Choosing a Healthy Dog or Cat Food
Like
most people, you probably want to feed
your dog what’s best for him. After all,
what you put in his dish will probably
have more influence over his health than
any other decision you make. With
literally hundreds of varieties and
types of food available these days, how
does one choose a truly healthy food? Do
you simply go to your local pet
super-store and pick up a food that
strategic marketing has led you to
believe is nutritional? Or do you maybe
stop in to your Veterinarian’s office
for some dietary advice and a bag of
whatever they may sell in the waiting
room? Many dog owners simply continue
feeding their pooch the same brand that
the breeder originally sent them home
with. These all may seem like reasonable
ways to determine that a food is good
enough, but educating yourself about
your dog’s diet will allow you to make
better decisions regarding what goes in
his bowl.
Convincing some that commercial pet
foods are substandard can be described
as difficult at best. They’ll say that
dogs aren’t dying from eating commercial
foods. But according to many holistic
veterinarians, dogs are indeed dying
from inferior diets; they just aren’t
dying right away. Most vets will tell
you that there is an ongoing rise in
allergies, autoimmune diseases, cancers,
and degenerative conditions affecting
internal organ function. Just because a
dog doesn’t show signs of a nutritional
deficiency, doesn’t mean he is
completely healthy.
The
American Association of Feed Control
Officials, or AAFCO, has put in place
guidelines that manufacturers must
follow in order to state that their
product is formulated to meet nutrient
profiles for all life stages. These
profiles are based on tests (some
decades old) that determined at what
point a dog suffers a deficiency when a
specific nutrient level is decreased,
sort of setting a minimum (and sometimes
a maximum) daily allowance for canines.
However, these tests are not about what
is optimum for our pets.
The
acceptable range of nutrient levels into
which a food must fall is vast to say
the least. Most reputable manufacturers
don’t like the AAFCO standards. They do
benefit the pet food giants, however,
allowing them to use low quality
ingredients while legally being able to
state their food is nutritionally
complete.
FOOD INGREDIENTS
To
determine for yourself if a particular
food is indeed healthy, you need to look
at its ingredient label and be able to
tell the difference between the good,
the bad, and the avoid at all cost (like
Hydrochloric Acid which is found in
Kibbles’n'Bits.)
High
quality dog foods are made with whole
ingredients. Protein sources should ONLY
be from whole, fresh meats or single
source meat meal. If a food label states
that it contains Chicken, Lamb, or Beef
then legally it must contain just that;
“the clean non-rendered flesh” from that
specific animal. Chicken Meal, Lamb
Meal, or Beef Meal is the “rendered
product” from those meats. This
ingredient has been cooked and dried but
is still only the actual meat. Both of
these ingredients are considered healthy
and nutritious and have nothing foreign
added to them.
It is
when you get to By-Products or
By-Product Meal that you should start to
worry. This is made of things other than
the meaty muscle tissue of the
applicable protein source and may
contain, among other things, “lungs,
kidney, spleen, brain, blood, bone, and
intestines free from their content
accept in such amounts that are
unavoidable.” By-Products, no matter the
source, are inferior protein sources and
should be avoided. Internal organs
themselves can be highly nutritious on
their own, however, and many quality
foods may list Beef Hearts or Chicken
Liver among their ingredients. It is
when these ingredients are lumped into a
By-Product description that they should
not be used. A “Digest” is worst of all.
This is basically By-Products that have
been treated with heat and water to
create a slurry. Yuck.
When
it comes to the actual source of a meat
protein, only select a food that
specifies the animal it came from.
Poultry Meal, for example, is inferior
to Chicken Meal. Poultry can indicate a
whole variety of sources: chicken, duck,
turkey, goose, etc. There is too much
room for variety there to be considered
safe.
Grains
should also be whole. When you see Brown
Rice, Rye, Barley, or Whole Wheat these
are the entire grain itself used in the
product. Many foods contain lower
quality grain fragments, such as
Brewer’s Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, and
Wheat Middlings. These are the remnants
of our own food industries and have had
the nutritional content stripped for
human use. While they are not
necessarily a danger, they offer no
benefit and are considered fillers at
best.
Chemical preservatives, artificial
colors and flavors, and sweeteners
should all be avoided also. The most
common chemical preservatives (BHA, BHT,
and Ethoxyquin) have all been blamed for
causing liver and kidney problems as
well as cancer. Mixed Tocopherals
(Vitamin E and C) are the most commonly
used natural preservatives. These are
used inside a fat source to prevent all
natural pet foods from spoiling. Just
make sure that the fat source is animal
specific, and not Poultry Fat or Animal
Fat.
The
quantity of these ingredients is also
important. The order in which they
appear on the label is based on how much
weight they contribute to the finished
product in relation to the other
ingredients. Meats should always be
first or second, preferably with two or
three meats in the first five
ingredients. If a food lists a meat
source first, and nothing but grains and
vegetables afterward, the meat is more
than likely the minority.
In
regards to allergies, there is no one
ingredient that every dog is allergic
to, and not one that every dog isn’t.
Every dog is different, and while
ingredients like corn and wheat are fine
for many, they are the most common
allergens for canines.
DRY
vs. CANNED
Many
consumers have been taught that canned
foods should play a limited role in a
dogs diet and that a good dry food
provides all they need. In fact, a high
quality canned food offers benefits not
available in a dry kibble. For one, no
matter the quality, a dry food can’t
ever be much more than 50% meat due to
the manufacturing process involved. Dogs
are carnivorous animals and should have
a diet of 75% meat or more. Before the
advent of processed pet foods, we fed
our dogs leftovers from the kitchen;
whole foods, primarily meat. Canines in
the wild consume almost meat
exclusively. When was the last time you
saw a wolf hunting for rice and wheat?
A high
quality canned food that uses only whole
meats, vegetables, and grains, is a very
healthy source of nutrition. It is
highly palatable, easy to digest, and
the moisture aids in digestion and
kidney function. They typically have no
preservatives, and do not increase stool
volumes. Again, this rule generally only
pertains to a quality product.
WHAT ABOUT RAW?
Raw
foods are gaining popularity among
canine owners at a rapid pace. These
foods are just that – raw. Uncooked
whole meat and vegetable formulas that
most closely replicate what a dog would
eat in the wild. They are typically
grain free, as it is believed by many
that grains are an almost unnecessary
component to dog foods. Unlike us,
canines do not need a lot of complex
carbohydrates, certainly not in the
amounts they encounter when fed a dry
kibble alone.
Raw
foods are safe, clean, and relatively
easy to use and bring out the best in a
dog. They improve skin and coat,
decrease body, breath, and stool odors,
and help in preventing diseases while
improving the vitality of the animal.
WHAT ABOUT MY CAT?
Cats
are obligate carnivores. This means they
require a diet that is 85% meat or more.
The same quality of ingredient
guidelines for selecting a dog food
pertain to cat foods as well, however
there should always be several meat
proteins in the top five ingredients in
a cat product.
Cats
should never be fed solely a dry food.
Many cats do not drink enough water, and
this can be supplemented through the
moisture in a good canned food, while
fulfilling their greater need for a meat
based diet.
There are also frozen raw diets
available for our feline friends. As
mentioned earlier with raw dog foods,
these diets offer unmatched nutrient
absorption through the use of
unprocessed ingredients that have not
had the nutritional qualities cooked out
of them.
OFFER A VARIETY!
We’ve
all heard it before, that changing your
dog or cat’s food causes digestion
problems and isn’t healthy. In fact,
changing your pets diet has several
benefits.
A dog that is fed one food for it’s
entire life is only ever exposed to the
protein sources in that particular food.
This can increase the chances of the dog
becoming sensitive or allergic to those
very ingredients. A dog that is offered
several different foods does not have
quite the same risk of over-exposure.
Even
though all foods must meet certain
standards, every food has levels of key
nutrients that vary quite drastically
from one another. Feeding only one food
can cause the dog to have significantly
higher levels of certain nutrients while
not enough of others. Varying their diet
will give them a better balance of these
nutrients, and prevent deficiencies.
Changing their diet every few months
between three or four foods from
different manufacturers containing
different ingredients is easy and safe
to do. Simply mix the foods, starting
with ¾ of the original and ¼ of the new
for 3 or 4 days, ½ and ½ for 3 or 4
days, and ¼ of the original and ¾ of the
new for 3 or 4 days. This will allow
their digestive system to adjust to the
new ingredients.
It is
not recommended to mix brands at the
same time unless transitioning. If your
pet is allergic to something, it is much
easier to determine what’s causing the
problem if he’s only eating one brand at
a time.
There
is no one brand that is the best for
every animal. Dogs, like people, are all
different and what is good for one may
not work for another. Try several
different types and stay vigilant for
signs that a food is disagreeing with
them. Just use this information and your
best judgment to decide if a food is
truly healthy enough for your best
friend!
Foods we feel you should try to avoid
and why…
This is a brief list of foods containing
questionable ingredients, along with
what specifically makes them unworthy of
canine consumption. There are many more
foods out there that would fit easily
into this category. If you’re not sure
about one, just read the ingredient
label. If you can buy a food in a
grocery store or mass market chain such
as Walmart or Target, it should
generally be avoided.
IAMS Lamb & Rice: Brewer’s Rice,
Corn Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal
IAMS CHUNK / Mini CHUNKS: Corn
Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal
EUKANUBA Lamb & Rice: Brewers
Rice, Corn Meal
EUKANUBA Adult Maintenance:
Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal,
Brewers Rice
SCIENCE DIET Adult Maintenance:
Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal,
Animal Fat, Brewers Rice
SCIENCE DIET Nature’s Best:
Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean
Meal, Animal Fat
*Only the 3rd out of the first 6
ingredients is a meat product!
SCIENCE DIET Lamb & Rice: Brewers
Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat
NUTRO Natural Choice Lamb & Rice:
Poultry Fat
NUTRO Max: Poultry Fat, Corn
Gluten Meal
NUTRO Natural Choice Ultra:
Poultry Fat
NATURES RECIPE Adult Lamb: Lamb
Digest
NATURES RECIPE Venison: Poultry
Fat, Animal Digest
BIL-JAC Select Adult: Chicken
By-Products (#1 ingredient), Chicken
By-Product Meal
NUTRA NUGGETS Adult: Chicken
By-Product Meal (#1 ingredient)
NUTRA NUGGETS Lamb: Brewers Rice,
Turkey By-Product Meal
PURINA ONE Lamb: Brewers Rice,
Corn Gluten Meal, Poultry By-Product
Meal, Animal Fat / Digest
PURINA ONE Beef: Brewers Rice,
Corn Gluten Meal, Poultry By-Product
Meal, Beef Tallow
PURINA ONE Chicken: Same reasons
as above
PRO PLAN Chicken: Brewers Rice,
Poultry By-Product Meal, Beef Tallow,
Corn Bran
BENEFUL: Chicken By-Product Meal,
Corn Gluten Meal, Beef Tallow, Sugar,
Sorbitol, Animal Digest
PEDIGREE Complete: Meat/Bone
Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken
By-Product Meal, Animal Fat
*Contains 2 Chemical Preservatives
KIBBLES’N BITS Homestyle: More
Hydrochloric Acid and Propylene Glycol
than Chicken
A NOTE ABOUT PRESCRIPTION FORMULAS
Many veterinarians offer foods that are
available through their offices only
that are used to treat specific
ailments. While some of these are
effective, most are made from low
quality ingredients and contain multiple
chemical preservatives. If your Vet
suggests these products, be sure to
examine the label for ingredient
integrity. If it doesn’t sound good,
seek out another brand. Most Hill’s
Brand Prescription Diets, for example,
have few redeeming qualities. Other
manufacturers, like Innovative
Veterinary Diets, offer high quality
alternatives that offer wholesome
nutrition. Never be afraid to ask for a
second opinion!
At
Dogma
we strive to offer the very best dog and
cat foods at an affordable price. All of
our foods are all natural, with no
By-Products, Chemical Preservatives,
Coloring, or Sweeteners added. We have a
wide selection of dry and canned foods,
as well as frozen Raw Diets and
fantastic nutritional supplements. Come
in and see the difference a healthy diet
can make in your dog or cat!
