Happy Thanksgiving |
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Commercial Dog Foods, What They Don't Say In the Ads!
It's The Season of the Feast and our entire newsletter is dedicated to what you put in your pet's bowl on a daily basis. My concentration was centered mostly on dry pet food, and I found out something interesting about dry cat food vs canned. I've also touched on a habit many of us share from time to time; feeding our pets table scraps. But the emphasis of this newsletter is the commercial pet food industry and how they manipulate us to buy products that are less than healthy for our pets.
Using the information provided here, check your pet's food for good vs bad ingredients. If you find your pet food choice is less than acceptable, you're not alone! We as consumers are bombarded daily by cutesy pet food commercials starring adorable dogs, produced by large corporations (to be named later), glitzy food bags showing ingredients that WE would like on our dinner plate. These corporations can afford to do this. They have millions and millions of advertising dollars to spend on their target audience; we the pet lovers. A lot of money is spent to keep us misinformed, and we as consumers must do our homework to find out the truth.
Quietly, and without the fanfare, a few companies are making quality pet foods that we may never see on TV. They spend their money on quality ingredients, not hype. (The list to the right are just some of the quality pet foods out there, that offer feline as well as canine formulas.)
The information about what's in our pet's foods needs to be shared, so here it is. I'll hit you with this eye opener first. Here are some of the WORST dog foods on the market according to the Whole Dog Journal, a well respected publication that performs intense scrutiny of pet food, without bias. Many good and caring pet owners feed these foods and honestly believe they are doing the best for their dog. These foods are in alphabetical order due to the fact that it would be extremely difficult to choose a "worst in show."
Beneful Kibbles and Bits
Cycle Max Adult (Nutro)
Dads Natural Choice
Diamond Premium Nature's Recipe
Excel Nutra Nuggets
Gravy Train Ol' Roy
Happy Tails Pedigee
Hi Pro Purina Dog Chow
Iams Science Diet
Surprised? Read On.....
Debi Ropes-Stevenson
General Manager,Lucky Dog Resorts
Did you know?
Propylene glycol is used in some semi moist pet foods to keep the food from drying out? This is basically antifreeze and is deadly to pets in a larger, more concentrated quantities.
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(Please read the "Disturbing Reality" article with this guidance - the veterinarians I have worked for and dealt with professionally use wonderful companies such as "Homeward Bound" for your pets final journey. However, there is a question of companion animal disposal practices for larger entities, such as animal shelters across the US. Lastly, a warning - this article may be truely disturbing to pet lovers, but it's important information.) |
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Cat Food - The Canned Advantage
When searching for a good dry cat food we should look for quality ingredients just as we do in good dog food. Stay away from meat or poultry by-products, corn, yeasts, and other waste product ingredients. Cats must have taurine in their food, an essential amino acid that regulates heart rhythm, digestion, and vision. While dry cat food is a reasonable choice for convenience, you might be surprised to learn that canned food is really necessary for developing a cat's bones and muscles.
Why Canned Cat Food
Even the best dry cat food contains more grain than cats normally eat in the wild. Natural hunters, cats who catch their own suppers usually get grains only from the stomach contents of their kill, and the meat of the animal provides the adequate protein cats require. Quality canned food offers a convenient protein source and provides extra water to the domestic cat's diet. It is very important to have fresh water available at all times for your cat, especially if she only eats dry food. An all dry diet can lead to the following health problems in cats.
- Feline diabetes - Due to the high carbohydrate content in dry food.
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Chronic Renal Failure - Can be linked to chronic dehydration in cats that are fed only dry food.
- Urinary Crystals and Cystitis - Inflammation of the bladder or crystals can stem from lack of hydration which can be reduced with a canned or raw food diet.
- Diarrhea - and allergies can be linked to grain in dry cat food.
- Dehydration - The source of many potential health problems. Cats must have plenty of clean water offered at all times, especially during the hot summer months.
For those who think a dry food is better for their cat's teeth, it is not. Canned food is no worse for your cat's teeth than dry. A good compromise is to have dry cat food available for munching when you're away from home, and a canned food offering when you are there.
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Dry Clean Up Required in the Dog Food Aisle
 In an effort to save you time, and to see if supermarket food was really as bad as reported, I decided to pay a visit to my local Safeway and check on some dry dog food ingredients. Is your dog's food here? I have listed at least the first 2 ingredients which usually make up about 85% of the food.
Purina Dog Chow - 1st and 2nd ingredient Corn and poultry by products. These ingredients are so bad that we need not go on. It only gets worse.
Iams Healthy Naturals - 1st ingredient Lamb Meal, 2nd is brown rice, OK so far, but the 3rd ingredient is corn meal. Not so good..
Purina One - 1st ingredient beef (good so far) 2nd is brewers rice (a waste product of the alcohol industry), and 3rd is corn. Too bad, this "one" is not a winner.
Kibbles -N- Bits - 1st ingredient CORN (please don't make me go further.) This food is so sweet it has been linked to diabetes in dogs. A vet I worked for called it "Lollipops and Candy Canes." That is why most dogs seem to like it so much.
Good Life - 1st ingredient, you guessed it - CORN then chicken by-products. Your dog will not have a good life on this food.
Iams - 1st ingredient chicken which is fine, but second ingredient CORNMEAL.
Chef Michael's - (Has a great ad with one of the cutest dogs in the universe) 1st ingredient chicken (ok- for a minute I thought the chef might really be cooking) but 2nd ingredient soybean meal, 3rd soy flour - yuk.
Priority Nutra Balance - Chicken, brewers rice (chicken is OK, but again, brewers rice is a waste product of the alcohol industry.)
Pedigree - 1st ingredient - GROUND CORN. One strike you're out.
Lastly, I looked at our old friend BENEFUL. The latest in the glitzy bags with pretty vegetables and chicken, and cute dogs, etc. etc. This dog food is an example of how these companies trick us with gimmicks! So many well meaning pet owners have fallen for this advertising campaign, that we have a virtual epidemic of dogs eating this very poor food. They've used their advertising dollars well.
Beneful -
1st ingredient - GROUND CORN (same as good old Purina Dog Chow!) I went no further, except to note the dye content (i.e. chemicals.) There are so many dyes in this food used to convince you that those are really vegetables and meats in there (THEY ARE NOT) that one should don a chemical protection suit to open the bag.
Please note that not one of these foods had a second recommended protein ingredient.
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Table Scraps Anyone?
What dog owner has not "enhanced" their dog's diet with a few scraps from the human dinner plate? How bad of a practice is this and what kind of human foods may end up poisoning our dogs?
The fact is that an occasional scrap or two placed in his bowl from our dinner plate is not going to hurt your dog to any great degree. However, table scraps should not be regularly fed and certain foods may cause your dog to become very ill. Foods high in fat may cause the serious illness of pancreatitis, which can be life threatening (vet hospitals see a lot of pancreatitis in dogs at Thanksgiving and Christmas.) Chicken bones are particularly bad because they can perforate the stomach or intestinal lining causing peritonitis. And remember, if you are going to give a scrap or two, put the food in his bowl NEVER feed directly from the table. Begging for food from the table is a rewarding activity for your dog if he is rewarded for it, and it does not take him long to figure this out! This activity can cause a lifelong bad habit.
The following foods can be poisonous in certain quantities and therefore should never be fed to your dog:
Onions, raisins, grapes, avocados, mushrooms, chocolate, dough made with yeast or raw ingredients, raw eggs, raw fish, some dairy products, and alcohol.
Remember that sauced foods or casseroles may contain some of the above ingredients without you knowing it. If you're going to give your dog a human food scrap make sure it is a single ingredient food, low in fat and sugar, high in protein (no meat fat!)
The better safe than sorry rule is to keep your dog on a high quality canine diet without adding any human foods at all.
 Turkey bones should never be given to pets, they shard like chicken bones. Any small or large bone that easily fractures can do damage, but remember that bones of the fowl are the worst.
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Why Do Popular Dog and Cat Food Companies Not Produce Good Pet Foods?
 Many of the most popular dog food brands are produced by large corporations hiding behind recognizable dog food companies (Purina, Hills etc.) The consumer has come to trust these names, deservedly or not, because they've been around for years. What a lot of folks don't realize is that most of them have sold out to big business where bottom line is the most important factor, not necessarily the health of your pet.
What goes on in the large commercial pet food producing plant is great for profits. They use the WASTE PRODUCTS from the human food industry (which is their main concern) to make pet food. Therefore, pet food becomes a profitable sideline and puts to use all the production leftovers and throw aways (even in some cases, floor sweepings!) from human products. Because the pet food is made so cheaply and is priced so high, there is an endless supply of advertising dollars to hire actors (both canine and human) for their flashy ads, and to produce a great looking bag (probably worth more than the food in it.) We consumers are being tricked into making poor pet food choices because of the hype surrounding the product (think Beneful.)
If you get nothing from the information contained in this e-mail, please understand this: The commercial pet food producers you see advertised on TV are counting on you to NOT read the ingredients on the pet food bag, or at least to not understand what the ingredients are,or how they affect your pet. Dog and cat show folks and other profitable entities may rave about one of the not so good foods (see list above.) They are getting phenomenal kick backs for doing so, and those same folks rarely feed their own pets that food.
HERE IS A LIST OF WHO OWNS WHO IN THE DOG FOOD WORLD:
Nestle - Owns Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, and the Purina foods including Beneful, Purina One, Purina Dog Chow and Pro Plan
Heinz - Owns, 9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles -N- Bits, Natures Recipe
Colgate Palmolive - Owns Hills Science Diet
Mars - Owns Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, and Waltham
These are companies best known for soap, candy bars and ketchup. Pick a food for your pet from a company that cares about your pet's health and well being, and specialized in pet food. See the list above for just a few.
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Dear Clients,There are quite a few feeding options for pets that I did not have space to discuss in this newsletter. The raw or "Barf" diet, the difference between holistic and non-holistic foods, the way dog food is actually made (most popular dog food companies "spray" on flavor), and home made diets. There is a ton of information on the web about all types of feeding plans and commercial foods. Make sure to follow the quick links above for more (sometimes unsettling) pet food information. Rather than explain what makes the foods above and to the right so good, I gave you the links to their web sites. Decide for yourself which food is right for your pet. Remember that Lucky Dog sells Precise, Natural Balance, Merrick, and Blue Buffalo at very competitive prices. If you need more information visit one of our stores and we will be happy to discuss these foods with you, and offer samples.The bottom line is to do your homework and remember, what you may be saving buying "supermarket" bargain pet food you will more than likely spend on veterinary costs during the life of your pet, due to a poor diet. Isn't the health and welfare of your best friend worth a few extra dollars per bag?
We would like to end our newsletter with a congratulations to Retriever Rescue of Colorado for winning first place as best video by The Humane Society of the United States. We routinely foster dogs for this organization, and cannot recommend them enough! Their video may make a few people think before they adopt a dog. The video is heartbreaking, and sadly, so true.
Here is the link: The Apology 
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sincerely,
Debi Ropes-Stevenson
General Manager, Lucky Dog Resorts |
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