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Consider
the Diet for Your Pet's Optimum Health!
Have
you noticed our pets are developing the same diseases that we humans are?
Not too many years ago many of the chronic diseases were rarely mentioned
among pets. It seems that with increased disease, the costs of veterinary
care has also skyrocketed.
Keeping
a pet healthy and well cared for has become a very expensive part of the
household budget. That means that many animals will not get the care they
really need because family budgets just don't stretch far enough.
You
have heard the phrase, "you are what you eat" and that applies
to animals too. You can't take a package of "dead" pet food and
keep "life" in an animal.
Are
You Getting What You Think You're Buying?
Read
a bag of a well-advertised brand of pet food and it makes you want to
serve it for the family dinner: "Choice cuts of beef, plump whole
chickens, fresh liver and grains, and all the wholesome nutrition your dog
or cat will ever need."
These
images are promoted with big advertising dollars by the $11 billion per
year U.S. pet food industry:
Nestle
makes Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina.
Heinz
makes 9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, and ... surprise! ....
Nature's Recipe.
Colgate-Palmolive
makes Science Diet.
Procter
& Gamble, one of the major companies attacked for their repetitive
animal testing, makes Eukanuba and Iams.
Mars
makes Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba and Waltham's.
From
a business standpoint, these companies have increased purchasing power,
and for those making people food products, they have a captive market in
which to dump their waste products. The pet food divisions have a more
stable capital base and a convenient source of waste products that become
ingredients in pet food.
These
pet foods provide a market for grains considered unfit for human
consumption and bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all
the other parts not generally consumed by humans. These other parts are
known as "by-products" or "meat-and-bone-meal" or
similar names on pet food labels.
The
term "meal" means the materials used are not fresh, but have
been rendered. Rendering (defined by Webster's Dictionary) is "to
process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to
extract oil from fat, blubber, etc. by melting." Meat and poultry
by-products, while not rendered, vary widely in composition and quality.
Have
you noticed that pungent smell when you first
open a bag of pet food?
It's
the fat in the food. It is most often rendered animal fat or restaurant
grease. Restaurant grease is now a major component of feed grade animal
fat. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside
for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future
use. Rendering companies pick up this grease and mix it all together,
stabilize these fats with powerful antioxidants to retard further
spoilage, and then sell the blended product to pet food companies and
other end users (one of which is to make lipstick --- but that's another
story :-)
The
pet food industry sprays this fat onto extruded kibbles to make a bland or
distasteful product palatable to the animal. The fat also acts as a
binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers. Pet food
scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of these sprayed
fats. Pet manufacturers are masters at getting a dogs and cats to eat
something they would normally be repelled by.
The
amount of grains used in pet food has risen
as protein has decreased.
Once
a filler for pet foods, cereal and grain products now replace a
considerable percentage of the meat that was used in initial pet foods.
The digestibility of the grain determines the availability of nutrients to
the pet. Rice is handled well, but the availability of nutrients from
wheat, beans, and oats is poor. Some ingredients are used for fiber or
filler, such as peanut hulls, and have no significant nutritional value at
all.
The
top three ingredients are what the formula mostly contains and are listed
in the order of largest amount first and so on. Cats are true carnivores
and need meat to fulfill nutritional requirements, so why are so many
grains included in cat pet foods? Because it's cheaper than meat.
showing the top three ingredients
in
some common dog foods.
Soy
is also a common ingredient used as a protein source and to add bulk so
the animal will feel fuller. Vegetarian dog foods use soy as the main
protein source. Although it's been linked to gas in some dogs, others do
well on it.
Additives
and preservatives are a slow danger zone in pet foods. Chemicals are added
to improve appearance, taste, or stability of the food. The list of
reasons for additives includes 27 uses in pet foods. Preservatives have
always been used to maintain the safety of food, but it's only been during
the last 50 years that they've been toxic rather than plant-based.
Preservatives are necessary to keep a commercial pet food safe and fresh.
Some pet food manufacturers are now using "natural"
preservatives such as Vitamin C and E, rosemary, cloves, and other spices
to preserve the fat in their pet foods.
Potentially
cancer-causing synthetic preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol, and
ethoxyquin. There is not much documentation on the safety of these
especially when being fed on a daily basis to an animal. In July 1997, the
FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine requested manufacturers to
voluntarily reduce the maximum level for ethoxyquin by half from 150 parts
per million.
While
some pet food critics and veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin
is a major cause of disease and skin problems in dogs, others claim
it is the safest, strongest, most stable preservative available for pet
food.
What
does "extruded kibbles" mean?
Most
dry food is made with a machine called an extruder. Ingredients of a
recipe are blended and then fed into the extruder where steam, pressure
and high temperatures force the food through various shaped dies to
determine the shape and they come through puffed like popcorn to produce
more volume. The food is dried and then sprayed with the fat process
mentioned above. Although the heating process is designed to kill bacteria
in the food, it can lose it's sterility during the drying, fat spraying,
or packaging process.
What
does feeding of these products do
to
your companion animal?
The
problems associated with diet of these dead foods are continually seen
every day at veterinary offices. The list begins with chronic vomiting,
diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease being among the most frequent
illnesses treated, more often the result of an allergy/intolerance to the
pet food ingredients.
Some
veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals
increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases.
The cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers do not necessarily
destroy the hormones used to fatten livestock or increase milk production,
nor does it destroy drug residues such as antibiotics or the barbiturates
used to euthanize animals. It has been in some news articles that
euthanized cats and dogs may be one of the rendered ingredients for pet
foods.
Urinary
tract disease is directly related to diet in cats and dogs. Crystals and
stones are often triggered or aggravated by commercial pet foods.
Pet
foods with less protein have less taurine, an amino acid, and if it is not
supplemented, problems do occur. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and
some dogs is caused by a deficiency of taurine. Blindness is another
symptom.
Inadequate
potassium in some feline diets has caused kidney failure in young cats;
potassium is now added in greater amounts to all cat foods.
Rapid
growth in large breed puppies has been shown to contribute to bone and
joint disease. Excess calories and calcium in some manufactured puppy
foods promoted rapid growth. There are now special puppy foods for large
breed dogs. But this recent change will not help the countless dogs who
lived and died with hip and elbow disease.
There
is evidence that the now common hyperthyroidism in cats may be from excess
iodine in commercial pet food diets. This disease began making its
appearance in the 1970s when canned food products appeared on the market.
Other
problems may result from reactions to additives or bacteria, drug, or mold
contamination.
The
bottom line is that pet foods made of primarily
low quality cereals and rendered meat are NOT
the nutrition you need for your dog or cat.
In
1995, Nature's Recipe lost $20 million having to pull thousands of
tons of dog food off the shelf after consumers complained their dogs were
vomiting and losing appetites. There was a fungus that produced vomitoxin
contaminating the wheat. In 1999, another fungus caused the recall of dry
dog food made by Doane Pet Care who manufacturers for 54 brands including
Ol' Roy (sold by Wal-Mart). The toxin killed 25 dogs.
Some
recommendations say to feed once daily. Feeding only one meal per day can
cause irritation of the esophagus by stomach acid backing up. Feeding two
smaller meals is better. Feeding instructions on the package are sometimes
inflated so the consumer will purchase more food.
Procter
& Gamble took the opposite approach with Iams and Eukanuba lines by
reducing the feeding amounts in order to claim its foods were less
expensive to feed. Independent studies commissioned by a competing
manufacturer suggested these reduced levels were inadequate to maintain
health. Procter & Gamble has since sued and been countersued by
that competing manufacturer and a consumer also filed seeking class-action
status for harm caused to dogs by these feeding instructions.
The
idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a companion animal will
ever need for its entire life is a myth. The diets of cats and dogs are a
far cry from the primarily protein diets that their ancestors ate with
much variety. Some pet owners are preparing their own meals and some of
those diets are raw meat diets
Homemade
meals take a lot of dedication. Many people don't feel like they know
enough to prepare a completely balanced meal that meets the required needs
for a dog or cat. A very detailed and excellent book to invest in if you
can be dedicated enough to prepare foods at home is
Home-Prepared
Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative by Donald R. Strombeck
Considering
vegetarian diets for your pets?
For
your dog? - Be sure you follow the guidelines
For
cats? - Don't do it! They won't survive
Most
pet owners simply want to find a pet food that is nutritious and complete
without long-term use health issues. Deciding on what brand to use has
hopefully been made easier having read this article. Adding raw veggies to
your pet's food bowl is an excellent dietary choice. Just as with people,
vegetables have so many good nutrients and antioxidants and health-giving
substances we haven't even discovered yet. They provide a mineral-rich
food alive with enzymes.
Begin
slowly so they can adjust to the flavor. Grated vegetables do best. It
doesn't take but a few weeks for the animal to adjust to the dietary
change. You will also notice a change in the skin and coat and sometimes
the eyes look brighter. Generally when we begin adding veggies to our
pet's food bowl, we add them to our own plate as well.
If
you're not going to add vegetables, be sure your
pet food has vegetables in it.
Vegetable
choices to add can include these and others: carrots, broccoli, cabbage,
sweet potatoes (yams), greens (kale, lettuce, turnip), seaweeds like kelp
and nori, a little bit of garlic is known to help repel fleas .... and
don't forget fruits: apple, pears, kiwi, strawberries. One to avoid is
citrus since it's not appealing to dogs or cats.
Adding
herbs and supplements to a pet's diet helps to build and maintain health,
especially if you know there is a genetic weakness with a particular
breed. Herbs are rich in trace minerals which are the foundation of life.
Since
many minerals are no longer in the soils of mass-produced &
chemical-laden farming, it's hard to get them into your diet without
supplementation.
Essential
fatty acids is an important item that is missing in pet foods and can
easily be added in with a little bit of natural oils (such as olive,
sunflower, sesame, etc.) You will be amazed at how much their coat can
shine and how soft it can be! Essential fatty acids are important for many
functions of the body.
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