive not to feed it. I’m attempting to give you a glimpse behind the scenes, so you can give your dog the best dog food available within your budget and within your time available.
Madeleine Innocent
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-commercial-dog-food-before-buying-any-more-750805.html
sowseeds
Do you know if your buying commercial dog food tested on animals?
October 9th, 2009 at 3:15 PMI never knew that commercial pet food companies have testing labs and test their products on dogs,cats,etc. They are cruel and it has got to stop. Do you know if your pet is eating any pet food that is tested on animals. Did you know that these testing labs are cruel to these animals? No I am not from PETA I am an informed consumer that is very grateful for PETA. How do we stop this cruelty?
Check here to see if your feeding your pet that has to be tested before sold to you. Look at the top right hand corner for the list of pet food companies that don’t test their products on live animals. http://www.iamscruelty.com/index.asp
Please spread the word,please.
JR
First PETA lies to decieve you.
Second. All food even human food is tested don’t jump to conclusions.
Third this is OLD news and PG cleaned and stopped everything and did what PETA wanted.
Fourth I just don’t like iams and couldn’t care less if someone didn’t buy it but this is false and you can not go on standing untrue information and thanking PETA for making you see IAMS is bad. PETA is bad. They don’t want you to buy any dog food they think you are wrong to have a pet.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:17 PMReferences :
cyndia
if its not tested, how would they know if its harmful or good?
they prob dont test things like "hey will this kill the animal?"
its more like "lets test if this food will make hair shinier" and test it on the test animals…. the worst thing that could prob happen is diarrhea… its not liek theyre testing harsh chemicals in the dog food…
October 9th, 2009 at 8:19 PMReferences :
bob
companies like iams, science diet, royal canin, etc do test their foods on animals. there is more to it. the animals are kept in cages their entire lives and then are euthanized when they no longer need them. ivd before they merged with royal canin/ waltham) used to do at home food trials, meaning the pets already had a home and their owners were doing feeding tests at home with them ie a fat dog would be on a new diet food to see if it helped them loose weight. instead of making the dog fat and then putting it on a new diet food while it is living in a cage. this is not a peta "myth" ask any food rep about the animal testing and they will tell you these dogs live in cages.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:21 PMReferences :