Beware of Pet Foods Purchased in the Supermarket!
There are so many options for pet owners in today’s society. Everywhere we turn, we hear about the “best” dog or cat food on the market! We are pelted by commercials and promise of “New and Improved”, Grain-Free, Raw, and advertisers’ claims of superiority of their product. Most pet owners don’t know what to believe and how to choose the right direction for their own pet. We hope that the information that follows can help guide you on what to feed or what not to feed your pet.
Pet owners will do best by their pets by purchasing their pet food at a pet specialty store. Most pet foods found in your neighborhood supermarket are on the Top 10 Worst Pet Foods in the Country List! Every pet food must list their ingredients right on the package. The first step to assuring you are feeding your pet a healthy diet is to simply read the ingredient panel on the package. We don’t need a degree in nutrition to understand these listings; they are all pretty straight forward. All ingredients are listed in their order of content. We mean, if corn is the first listing, then you can be assured that the primary ingredient in that food is corn. Its first place listing means that the food you are feeding contains more corn than anything else! If your pet food ingredient panel lists: Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Heart, Organic Blueberry, Organic Cranberry, etc. you can be assured that your pet is eating a healthy, protein-based diet. If pure protein (Chicken, Beef, Fish, Rabbit, Duck, Goose, Venison, Bison, etc.) is listed far down on the list, or not at all, you can be assured that you are not feeding your pet a suitable diet. Dogs and cats are carnivores, by their ancestral nature. ALL four of the top selling pet foods in the country today lists their primary ingredient as corn. Corn has NO REDEEMABLE nutritious value and any dog food listing this as their first ingredient is not a nutritious meal for your pet. Corn is useless filler and is a known cause of allergies and is extremely difficult for dogs to digest. The following list is ingredients to avoid when reading the package:
- Meat By-Product–Pet grade meat by-products consist of organs and parts either not desired or condemned for human consumption. This can include bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, heads, feet and feathers. Animal parts can be used from any source, so there is no control…..Animals used can include goats, pigs, horses, rats, road-kill or animals euthanized in shelters. It can include cancerous tissue and spoiled tissue. Any meat not named, is meat you know nothing about. You cannot assume it is something you would want to feed your pet!
- Animal Fat–Most often made up of rendered animal fat, restaurant grease or other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans. Look for a named fat, such as poultry or chicken fat.
- Corn or Wheat Gluten –This is the remainder of the corn after the best parts of the corn have been removed. No nutritional value, difficult to digest and is used as a cheap binder.
- Wheat Flour– Fine particles of wheat bran, wheat germ and the offal from the “the tail of the mill” means the floor sweepings of leftovers in the mill after everything has been processed from the wheat. A leading cause of allergies in dogs, absolutely useless with no nutritional value whatsoever.
- Sugar, Cane molasses, corn syrup in any form, sorbitol, sucrose, fructose, glucose, propylene glycol: Useless, unnecessary and adds empty calories. Usually used to make food more palatable to the animals if the ingredients themselves aren’t enough to make the dog or cat actually want to eat it.
- Coloring (blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Titanium Dioxide): Any coloring is completely unnecessary and should be avoided. Your dog doesn’t care about the pretty colored shapes and artificial dyes and coloring agents are known cancer causing agents, and also cause allergies. Used in Junk Dog Food!
- Propylene Glycol: Used in antifreeze solutions, in hydraulic fluids, and as a solvent. May be toxic if consumed in large amounts, and should definitely not be an ingredient in a food an animal will eat daily for weeks, months or years.
- Hydrochloric Acid: Used in Kibbles n Bits – It is a caustic chemical agent used in the production of chlorides, fertilizers, and dyes.
The top selling dog foods in the country today are Pedigree, Ol Roy, Purina and Beneful. All of these foods list corn as their number one ingredient.
When comparing pet foods, you cannot simply compare quantity and price. You must take into consideration the nutritional value inside the bag. If you are feeding a food that is mainly corn, wheat, Wheat Flour, potatoes and rice, then you must feed a higher quantity in order to give your pet more useable nutrition. What goes in usually comes out. I mean by that, most of these fillers and grains will not be utilized by your pet’s body and will be simply passed through in large amounts of feces. When feeding a higher quality of food, your pet’s body will absorb the nutrients, and the amount of feces will be significantly less, as your pet will use most of what goes in. A higher quality of pet food will require less quantity to give your pet their required nutrition. A lesser quality of food may require you to feed 2 cups of food at each meal; however, a higher quality of food will necessitate perhaps only ¾ of one cup to provide adequate nutrition. Therefore, a 5lb bag of a higher quality food will take you further, thus giving you more for your dollar.
We highly recommend going to a pet specialty store to purchase your pet food. You do not necessarily have to spend more money, just be an educated consumer. It is most common to see higher quality pet foods in a pet specialty store than in your supermarket. I think it fairly safe to say that most foods for pets that are sold in human supermarkets should be passed over for something more nutritious. Today, most towns have pet specialty stores within a short drive from your home, perhaps even closer than your supermarket. You can also gain a wealth of information from your pet specialty store and the knowledgeable employees that have experience with the needs of pets. I think it fair to say, no matter the size of your pet, you can feed a higher quality, grain free food for your pet for mere pennies more per day. For less than a cup of coffee, your pet can have the best opportunity to live a healthier life. There is a direct correlation between the food they eat, and the health of a pet.
Living in Florida, our pets have specific challenges, more than any other state. Local Veterinarians have a continuous battle with seasonal and environmental allergies. Some of these allergies are caused by or exacerbated by the foods we feed. Our environment initially causes some allergies, but once our pet’s skin become inflamed, develop sores or have on-going dermatitis, the foods we feed can take a bad situation and make them worse.