Do You Know What’s In Your Dog’s Food
Dog food companies advertise their products with pictures of plump juicy chickens, choice cuts of beef, eggs and grain, but the reality is a little different.
The pet food industry is a 16.1 billion dollar per year business, and a lot of pet food manufacturers are subsidiaries of human food manufacturers. This is entirely a profit based strategy. The pet food manufacturers use the leftovers of the animal slaughtering business. Anything that humans wont eat or that’s not fit for human consumption goes into that innocuous bag of dog food. Thus nothing goes to waste and there’s more profit for everyone.
The Association For Feed Control Officials are responsible for outlining the standards of the pet food industry. The set the minimum nutritional requirements for you dog food, and decide what can or can not be included in the product. Their guidelines require only the minimum nutritional requirements for the average dog. Sadly, most pet food manufacturers make food that barely meets these minimum requirements. Again, this is a pricing strategy. It would cost more to make the food more nutritious so they don’t bother.
Your pet should be eating a combination of high quality proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, with protein being the primary component of her diet. If you’re feeding your dog a food that lists some type of grain as the first ingredient your pet probably isn’t getting the nutritional support she needs. When grains are present oats, barley, or brown rice are preferable to corn. Corn is one of the most common ingredients in dog food even though it’s the hardest grain for your pet to digest. The proteins that are used are rarely of sufficient quantity or quality to provide adequate nutrients. The proteins referred to are usually the leftovers from the meat packing business. That means anything from offal, intestines, liver, kidneys, even blood and treated hair are commonly used. These are the ingredients referred to on labels as animal by-products. It is usually necessary to add artificial flavors and colors to the finished products just to make them palatable.
Choose your pets food with care. You can usually find a larger variety at pet stores, but price does not always equate to equality. In fact some “premium” dog foods are actually manufactured in the same processing plants on the same machines as cut rate brands.
Remember to always read the label to find out what you’re feeding to your dog. Don’t ever put yourself in a dangerous position for either you or your dog. Think smart, shop smart!!!
