Pet Food Information

I've recently done extensive research into commercial pet foods. I have been shocked and appalled by the results. The bottom line - the vast majority of commercially available pet foods are anything but wholesome. "Junk" would be a very polite, drastic understatement.

To summarize my findings, the few good foods out there have the following qualities:

Human grade ingredients
No rendered proteins
No meat "meals" or meat "by-products" The ingredient list should say "chicken", not "chicken by-products"; or "lamb" not "lamb meal".
No artificial or chemical preservatives or dyes.

The information is rarely on the labels, and often requires research and contacting individual companies. Very, very few foods will meet these requirements. The one I am personally using and recommending now is "Pet Promise", available at Petco or Wild Birds Unlimited. It is expensive, due to quality and cost of premium ingredients.

The lack of chemical preservatives shortens their shelf life, making the foods more expensive for manufacturers and retailers to carry. Confession - we cannot afford to stock a food that I now feel is of sufficient quality to recommend; But, what we can do is provide you, the pet owner, with a few recipes for home cooked diets. The ingredients can be purchased more cheaply than buying the premium food, if you have time to cook for your pets. Please note: if you plan on buying food for your pets, please check the expiration dates on any food you buy.

For more information read on, but be warned...it may disturb you.

Interesting Point: The following terms have no official definition, are unregulated, and may appear on pet food labels with no guarantee of quality or lack of potentially harmful chemicals what-so-ever:

Premium or Super Premium
Gourmet
Natural
Holistic
Organic

Preservatives: Commonly used preservatives in dry dog food include propylene glycol, ethoxyquin, BHA(butylated hydroxyanisole), and BHT(butylated hydroxytoluene). Propylene glycol is closely related to ethylene glycol, the toxic component of antifreeze that causes kidney failure, seizures, and death. Ethoxyquin has been linked to cancer of the stomach, kidneys, bladder and colon. The Department of Agriculture lists ethoxyquin as a pesticide. BHA and BHT have been linked to cancers of the stomach, bladder, and thyroid gland.

Natural preservatives, such as tocopherols (a source of Vitamin E) can be used in place of the artificial, chemical preservatives above. They are not efficient, and can lead to a shorter shelf life, and contribute to the higher costs associated with high quality foods.

Canned foods are preserved by the canning process.

Splitting: This is a market ploy that alloys pet food manufacturers to distort the ingredients listed on pet foods. The most prevalent ingredient must be listed first on labels. But- the rules allow for "splitting". This means that a food that lists meat as the first ingredient may also contain corn, ground yellow corn, and corn meal, all equal parts, so in reality, there may be 3 times more corn than meat. Sounds like cheating to me!

Meat By-Products & Meat Meal: May contain chicken feet, heads, beaks and feathers; animal hooves, horns, hides, and fur; stomach and intestinal contents; manure; blood; carcasses or portions of carcasses removed from the human food chain for suspicion of disease or spoilage; essentially and animal part discarded or scraped from the slaughter house floor and considered unfit for human consumption. And most are rendered.

Rendered Proteins: The source of most meat by-products and almost all meals. This process may involve chemicals not allowed in human foods; may also include the bodies of dogs and cats euthanized by pounds and animal shelters, including fur, flea collars, plastic bags, and most disturbing - the barbiturates used to euthanize those animals. Low levels of these drugs have been found in many major name brand commercial pet foods. Law requires that food animals, (cows, pigs, chickens...etc), to not be slaughtered for food for a long enough period of time that such drugs are cleared from the animal's system before it enters the food chain. Because dogs and cats are not considered food animals, a loop hole exists that allows the drugs used to intentionally kill them can be put in their food.

Research: Most companies that produce major name brands engage in research involving dogs and cats that any decent human being would find cruel and inhumane.

If you would like to read more into the subject, I suggest getting the "Foods Pets Die For", by Martin & Messonier, available at www.amazon.com; It also includes many good recipes for home made pet diets.

Please also note: Never feed raw meat or bones to pets - this is a current fad diet prevalent via the internet. We regularly treat pets who are seriously ill from the dangerous fad, and numerous deaths have been reported.