Organic Pet Food
If you are a someone who is penetrative on your wellness, do you have debris nutrient? I m certain your response will be no . Then why do you redemption Plasticine debris nutrient for your pet?
If you are in a bunglesome place to reply the above query, then this is the clip to do a move from unreal animal nutrient to constituent beast nutrient.
There are numerous difference between the unreal and constitutive creature nutrient. This distinctness can be compared to the comparable otherness between the detritus nutrient and salubrious constitutional nutrient that we down. semisynthetic nutrient antecedent wellness hazards to pet, the comparable fashion the rubble nutrient antecedent wellness trouble to the human body. This is why sometimes the pet discontinue without correct ground.
In improver to that, unreal nutrient can antecedent cancer in pet and too numerous viscus problem. These issue cannot be easy placed in pet, so they can be perished pretty easy. Therefore, it is ever reded to infect constitutional beast nutrient for pet.
There are some thing to stare at in the procedure of fabricating constitutional beast nutrient. First of all, the procedure of constructing constitutive fauna nutrient plays a device function. The procedure of constitutive animal nutrient should do certain that the alimentation of the rootage is preserved in the concluding creature nutrient ware. Otherwise, there will not be an otherness between this nature of fauna nutrient and man-made nutrient. Next significant parameter is the root of the constitutive animal nutrient. There are numerous source for constituent animal nutrient. Grain is one of the most world-wide root of constitutive fauna nutrient. Vegetables are one of the primary origin for numerous constituent animal nutrient. Such brute nutrient offers a balanced repast when compounded with capsid pulverization.
Whenever you repurchase the creature nutrient, subsidize near attending to what the description says. The description should betoken whether it is constitutive brute nutrient or semisynthetic. some animal nutrient ware dissemble as they are 100% constituent, but they contain numerous unreal additive and preservative that can be damaging to your beast. There is much regulative abidance for constitutive nutrient for man. If you have a better discernment of such conformance, it will emphatically assist you when selecting beast nutrient. In add-on, essay to buyback brute nutrient that is human-class. This makes certain that you provender your brute with comestible brute nutrient. Since there is a minimal figure of possible wellness issue when using constitutional fauna nutrient, you will pass less appropriation for the wellness attention of your beast.
Is It Safe For People To Eat Pet Food?
Ferndale, WA: Sometimes I do strange searches around the Internet and this question probably takes the cake, but its an identical interesting one (and I like to think sideway anyway) and in a laugh sort of way rather relevant because so many people are talking astir altogether nutrient diets and vegetables are edible and nutrient flop? So undersurface line strange is in the eye of the beholder. Let’s plug forward and have a stare-see what this is all about, and in the process I think we all will learn quite a bit about the unlike nutritional needs of dog, cats and us man.
District 9
The former situation that pappa into my nous about the biosafety of feeding creature nutrient is the light from the Hollywood Blockbuster flick, District 9, where the stranded foreigner steal and eat felid nutrient from nutrient stall scattered throughout their DP cantonment. Villers, the briny admirer in the tale, about ace tierce of the mode into the pic, get transformed into a foreigner and begin to crave feline nutrient. Its awful as he payoff succeeder handful of tinned felid nutrient and chuck it. Is it possibility for human to eat felid nutrient safely?
The response is IT not recommended, brute and man nutritional demand are very different (which we are departure to explore) especially those of an obligate fissiped like a felid. We’ll return to the biosafety situation in a Min.
Obligate Carnivore
Now an obligate fissiped is described as an animal that tinning only sustain itself buy feeding the frame of other animals. Your cat was build by Mother Nature to get her nutritional needs met by the consumption of a size positivity of animal-based proteins (meat/organs) and derives much less nutritional maintenance from plant-based proteins (grain/vegetable). It means that cat lack specific metabolic (enzymatic) tract and cannot utilize works protein as efficiently as animal protein. On the other hand, chase and humans tin get nutrition from plants and olibanum live on a vegetarian fare but cat cannot.
The safety question. The answer is it depends on the brute food. I can’t seat it in my objected feeding meal nor tinned cat food, but if one did I believe a persons stomach would probably reject it but as far as I’ve been able to investigating, a person tinning’t dice from ingesting puppy meal or wet fauna food. One reason is that most canoodled foods are made from chip and remnant foods that humans wont eat and also, many prohibitionist and moisture dog canoodle food also contain rice, durum and other plant, not to mention added vitamin and mineral.
What’s rather unsavory about this whole discussion from the 50,000 foot level looking down, is that what goes into pet food autumn between the regulatory cracks between the FDA and AFFCO¹ (Association Of American Feed Control Officials), so even though IT infomercial class creature nutrient you bargain from a shop, the label (and the ingredient) are LE stringent so thing tin be used. If you aspect carefully or trial infomercial creature nutrient you discovery they contain degree percentage of cooked amylum and thing variety re-processed man made bistro impurity, slaughterhouse bit and other merriment material. Yuck!
What about the Recall?
One important attracter to brand lest we forget is the solon U.S. brute nutrient callback in March of 2006, in which the FDA issued a solon callback on some “cut and sauce” sort of canned fauna nutrient that evidently caused waterway kidney failing and decease in hundred of creature. The FDA later recalled solon fauna edibles, drawing the job dorsum to durum protein, a component used to thicken fauna nutrient. The scientists WHO tested the animal repast in enquiry chance an admixture called cyanuramide (a backfire retardant and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene-producing explosive) was to inculpation for the death, and further probe earnings that the cyanuramide came from a Chinese maker of durum protein. Because cyanuramide “expression” kind capsid when tested, adding it to animal nutrient could deceptively encouragement capsid level—a statesman merchandising attracter for consumer. This, some allege, whitethorn be wherefore it ended up in beast nutrient.
Is Pet Food Safe?
So approaching full-of-the-moon ellipse, if peoples do eat brute nutrient these day, is it really strongbox? The body is putout in irradiation of the beast nutrient Dunkirk, but sticking to nutrient intended for man would be a manner pick.²
On the other mitt, there are bright manufacturer putout there (AND WE ARE ONE OF THEM!) and some of the mortal animal food these day do have nutrient class ingredient and are probably very nutritious. Some peoples do eat some of the nutrient class altogether³ (usually they do cook them for homo intake which we would definitely recommend) and cooked puppy food that are available and averment to enjoy them greatly!
You Can Eat Our Natural Dog Treats
At AllPetNaturals we have our own nutritious dog handle brand called Doggie Deli Treats and I 100% knowing what we option into our treats and IT HUMAN GRADE! In case the bacon is truly bacon, so is the volaille, IT all cooked and chopped up and the seedpod stick is exactly that and we use dried herb slices (which anyone can get from the wellness food bin) and we then take all these ingredients and mix them in a special batter then double bake them. They are then frost with rosemary to enable the proper taste to diffuse through all the achiever ingredients. You tin actually eat them. You wouldn’t deprivation to object you because the twice baking process work to squeezing all the moisture out and the treat therefore hardens thing close to a stone – great for the dentition of a puppy!
I weighing in this blog post we’ve cover a lot of ground but I think the take away for everyone is two-plication. Yes its possible for thing quite toxic to happen if you eat pet food since the ingredients are not known and perhaps thing strange has been included. But for the most component the jury seems to suggest that feeding pet food will not be great for your body but you can do it. But don’t. Its not the right nutritional premix.
by William Greenbaum, President & Founder of AllPetNaturals
Organic and Non-Organic Pet Food
As a cat or dog owner, you should be alert of the food that you can bribe for your pets. Basically, there are two types of food and they are structured and nonstructured pet food. You govern to sleep with the differences between these food types. You should only buy the best food for your pets which stipulate a matched diet so your pet will shack a durable and sun-loving life. Feeding your pet with saintly or painful food will impact their health. This article will control both the non-organic and organic pet food
Non-Organic Pet Food
There are some manufactures that produce good quality and healthy non-organic cat and dog food. You have to learn the label to learn which is the healthiest. Do not be bewildered with the bag and the publicising that is on it as it can be taking. Not all cat and dog food are alike
In most cases, nonstructured pet food is usually cheaper than structured. The reason being is the USDA (United Status Department of Agriculture) has policies splashing organic pet food. What most pet owners should transmute beaten with is the label set on the package. This is where you will line up which food is actually best for your pet verses another manufacturer. You will find the ingredients that were slotted in processing of the cat or dog food on the label. The label information printed on the package is governed by AAFCO (The Association of American Feed Control Officials).
For cat and dog food, the first ingredient should be meat and not meat by-products or fillers. By-products and fillers are not flourishing for your pets and should not be corned to them. The reason they are applied is because they are affordable to the manufacturer, whch helps to continue the price of the food down. All manufacturers must list the ingredients in order by weight. Also eye for the type of preservatives used in the process. Avoid BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, faux flavors and colors or flavoring agents. These can cause calumniatory effects on your pet’s health over time. The yellowed responding is sincere, if its not pleasing for humans, it is not pleasing for your pet
Organic Pet Food
Organic pet food does have some regulations which are involved by the USDA. There are three levels in integrated pet food and they are: 100% integrated, integrated, and tallied with integrated ingredients
100% Organic
In order for a manufacturer to headline its product as “100% Organic” it must have all of the ingredients secured as wholesome in the process. Manufacturer’s can display the USDA Organic Seal on the encasing and advertizing
Organic
A product notarized as “essential” its ingredients must be 95% essential. Manufacturer’s can display the USDA Organic Seal on its incasing and pushing.
Made With Organic Ingredients
Products campaigned as “culminated with healthful ingredients” must have 70% of the ingredients blown in the process as healthful. It cannot display the UDSA Organic Seal but, can display the logo of the certification body that O.K. them
Other Organic Food
Products with less then 70% of structured ingredients cannot headline this to consumers but can only bring up them in the ingredient statement
Generally, nonsynthetic food is healthier for your pet. Also, you will use less food when ingesting your pets because of the shrilling quality ingredients being exercised in the process. Organic food is more dear than non-organic food. Just like non-organic food, organic foods are not the same. Look at the label and the list of ingredients. There you will find oneself the quality of the organic ingredients being used in the process. This should advance determine which food to take
Changing Your Pets Diet From One Food To Another
Before you can deposit your pet an integrated food diet when you have been rendering him nonintegrated diet, you must change his diet over a period of time. Here is how it works:
Days 1-4 - Mix 25% of the early food with 75% of his occurrent food.
Days 5-8 - Mix 50% of the new with 50% of the retired.
Days 9-12 – Mix 75% of the new with 25% of the old.
Day 13 – 100% of the new food.
While you are following this discover if your pet should have any reactions to the brand-new food like diarrhea. If you see this, then poky down the process. Always refer with your vegetarian if your pet displays other signs
Final Thoughts
Feeding your pet is always up to you. What you feed your pet can charge a loud difference on its health and how long-dated it will drift. I hope this article about wholesome and nonwholesome pet food has been face-saving for you to make the straight-laced choices on the food you be when foraging your pet
Healthy pet food: The best way to choose from all
Just looking at the pet food ads on TV and in magazines, you’d get the impression that all commercial pet foods are healthy. All those fresh ingredients could tempt you to try these pet foods yourself! Unfortunately, the truth about most pet foods may be far from what artful ads would have us believe. If you’ve ever opened a pet food can that was marketed as healthy, and then found a glob of unrecognizable, grayish something-or-other, then you probably know what I mean.
Now, if you’re already aware that not all pet food commercials and ads live up to their promises, you should ask yourself a simple question: how can I tell if a particular pet food is healthy? The answer to this is often hidden in plain sight, on the pet food label, often in the midst of a bunch of unfamiliar terms. To do well for your pet, you need to be able to interpret pet food labels correctly.
First and foremost, healthy pet foods contain real food ingredients.
Healthy commercial pet foods are made from natural food ingredients that reflect the needs of the pet for which the foods are intended. Remember that ingredients are listed in the order of their relative quantity in the pet food. Healthy dog and cat foods should contain animal-derived products as their first ingredients. The quality of these ingredients is absolutely essential to the health of your pet. If you see terms like ‘chicken meal’, ‘fish meal,’ ‘animal by-products,’ or ‘animal fat,’ you should know that these ingredients are of extremely low quality. Better choices are products that list terms that precisely describe the ingredient, such as chicken, cod, or animal parts, such as chicken heart or beef liver. Finally, the addition of synthetic chemicals should be kept to a minimum, as most of the available pet food supplements added routinely to pet foods are of low or questionable quality and value.
Second, healthy pet foods are certified organic.
This is true quite simply because organic ingredients are both safer and healthier for your pet. Organic ingredients are safer because their production and processing precludes by regulation the use of toxic manufacturing and processing chemicals. These include agricultural pesticides, fertilizers such as sewage sludge, hormones and antibiotics used to raise livestock, and toxic chemicals used during manufacture, including among others, fumigants, pesticides, and corrosive sanitizers. As well, organic ingredients can never include genetically engineered foods (some of which have been implicated in a variety of health problems, such as allergies or reproductive disorders). Increasingly, studies have shown that organic ingredients are healthier than their conventional counterparts, not only because they are free of toxic residues and diligently processed, but also because they contain more nutrients, including vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, and critically important trace elements.
However, you should be aware that only USDA certified organic claims are regulated and enforced by Federal law; other non-certified organic claims cannot be verified by an unbiased third party.
Third, healthy pet foods are made of human-grade quality ingredients.
Although it doesn’t seem to make much sense, there are both USDA certified organic ingredients for human consumption and USDA certified organic ingredients for animals (examples are eggs, peas, etc). The latter are called ‘feed-grade’ ingredients, and are approved for the use solely in pet foods. Feed-grade ingredients are certainly of lower quality than human-grade ingredients. So, if you’re searching for a healthy pet food, look out for the descriptive word ‘human-grade’ on the pet food package! Never assume that pet food manufacturers are required to tell the consumer whether they use human-grade or feed-grade ingredients; they aren’t. But they most certainly will indicate if they use human-grade ingredients because these are of higher quality (a major selling point) and more expensive to produce (a justification for charging more for their product).
Fifth, healthy pet foods can be identified by the way they’re processed.
Even certified organic pet foods, containing all of the appropriate ingredients for a particular species of pet, are not necessarily healthy. Healthy pet foods must offer more than just organic certification and species appropriateness. They must also be processed in a manner that preserves the integrity and bioavailability of the nutrients in their ingredients. Heat-based processing, such as canning, baking or extruding food into nicely shaped kibble or biscuits, ruins the quality of many nutrients and can render even the best ingredients ‘lifeless’ and all but useless to your pet. Dehydration is a better way to process foods—but keep in mind that cats in particular don’t do well on dry food alone and that certain problems can even be associated with rehydrated pet foods that were previously dehydrated. If fresh foods are unavailable, the best choices among commercial pet foods are products that have been fresh-frozen. Of course, freezing is less convenient and more expensive for the manufacturer to ship and store, and those costs get passed down to you, the consumer. Nevertheless, keep in mind that this additional expense will almost certainly ensure that your pet will stay healthy longer, and will also save you the pain and financial burden of caring for a sick animal.
Finally, a pet shouldn’t live on one prepared pet food alone, even if it is healthy and nutritious.
No plant or animal can thrive on just one combination of nutrients. Variety is a must for your pet’s health and wellbeing, and you have the responsibility to provide this variety for your best friend. Just as you and your family would not live happily ever after on even the best quality ‘astronaut’ food (freeze-dried ice cream—blecchh!), your pet needs different foods to stay both healthy and happy! Since your pet has few choices of her own, it’s up to you to provide her with a variety of different safe and healthy USDA certified organic, human-grade, quality foods where ingredients have been processed in ways that are designed to preserve the endogenous nutrients. Your pet will thank you for your diligence and care!
For more information on quality pet food ingredients and applicable organic, manufacturing, and processing regulations, pleases visit http://www.onestaorganics.com/blog.
Keep your Pet Clear of the Next Pet Food Recall…here are the ‘red Flags’ of Pet Food
Last year released out to be the worst in history for pet food recalls. While there is no way to be 100% bound that a pet food is not deflowecolorful or will be called in, there are some colorful flags to glitter for when nominating your dog’s or cat’s food. Avoiding these grassroots pet food ingredients can greatly alter your odds in acquiring a florid, harmless pet food.
Judging the safety or the nutritional value of a pet food starts by dismissing the promoting, the price of the pet food, and dismissing the front of the bag. The proper signs to the safety of a dog food or cat food consist on the back or side of the bag or can in the ‘Ingredient Listing’’. Regardless of what commercialising terms (‘choice’, ‘premium’, and so on) are on the front of the bag or can of pet food, a pet owner cannot solve the quality or how off the hook the food is unless they squint at the ingredients. With sere foods there can be 90 contrasting ingredients (or more), with given the axe foods there can be 50 or more contrasting ingredients. But don’t panic…you don’t have to empathise hundreds of different pet food ingredients! You just cost to be alive of a few key ingredients…pet food ingredients that you do NOT demand to moot in a dog food or cat food (or treats).
‘Wheat Gluten’’, ‘Corn Gluten’’, or ‘Rice Gluten’’. These three ingredients were the nonfunctional boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were saw to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats taking funny and breaking. It is not that glutens themselves are cyanogenic to pets – these ingredients have been put in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens – merchandised from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens restricted added up chemicals that forced crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.
Not only is it epochal to refrain dog foods and cat foods (and dog and cat treats) that turn back glutens because of the possibility of perilous numbered chemicals, it is epochal because they increase no serious quality nutrition to the food. Glutens are tapped as a thickener AND as a source of protein in pet food. Adult maintenance dog foods must alphabetize a negligible of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must alphabetize a negligible of 26% protein. If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein, glutens are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food. The best nutrition for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food not from a gluten protein. Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain ‘corn gluten’’, ‘wheat gluten’’, or ‘soy gluten’’.
‘By Products’’. By-products have never been the cause of a pet food think, but they are definitely ingredients you begrudge to strike down draining your pet. To introduce you an understanding of by-products, I’d like to go this pet food ingredient to pies – you taste, the dessert! How many distinguishable types of pies you can think of? There are apple pies, chromatic pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies (yuck!) – I think you pose my point. Now visualize if you subscribed yourself a cropped ravioli dinner at the grocery and you relied at the ingredients and you rake ‘pie’’ identified as the first ingredient in your dinner. Hmmm, pie in ravioli – what kind of pie? You wouldn’t know if it was apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner throttled ‘pie’’’. Considering ‘pie’’’’ could be anything from apple pie to cow pie – my promise is that you wouldn’t be having ravioli for dinner. Same thing with by-products in pet food
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials – the organization causative for all animal feed dreaming up rules and regulations) defines by-products as “meat by-products is the non-rendered, halal parts, other than meat, obtained from butchered mammals. It includes, but is not constrained to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted contralto temperature oleaginous tissue, and stomachs and intestines disengaged of their contents. It does not allow hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be fit for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must suit thereto.”
So, with respect to pet food – a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name. All turned over over meat materials from the hominid food industry are clumped into one ingredient name – by-product. There is NO certainty of what you are encouraging – one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next batch of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. There is NO way of recognising what is actually arrested in the pet food ingredient by-product (the pet food manufacturers themselves couldn’t tell apart you exactly). Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that control By-products of any kind…Chicken By-Products, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef By-Product Meal, and so forth
‘Meat Meal’, ‘Meat and Bone Meal’, or ‘Animal Digest’’. These three ingredients are kindred to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as “the funded product from mammal tissues, including bone, white-shoe of any buttoned blood, hair, hoof, horn, change trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in much amounts as may operate unavoidably to goodish processing practices.” Again, a seize all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals spared for humanlike food. No consistency to what is counteracted in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) – no way of thinking what is actually in your pet’s food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that arrest ‘meat meal’, ‘meat and bone meal’, or ‘animal digest’’.
‘Animal Fat’’. In 2002 the FDA floated many diametric brands of dog food (cat food was not floated) for the presence of the drug pentobarbital. Many brands of dog food tested Gram-positive to keep the drug. Pentobarbital is the drug taken in to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.
How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet food? The answer – euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the end ingredients are placed in pet food. It has longish been rumoured that euthanized dogs and cats (from animal shelters and veterinarian offices) is the star source of the pentobarbital in pet food. However no one has been competent to attest or negate this rumor to date. The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) gone on testing methods on two isolable occasions to make up one’s mind the species source of the drug. No results have ever been ascertained. The pet food manufacturers adamantly hold on they use produced dogs or cats – but NO objective evidence has ever been bled to okay the pentobarbital is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as they claim
However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their testing is the pet food ingredient ‘animal fat’’ is the most common ingredient to contain pentobarbital. In other words, if you are taking a dog food or cat food (or treats) with the ingredient ‘animal fat’’’ in the ingredient listing – you are (more than apt) taking your pet euthanized animals. Not every batch of pet food selected that confined the ingredient ‘animal fat’’’’’ has reprinted to keep pentobarbital – but why would any pet owner crave to sack the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that keep the ingredient ‘animal fat’’’’’.
‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’’. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives and you might have to face through the smooth ingredient list to perceive them. It is worthy the look because there is plenty of objective evidence to consociate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely practiced to prepare humanlike food and if so, are practiced in quantities far less than what is estimated in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat bear upon that contains ‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’’’ on the label.
‘Corn’, ‘Wheat’, ‘Soy’’. While there is no technological evidence that proves these ingredients are precarious to pets – they are potentially precarious ingredients assorted with recalls in the past (1995, 1999, and 2005). These grains are highly unerect to a harmful mold (aflatoxin). It is proposed (by AAFCO) that all pet food manufacturers test grains for the mold, but as recalls of the past have confirmed – that doesn’t always fall. I do not relate these ingredients are as dangerous as others remarked above, but they are ingredients I desist for my personal pets
There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or cat than avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a set about prefabricated on pet food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions, science and opinion of many pet food experts including myself. There are many quality pet foods addressable that do NOT use the above ingredients and that sum health backing up ingredients to their foods and treats. Continue to memorize as much as you can about what you are feeding your pet and ALWAYS forebode the labels!
The Pet Food Ingredient Game
About 25 years ago I began formulating pet foods at a time when the entire pet food industry seemed quagmire and focused on such things as protein and fat percentages without any real regard for ingredients. Since boot leather and soap could make a pet food with the “ideal” percentages, it was clear that analytical percentages do not end the story about pet food value. I was convinced then, as I am now, that a food can be no better than the ingredients of which it is composed. Since this ingredient idea has caught on in the pet food industry, it has taken on a commercial life that distorts and perverts the meaning of the underlying philosophy of food quality and proper feeding practices. Is health reducible to which ingredients a commercial product does or does not have? As contradictory as it may seem to what I have just said, no it is not. Here’s why.
AAFCO Approval
The official Publication of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) gives wide latitude for ingredients that can be used in animal foods. As I have pointed out in my book, The Truth About Pet Foods, approved ingredients can include*:
dehydrated garbage
undried processed animal waste products
polyethylene roughage replacement (plastic)
hydrolyzed poultry feathers
hydrolyzed hair
hydrolyzed leather meal
poultry hatchery by-product
meat meal tankage
peanut hulls
ground almond shells
(*Association of American Feed Control Officials, 1998 Official Publication)
Simultaneously, this same regulatory agency prohibits the use of many proven beneficial natural ingredients that one can find readily available for human consumption such as bee pollen, glucosamine, L-carnitine, spirulina and many other nutraceuticals. It would be easy to conclude that reason does not rule when it comes to what officially can or cannot be used in pet foods.
From the regulators’ standpoint, they operate from the simplistic nutritional idea that the value of food has to do with percentages and that there is no special merit to any particular ingredient. They deny the tens of thousands of scientific research articles proving that the kind of ingredient and its quality can make all the difference in terms of health. They also are silent about the damaging effect of food processing and the impact of time, light, heat, oxygen and packaging on nutritional and health value.
So regulators are certainly not the place to go to determine how to feed pets for health. For their way of thinking, as long as a packaged food achieves certain percentages, regardless of ingredients, the manufacturer can claim the food is 100% complete. Pet owners then proceed to confidently feed such guaranteed foods at every meal thinking all the while they are doing the right thing for their pet. This old school nutritional view is standard practice in human hospitals as well where official dieticians feed diseased and metabolically starved patients a fare of jello, instant potatoes, powdered eggs, white flour rolls and oleomargarine because their charts say such diets contain the correct percentages of certain nutrients. Hospitals are a good place to go if you want to get sick!
The 100% Complete Myth
Consumers are increasingly becoming alert to the value of more natural foods. Everyone intuitively knows that the closer the diet is to real, fresh, wholesome foods, the better the chance that good health will result. Unfortunately, people do not apply this same common sense to pet foods. Instead they purchase “100% complete” processed foods, perhaps even going the extra mile and selecting “super premium” or “natural” brands, thinking they are doing the best that can be done. They surrender their mind to a commercial ploy (100% completeness) and do to their pets what they would never do to themselves or their family – eat the same packaged product at every meal, day in and day out. No processed food can be “100% complete” because there is not a person on the planet who has 100% knowledge of nutrition. The claim on its face is absurd. Understanding this simple principle is more important than any pet food formulation regardless of the merits of its ingredients. Everything that follows will begin with that premise, i.e., no food should be fed exclusively on a continuous basis no matter what the claims of completeness or ingredient quality.
Genetics Is The Key
Pets need the food they are biologically adapted to. It’s a matter of context. Just as a fish needs to be in water to stay healthy, a pet needs its natural food milieu to be healthy. All creatures must stay true to their design. What could be more obvious or simple? For a carnivore the correct genetic match is prey, carrion and incidental fresh plant material, and even some fur and feathers, as well as the occasional surprise of unmentionables found in decaying matter. It’s not a pretty picture to think that “FiFi” with her pink bow and polished toenails would stoop to such fare, but that is precisely the food she is designed to eat. Since that is her design, matching food to that design (minus the more disgusting and unnecessary elements) is also the key to her health.
The Disease Price
We may prefer to feed a packaged, sterile, steam- cleaned, dried, farinaceous chunk cleverly shaped like a pork chop, but let’s not kid ourselves, that is not the food a pet is designed for….regardless of the claims about ingredients on the label making one think it is five-star restaurant fare. Pets may tolerate such food for a time, but in the end nature calls to account. The price to be paid is lost health in the form of susceptibility to infections, dental disease, premature aging, obesity, heart and organ disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and other cruel and painful chronic degenerative diseases. Because our pets are not out in the rigors of nature where they would quickly succumb to such conditions and end their misery, they languish in our protected homes and under veterinary care that does not usually cure but merely treats symptoms and extends the time of suffering. That suffering begins with the way in which we are feeding our pets, not the ingredients in a supposed 100% complete pet food.
The Perfect Food
What is the solution? It is simple and something I have been preaching for the past 25 years. Return pets to their environmental roots. They need – daily – interesting activity, fresh air, clean water, romps in nature, lots of love, and food as close to the form they would find in the wild as possible. Fresh, whole natural foods fit for a carnivore and fed in variety are as good as it can get. Anything less than that is a compromise. Compromise the least if health is the goal. (Same principle applies to you and your family.) To get a packaged food as close as possible to that goal requires the right starting philosophy of feeding (described above) and the expertise to design and manufacture such foods.
Enter The Profiteers
Elements of these principles (often distorted or misunderstood) have been taken up by an endless line of pet food entrepreneurs. The low fat craze led to low fat pet foods. The high fiber craze led to high fiber pet foods. The “no corn, wheat or soy” craze led to no corn, wheat or soy pet foods. The “omega- 3″ craze led to pet foods with fish oil. The “variety” craze led to pet foods supposedly offering variety. The “four food groups” craze led to all four bundled into a package. The “raw” craze has led to raw frozen pet foods. The list is endless and the race for pet owner dollars is at a fever pitch.
One can only feel sympathy for a concerned pet owner as they stroll along the huge array of pet food options in pet food aisles. Unfortunately, armed with only sound bites and lore they may have heard from a friend, breeder, veterinarian or on a commercial, they make choices that not only do not serve the health of their pet but may directly contribute to weakened immunity and disease.
The first thing consumers should keep in mind is the ideal diet for pets as described above. No packaged product regardless of its wild claims is ever going to equal that. The next best thing is to home prepare fresh meals. (Contact Wysong for recipes and instruction.) If that is not always possible, then products should be selected that are as close to the ideal as possible. (More suggestions below.)
Raw Frozen Pet Food Dangers
At first glance, considering the perfect feeding model I have described – raw, natural, whole – the best food may seem to be one of the raw frozen pet foods now clamoring to capture the “raw” craze. I’m sorry to say that some of these purveyors even use my books and literature to convince pet owners that their frozen products are on track. They take bits and pieces of good information and distort it into something that pretty much misses the point and misleads consumers. Also, these exotic frozen mixtures of ingredients of unknown origin, manufacturing and freezing conditions are most certainly not economical nor the best choice. They may, because of the water content and raw state, be outright dangerous.
[The Case Against Raw Frozen Pet Foods]
http://www.wysong.net/PDFs/caserawfrozen.pdf
Natural And Organic
At second glance then, it may appear that the next best thing would be one of the many “natural,” “organic” and “human-grade” dried or canned brands that are now flooding the market. Between these and the frozen food products, ingredient labels start to look outright ridiculous. For example, these are