What is really in dog food?

There is a very interesting article from the Animal Protection Institute, "Whats Really in Pet Food"

"Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, and all the wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need.

These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through the media and advertising. This is what the $15 billion per year U.S. pet food industry wants consumers to believe they are buying when they purchase their products.

This report explores the differences between what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands — the pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets and discount stores — but there are many highly respected brands that may be guilty of the same offenses."

Not all commercial pet foods fall into these categories, but it is important to do your research. While Science Diet and Hills Diet are often touted as high end foods, they contain some of the worst ingredients - including corn. Solid Gold, Taste Of The Wild, and Canidae are all high quality foods with quality ingredients.

Even though this article busts out companies that claim to use "human grade ingredients" as mostly marketing hype, I would like to go on the record and say that for us this simply is not true. We don't use vegetable scraps from human food processing...we have to buy it canned from Wal-Mart, and we buy our flour and yeast from Sams - just like you would for yourself. It's too bad big companies have watered down the meaning of this term. How else do you put in your advertising that you don't use sawdust in your dog treats? How about "Our treats are real food"????

Dog Food and Treats to Avoid For the Health of Your Dog

I found this blog the other day. The headline was the same as the one above that I used. It was interesting in the fact it was really tugging at the "scary strings" to frighten you into avoiding all commercial pet foods and treats, and to cook for your pet at home. The website is "supposed" to be laden with recipes to help you accomplish this goal. After I checked out the website, I was a little stunned at how they completely bashed "all treats".

The problem I have with this website is that there is "some" truth in the articles Jennifer writes about. But here is where I draw the line. First, she talks about all dog treats are bad, all commercial dog foods are bad, here's a sampling recipe of something healthy you can bake at home. (This is their recipe - not mine. This excerpt is from the Pooch Place)

Oatmeal Dog Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup butter — cut into pieces
• 4 beef or chicken bouillon cubes
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups grated cheese
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick
cooking spray.

Mix oats into a medium bowl, top with pieces of butter and the bouillon cubes.

Pour in boiling water and let sit 10 minutes to dissolve the butter and bouillon.

Mix well, then add whole wheat flour, cornmeal, sugar, milk, eggs and cheese.

Add enough of the all purpose flour to make a stiff dough.

Mix well

Roll out dough. The thinner the dough, the crisper the baked treats will be.

Use a cookie cutter to cut out cookies in fun shapes.

Bake on prepared cookie sheets until hard, 5-15 minutes depending on how thin the dough is rolled.

Remove from cookie sheets and cool completely.
This recipe makes 4 dozen cookies

Do you guys see what I see up there? 2 tablespoons of sugar. Hmmmm...interesting. This seems to conflict with her core message - that what you bake at home "will always be healthier for your pet". But wait! Theres more!

This whole website - and at least two others that I find all linked to the same information, seems to be interested in selling us one thing - an ebook that is supposed to be telling us how to feed our pets. If this recipe indicates the quality of the ebook, I think I would be a little skeptical of what I was reading.

This proves to me there is one valuable bit of knowledge that is helpful in determining what to and what not to feed your pet - and that is to pay close attention to the ingredients yourself. Sugar doesn't need to be in any dog treat - even the ones you make yourself. This blog loves to talk about obesity, heart and kidney failure, and a myriad of other health problems, but are they selling you a real product, or are they selling you the hype?