Nutro Pet food has been in the news as causing vomiting and diarrhea. There is a list of consumer complaints located here: Consumer Affairs Nutro complaints
There is an article related to the problems experienced here: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/04/pet_food_recalls93.html?imw=Y
This hit close to home, as we had one customer at least already that was in our store last week looking for a safe alternative, since they were feeding Nutro to their pet, and they were having the same reaction. I don't know if there is any permanent damage done by the food, but apparently the vomiting and diarrhea stopped immediately after they quit feeding Nutro to their pet.
We currently feed "Taste Of The Wild" to our dogs. We switched them over from Solid Gold, another great dog food, mostly because they love the taste more than Solid Gold, and Taste Of The Wild is a grain free food. We only carry premium dog foods, and I can't recall any recent issues with anything we do carry, but in case there was a problem with something we sold in our store, I would highly recommend signing up for our newsletter, as we would immediately post an alert for all of our customers. We try and stay on top of everything thats going on.
Showing posts with label toxic foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toxic foods. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Lone Ranger Gets a Partner
For those who haven't checked out www.zootoo.com yet, this is a website that is trying to build a pet owner community and knowledge base centered around user experiences for different pet services, retailers, animal shelters and rescues, products, you name it, it's probably there. Their goal, I think, is to become the number one destination if you want a review of a pet product or service, and they are doing a good job building it up with a million dollar makeover contest for your local animal shelter.
Anyway, my point is, as I was perusing some of the reviews for some of the dog treats on this website, I started out mildly disappointed. After all, I own a dog bakery, and my whole mantra is healthy, natural, no sugar, no salt, no preservatives. Some days I feel like I am on a crusade to improve the diets of all of those disbelievers out there. With the humanization trend of pets, we can compare our dogs to our children in many cases. We wouldn't dare feed our kids nothing but sugar, salt, and artificial coloring all day, would we? They need to eat their vegetables, the food pyramid, good stuff in the tank, right? But so many of the treats you buy in the store is contrary to that stance. Sugar and salt help all the other nastiness go down easier - make the dog want to eat it.
Sorry for the digression - back to my point. I started off mildly disappointed, as I read one mom after another quip how these treats must be yummy, their dog "wolfed them down". Ick. Then, the tide turned. Someone actually mentioned that they should look at the ingredients of these treats. Too many chemicals - 1 out of 5 stars. Then another low review - look at all of the sugar. Look at all of the artificial coloring. These colors can't be natural.
Now, I know that I am not personally responsible for these readers opinions, but I don't feel like I am the lone ranger trying to help your dogs live longer and healthier. These women get it. If you are reading this, then I think you are getting it too. And that makes me proud. Most people don't know that the pet food industry was born to dispose of the people food waste. Fancy marketing was used to lull us into a sense of complacency of what we feed our pals, our best friends, our park play buddies, and our sappy movie snugglers. Even if you don't buy your treats from me, just read the ingredients. Just because it's cute and looks like a mini spare rib doesn't mean it's good for your dog. Thats all I ask. Oh, and vote for your local shelter at zootoo.com. I guess thats really two things.
Anyway, my point is, as I was perusing some of the reviews for some of the dog treats on this website, I started out mildly disappointed. After all, I own a dog bakery, and my whole mantra is healthy, natural, no sugar, no salt, no preservatives. Some days I feel like I am on a crusade to improve the diets of all of those disbelievers out there. With the humanization trend of pets, we can compare our dogs to our children in many cases. We wouldn't dare feed our kids nothing but sugar, salt, and artificial coloring all day, would we? They need to eat their vegetables, the food pyramid, good stuff in the tank, right? But so many of the treats you buy in the store is contrary to that stance. Sugar and salt help all the other nastiness go down easier - make the dog want to eat it.
Sorry for the digression - back to my point. I started off mildly disappointed, as I read one mom after another quip how these treats must be yummy, their dog "wolfed them down". Ick. Then, the tide turned. Someone actually mentioned that they should look at the ingredients of these treats. Too many chemicals - 1 out of 5 stars. Then another low review - look at all of the sugar. Look at all of the artificial coloring. These colors can't be natural.
Now, I know that I am not personally responsible for these readers opinions, but I don't feel like I am the lone ranger trying to help your dogs live longer and healthier. These women get it. If you are reading this, then I think you are getting it too. And that makes me proud. Most people don't know that the pet food industry was born to dispose of the people food waste. Fancy marketing was used to lull us into a sense of complacency of what we feed our pals, our best friends, our park play buddies, and our sappy movie snugglers. Even if you don't buy your treats from me, just read the ingredients. Just because it's cute and looks like a mini spare rib doesn't mean it's good for your dog. Thats all I ask. Oh, and vote for your local shelter at zootoo.com. I guess thats really two things.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Is That Chocolate?
I have lots of customers walk into our store for the first time, look around the table, and then ask me one question. What is that stuff that looks like chocolate? Our customers are well informed, and they know chocolate can be deadly to dogs. So obviously, we don't use chocolate. Instead, we use carob. Carob looks and tastes similar to chocolate. It grows in pods on trees, usually in the Mediterranean, although there are some plants in South America. But the great thing about carob is what is doesn't have - no caffeine, no theobromine. These are the two substances in chocolate that can be potentially toxic to dogs, because they affect the heart and nervous system differently than in human because dogs metabolize food differently.
And while we're on the subject of chocolate and chocolate substitutes, a lot of people tell me their dog ate chocolate and was just fine. This is true even for me - Sam ate two huge chocolate cupcakes and was just fine. So what's the deal? The toxicity of chocolate depends mostly on two things. The first is the purity of the chocolate. This means that the chocolate cupcake was probably a good choice for Sam, because the chocolate was mixed with a lot of other ingredients that diluted it. This also means your typical milk chocolate candy bar is not as dangerous as the high quality dark chocoalte bars that claim 60% or more cocoa. Baking chocolate would be the most dangerous, because it's in it's purest form. Luckily, it's also pretty bitter, so it's less likely to taste good to your dog. The second factor affecting chocolate's toxicity to dogs is the size of the dog. Sam's a boxer mix, he's pretty big, so chocolate isn't as likely to be toxic to him as it would be to a Yorkie. Moral of the story? Well, first of all, don't leave chocolate where the dog can get it, because like Cary said, dogs like fats and sweets. (Is there anything that combines those qualities better than chocolate?) Second, if your Yorkie eats baking chocolate, get him to the vet immediately. If your lab licks chocolate icing off your birthday cake? Keep an eye on him, but most likely he'll be fine. Oh, and give someone else that slice of cake :p
And while we're on the subject of chocolate and chocolate substitutes, a lot of people tell me their dog ate chocolate and was just fine. This is true even for me - Sam ate two huge chocolate cupcakes and was just fine. So what's the deal? The toxicity of chocolate depends mostly on two things. The first is the purity of the chocolate. This means that the chocolate cupcake was probably a good choice for Sam, because the chocolate was mixed with a lot of other ingredients that diluted it. This also means your typical milk chocolate candy bar is not as dangerous as the high quality dark chocoalte bars that claim 60% or more cocoa. Baking chocolate would be the most dangerous, because it's in it's purest form. Luckily, it's also pretty bitter, so it's less likely to taste good to your dog. The second factor affecting chocolate's toxicity to dogs is the size of the dog. Sam's a boxer mix, he's pretty big, so chocolate isn't as likely to be toxic to him as it would be to a Yorkie. Moral of the story? Well, first of all, don't leave chocolate where the dog can get it, because like Cary said, dogs like fats and sweets. (Is there anything that combines those qualities better than chocolate?) Second, if your Yorkie eats baking chocolate, get him to the vet immediately. If your lab licks chocolate icing off your birthday cake? Keep an eye on him, but most likely he'll be fine. Oh, and give someone else that slice of cake :p
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