You Are What Your Pet Dog Eats!

Dogs as they say are a man’s best friend. They give companionship and can brighten up your day after a long day’s work. A bond like no other can be established between a pet and their owner. By giving great care and nurturing to your dog you two can have a prosperous life together. Proper pet care is very important to an owner and should be measured with great importance.

When dealing with a pet’s proper care, the first thing that should come to mind is their diet. A dog’s diet is very important to their health and well being. Choosing the correct type of dog food is vital in keeping your dog healthy. Whether buying the right type or making your own concoction, it is important to understand what types of nutrients and vitamins your dog needs.

This can be done, but you have to be careful here as well. It would actually be better to consult the local vet about the components of your concoction. This way, you can still be sure proper dog care is fostered with your own dog food mix.

When it comes to proper dog care, you would want to feed your pet the best dog food in the market. Now, there have been a lot of differences in opinions as to which is the best dog food to get, considering shelf life as well. Whichever brand you choose, you would actually have to consider the categories they come in as well.

These are dry food, wet food, mixer food, homemade food, and fresh food. Whats more, dog food is not necessarily categorized in terms of its contents. Dog food can also be categorized according to the purpose.

Some specific needs dog food include allergy reducing, weight management, and diabetic dog food.

Dogs are allergic to food just like humans are and it is important for you to know if and what food allergies your dog has. Since you are the one feeding your dog, it is up to you to make sure he doesn’t eat it mistakenly.

Commercial Dog Food Can Be Dangerous - Is Your Dog Food Safe?

While most of us don’t think about what goes into pet food, we should. That’s because the ingredients in your dog’s food could cause illness and even death. We can’t trust manufacturers to take care of our pets, because there aren’t a lot of well enforced rules about the ingredients and processing for pet food.

Too Bad To Eat

Dog food can contain a lot of things we wouldn’t be happy about eating, including bones, nervous tissue, organs, skin, ligaments, hair and meat from animals with diseases. The bodies of euthanized pets and zoo animals have been used, too.

Even the good meat that ends up in cat and dog food has undergone heavy processing, losing most of the value it once had. Ingredients like “poultry broth” and “animal meal” are far removed from the meat we imagine.

Animal meal is what’s left after a carcass has been processed to remove all the fat and meat. What remains is ground up and dried, resulting in a meal that has a similar texture to corn meal and included in pet food. Broths and similar substances in pet food are made of processed carcasses that come from many different kinds of animals, cooked until a liquid is produced.

It’s Not Illegal!

You might think this sort of thing would be against the law. After all, there are strict rules about what can be used in human food, and those laws are fairly well enforced. Unfortunately, pet food regulations are a lot looser and are rarely well enforced.

This means that just about anything might turn up in your dog’s food, with labeling meaning little. Even the words “healthy and balanced” mean only that there’s a particular ratio of protein and fat, as well as some added vitamins and minerals.

Toxic Additives

We’ve all heard of recent pet food recalls caused by wheat gluten poisoned with melamine from China. However, that’s not the only additive that’s in pet food, and plenty of them are extremely dangerous as well. Preservatives that aren’t allowed in human food and cause serious illness in workers exposed to them are extremely common in dog food. Over time, they can cause cancer, illness, liver and kidney failure and many other problems. The food you give to your pet could be causing him or her to become sick.

Expensive Brands, Too

It’s not just cheap pet food that’s the problem, either. There’s no regulation on high end or organic foods, as well. While these pet food may be of higher quality, we have no way of knowing whether they use the same ingredients as their cheaper relatives or not. That can make it hard to find a food that’s good for your dog, even if it’s one recommended by your vet.

Your Options

There are a number of things you can do to protect your dog. First, learn to read the label - ingredients higher on the label are in larger percentages. That means you should look for named meats instead of generic terms, broths or meals.

You can also learn about the additives and preservatives that can hurt your pets, and look for the foods with the lowest percentage of grains. There are also a number of excellent recipes out there that can help dedicated pet owners make their own foods. Just be sure to do something, since most foods are actually dangerous.