The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Hey Everyone!

We started carrying Nature's Select in 7.5lb buckets this week.  For those of you unfamiliar with Nature's Select, they make their all natural, holistic food in a plant in North Texas.  Doug and Danielle Magdych run the operation here in Northwest Arkansas and they are super knowledgeable about dog food and what it takes to make a great, healthy food.  Doug and Danielle will actually deliver Nature's Select food to your door, if you're looking for large quantities (like the 25lb or 50lb bag)  You can order from them at nsnwa.com or by calling 1-888-676-3692.  But due to the price of gas, it's hard for them to deliver the smaller size.  So they came to us and we are as pleased as can be to work with them.  We have their Chicken & Rice, Salmon & Sweet Potato, High Protein and Feline formulas in stock.

My favorite part?  The 7.5lb comes in a re-usable bucket!  How better to celebrate Earth Day every day than by reusing containers?  And, if you buy the 7.5lb bucket here and then bring it back to be refilled, you save 15% on your food.  It's a win-win! (Plus their food comes with a money back guarantee.  If you're not satisfied, you bring it back and your money is refunded.  That's confidence in the quality of your product!)

Danielle was also kind enough to share their "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" of pet foods.  It's a great reference when you're wondering what exactly is in your dog's food and why.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good
Lamb Meal: An excellent source of protein. It is great for muscle development & overall body maintenance.
 
Poultry Meal: A good source of protein and fat that provides the essential energy component, & provides the fresh meaty flavor that dogs love. It also promotes muscle, tissue, bone and teeth development. (Please note that poultry meal and poultry by-product meal are NOT the same thing!)

Poultry Fat: Makes pet food highly palatable. Poultry Fat is high in Omega 6 (3.4%) & other essential fatty acids needed to develop a healthy skin & shiny coat. It also provides energy, and acts as an antioxidant.

Rice: Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates in white or brown rice.


Oatmeal: Supplies carbohydrates and amino acids, and is a good source of fiber. It is also high in iron.
 
Vitamin A: A source of natural Preservatives.

Vitamin D: Helps in the absorption of the calcium.

Vitamin E: Helps to maintain a dog's healthy immune system. As dogs age, antioxidants like Vitamin E can help reverse the age-related decrease in immune responses.

Rosemary Extract: A natural antioxidant.

Thiamine Mononitrate: Good source of Vitamin B

Calcium Pantothenate: An enzyme for energy metabolism.

Riboflavin: Promotes growth & good metabolism.

Niacin: Form of Vitamin B that helps in digestion.

Vitamin B12: A source of enzymes that aid in proper growth.


Biotin: Strengthens the claws and keeps them from chipping and cracking.


Sodium Selenite: A source of selenium that acts as a biological antioxidant.

Folic Acid: Provides Vitamin B that helps develop strong claws.

Flaxseed: Excellent source of Omega-3 (0.5%) essential fatty acids, which help to keep the skin & coat in tip-top shape & maintain lower cholesterol levels.
 
Dried Whole Egg: High in protein with superior bioavailability.

Potassium Chloride: Plays a vital role in the osmotic balance between cells and body fluids. It is the water balance in the body.

Choline Chloride: Enhances digestive system in the stomach.

The Bad
Corn: Hard to digest & far less nutrients than in rice.

Wheat: The available nutrients from wheat are poor because of the digestibility of the grain.

Soybean: Contains large quantities of natural toxins or "anti-nutrients". (For more information on the dangers of soy, see Cary's article, "Soy and Dog Food".)

Corn, Soy and Wheat are three of the biggest culprits as far as food allergies in dogs. Itchy, red, flakey skin, a dull coat and intestinal upset are common symptoms of food allergies. Soybean meal, wheat, corn glutens, corn meal, whole corn, crushed corn and ground corn are commonly used for the protein content in pet foods and are generally poor sources of protein versus meat. Corn gluten meal or wheat middlings added to pet foods are the left-overs after the grain has been processed for human use, containing little nutritional value.

Brewer's Rice: The small milled fragment of rice kernels that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice. It is a lower quality rice product that is missing many of the nutrients found in ground white rice & ground brown rice. It is basically a waste product of the alcohol industry.

Food Colorings: Food colorings are still commonly used in pet foods despite the fact that
they are not necessary & some have been linked to medical problems.
 
The Ugly
Chemical Preservatives: BHA, BHT, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of automotive anti-freeze), and ethoxyquin are found in many pet foods. Scientific studies have shown
that these chemicals can promote liver disease and other medical problems including seizures and cancer.

By-Products: They can consist of the internal parts of animals such as necks, heads, undeveloped eggs, feet, intestines, lungs, spleen and liver and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans.
 
Animal Fat, Tallow and Meat meal: Processed dead dogs, cats and other animal materials, zoo animals, road kill and 4D (dead, diseased, dying and decaying) livestock by a rendering plant. These plants are depositories for restaurant grease and garbage, meats and baked goods past the expiration dates (Styrofoam trays and shrink-wrap included). In the United States these animal parts are denaturing before rendering with substances that include crude carbolic acid (a constituent of coal tar), fuel oil, or citronella (used to repel insects).
 
Animal Digest: Animal Digest is a cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. There is no control over quality or contamination.

What is the Holistic Approach?

Holistic pet care is rising in popularity as a total body wellness for your pets. For those of us not well versed in the holistic approach, what exactly is this?

In simple terms (since that's how I think) the holistic approach for your dog or cat is simply - considering the whole pet, how they would function in the wild, natural, chemical free, mimicking how they would find food and nutrients on their own.

What would your dog eat if they were not feed the food you give them every day? Now compare this to what they are getting? Is this healthy for them? What are their dietary requirements beyond the standard protein, vitamins, and nutrients?

Most animals' domesticated diets don't even come close to their wild counterparts. They may (or may not) be nutritionally sound, but some ingredients may go against thousands (or millions) of years of evolution, simply because there is no way a dog would eat corn meal in the real world in the wild.

The holistic approach attempts to take into consideration what the natural fit for your pet would be, and to as closely as possible mimic that "natural setting". Now, if you stop to think about what that means, this can be extremely hard to give them that type of diet while ensuring they maintain their nutritional balance. There are also varying degrees that people can take this concept. For instance, people started considering the "in the raw" diet for their pets after the Menu Foods scare. They would cook meat for their pets at home, portion it out, and refrigerate the unused portions.

The main problem with the "cook-it-yourself" method is that most people simply don't have the time to do this every week. There are a number of good dog food brands out there that try and fill this niche. Taste of the Wild, Solid Gold Holistique, Canidae - all have foods that better fills this role.

I think most people fall in the middle somewhere in that they understand the concept, but need products that help them get "as close as possible" without driving yourself psychotic over it. There is a short list of things you can avoid to maximize benefit and minimize your effort level.

Some things to avoid:

Soy, Corn Flour, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Colors and Flavors, Rendered Meat Products, Meat By-products, Meals (as in chicken or beef meal), chemicals you cannot pronounce.

This is a common sense list. I'm sure there are more things you could avoid. Personally, I think there can be subtle side effects to eating meats that require such harsh chemicals to counteract weeks of unrefrigerated biological contamination. Studies show that even though bacterialogicals might be dead, their "dead bodies" are not completely benign.

Ingredients that I look for are:

Good sources of protein (Beef, Fish, Bison, Lamb), all natural ingredients I can pronounce, real vegetables - not bright colored shapes to look like vegetables, things that would make sense to be in a dogs diet.

So few people even look at the ingredients of their dog's food. Maybe they are afraid or just don't want to know.