What’s In Your Dog Food?
Posted by Rae and Mark on Sep 15, 2009
Check out this great article and find out what’s in your dog’s food…
Read any good mysteries lately?
You might try the back of that bag of dog food you picked up at the store today. Plenty of mystery there, along with some real bad guys, disguises, subterfuge, everything you’d find in a spy novel, well, except maybe the blond.
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So, just what are you looking at? You think dog food, you figure meat, right? Should be pretty straightforward, right?
Well, there’s meat and then there’s, well, there’s what’s in most dog foods you’ll pick up at a major retail outlet.
To start out, understand that if a dog food says it is a formula, whether it’s lamb and rice, fish and chicken, beef, poultry or whatever the manufacturer specifies, those ingredients only have to make up 25% of the product, so you can, in effect, be buying a lamb and rice formula dog chow with very little actual lamb protein included.
It gets worse.
Pick up a bag or can labeled with chicken, salmon, beef, fish, or other meat source and it only has to contain a paltry 3% of said substance, according to AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) regulations.
Then there are the mystery meats.
Meat meal/meat & bone meal: for starters, it’s a non-specific meat source - just whatever mammal is in the bin, whatever tissues are left over, as long as there’s not any added horn, hoof, hide, hair, manure, stomach or rumen contents “except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.”
That’s reassuring. Though some specify what is and more importantly what isn’t in their meat meal - if you see something like “does not include hair, blood, hoof, manure, etc”, that is a good sign.
Another non-specific source is “animal fat.” Once again, obtained from the tissues of whatever mammal (or poultry) is handy and undergoing commercial extraction and/or rendering processes.
“By-product meal” is most commonly chicken by-product meal. Pretty much what it says, if you think about it: by-products, feet, necks, undeveloped eggs, intestines, pretty much anything but heads and feathers that hasn’t already been dressed up and called something else. And again, the so comforting “except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.”
Oh, and we can’t forget “animal digest.” Here’s how the FDA’s website describes digest: with respect to flavors, pet foods often contain “digests,” which are materials treated with heat, enzymes and/or acids to form concentrated natural flavors. Only a small amount of a “chicken digest” is needed to produce a “Chicken Flavored Cat Food,” even though no actual chicken is added to the food.
Technically, animal digest is “a material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue.” Hydrolysis is defined as the “decomposition of a chemical compound by reaction with water, such as the dissociation of a dissolved salt or the catalytic conversion of starch to glucose.” So, they take “clean and undecomposed animal tissue” and do what with it, exactly?
If you read “Beef,” “Lamb” or a specific meat source without added verbiage, expect honest muscle including skeletal, heart, esophagus, tongue, etc. Actual meat, in other words. If you’re picking up a bag of food at one of those major sell-everything-under-the- sun stores, don’t expect to see much of that sort of information on the labels.
It’s rare that you’ll find a commercial-type dog food that doesn’t contain corn.
Nothing wrong with corn - unless your dog happens to have an allergy to it.
Where it gets dicey is when you start seeing corn mentioned more than once. Often a food will list corn, then corn gluten meal, which is basically the residue of the corn after everything humans want out of it is dried and processed.
Rice is another popular ingredient. What you want to see is something like “brown rice” or “rice.” What you’re more likely to see is “rice flour.” All that is, essentially, is ground up rice leftovers - pretty much the same story as the corn gluten meal. Same thing with soybean mill run,
An ingredient found in at least one “premium” lower calorie food is peanut hulls. There’s a no-brainer.
Dried egg product, anyone? You can’t, it seems, make dog food without breaking a few eggs. But it’s egg product - not a whole egg broken into the mix like you would when you’re making a meatloaf. No, it’s the goofs from egg graders, breakers and hatchery operations then either dehydrated, handled as a liquid or frozen.
And really, how far up the ingredient list do we really need to see salt? At least make it sea salt, laden with all sorts of vital trace minerals.
Hopefully, this gives you some of the clues you need to decipher the mysteries of the dog food label. One good thing, though: if it says it’s a red herring, it’s red herring - unless it’s red herring meal or digest.
Provided by Mary O’Connell of www.pet-super-store.com: Where you can find great deals on pet stairs and pet doors.
We hope you found this article interesting and informative, as it serves to underline why we only use Drs. Foster & Smith Dry Dog Food with our own dogs, because we believe it it is the best dry dog food on the market.
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It’s A Dog Eat Dog World
Posted by Rae and Mark on Feb 3, 2009
It appears to us as though there is just no let-up on the number of issues we have to face every single day day. Sadly, we now have to be concerned not only about what we ourselves eat, but also about what we feed our pets. This article principally focuses on dogs, but cats face a similar issue: the contents of pet food is poisonous!
It is almost incomprehensible what is in pet food these days. You may buy the regular brands at your local grocery store: Gravy Train, Little Friskies (cat food), Purina, Pedigree, Kibble and Bits, and so forth. When you were young, you probably saw your parents give these brands to your pets all of the time and never thought anything of it.
Well, the secret is out - this stuff is slowly poisoning your pets every single time you feed them. We really don’t know where to begin … this stuff is loaded with all sorts of chemicals: artificial flavorings and colors, synthetics, preservatives, fillers, artificial sources of vitamins - if you can even call it that.
All of that is bad enough, but that is absolutely nothing compared to the so-called protein sources: most of these low-quality made-in-China (remember the dog-food recalls of numerous foreign wood processing chemicals that somehow made their way into some dog food brands that actually killed a number of animals in the USA) pet foods get their raw materials from the rendering plants. These are factories that make a grey soup that is made up of sick, diseased, dead animals from the zoo, vet clinics, or anywhere else that animals are kept and have died. The people in charge of these dead animals pay to have the carcasses destroyed; instead they end up at the rendering plant. That means that dogs that died of Parvo, for example, may end up in the food you give to your pets.
So, with the drugs and bacteria like Salmonella and Escherichia coli thriving in such meats, as they don’t always die during the manufacturing process, and when moldy grain is thrown in, as well as all the other ersatz constituents, the numbers of which are too many to count with both hands, you then have a fatal canine cocktail. It doesn’t take a nutrition expert to realise that this spells disaster for the end user, i.e., innocent little Fido.
Problem is, your pet is expending lots of energy every day trying to rid his system of all of these toxic poisons. This is why so many pets have chronic skin conditions: their body is trying to expunge the toxins. Your pets will also have a weakened immune system from these toxins (as well as from de-wormers, vaccinations, and the many other chemicals that he is exposed to or ingests each day). When your pet’s immune system is down then he is vulnerable to all sorts of viruses, germs, bacteria, etc. It is crucial to feed your pets a natural, healthy dog or cat food. We have seven dogs and we’ve done a load of research into this problem.
After months of research, we found what we consider is the best natural dog food there is. It has no fillers, chemicals, by-products of any kind, no artificial flavor/color, no synthetics, and they did not have any food recalls. They only use wholesome ingredients and they NEVER obtain materials from any of those rendering plants.
Please, if you want your pets to live longer, you owe it to them to feed them a high-quality dog food. Take a look at our recommended dog food site. Then, see what we do with our seven dogs to keep them healthy with NO Vaccinations, and no vet visits. They’re Parvo-free, even though we’re in the 3rd worst state for Parvo in the nation.
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Protein For Dogs
Posted by Rae and Mark on Jan 24, 2009
It’s important that you feed your dog a natural healthy dog food. Protein is a key component of this, and the following article explains why this is so.
How Does Protein Work for a Dog?
We all know that protein is important for dogs - but why? What does protein fuel in a dog that might be different than in a human?
How Does Protein Work for a Dog?
The question has been asked many times. Just how does protein affect a dog’s body and why do they need it. Proteins help to build a strong dog with hair, ear and a nose. Without protein, the body does not develop in a way to sustain life.
The muscular building block of protein consists of twenty-three amino acids. The dog produces about thirteen amino acids on the inside and the other ten on the outside of the body where it is consumed. If a puppy is not given the ten outside amino acid sources, it will not grow and develop. Without the outside source of amino acids, a puppy with not grow and will become sick and can die. An adult dog on the other hand will suffer a deficiency of nutrition and grow weak.
The best source for amino acids is plants and meat, which contain the largest amounts of amino acids that are needed for growth and strength. Some proteins are better than others are because not all protein supplies are the same. The amount of protein needed depends on the amount of protein in the amino acids. A dog just as a human does needs to have a daily-recommended amount of amino acids, which are also called biological value.
Understanding how important protein is for a dog is important when you are choosing the proper foods. If your dogs food lacks the needed proteins, they could become weak and develop a protein deficiency.
Five Facts about Protein
Proteins are the building block of the body and are needed to build strong bones and muscles. A lack of protein is called protein deficiency.
A dog’s immune system and structural makeup relies on protein to develop and grow as the dog grows. Without enough protein, the dog will become a structural disaster. Growth will not appear in a dog with a lack of protein.
Proteins help with the growth of the coat, skin and nails. Without protein, the dog’s coat can become dull and fall out at a high rate of speed.
The immune system relies on proteins to continue to protect the body from diseases and other such infections. Without a properly developed immune system, a dog can contact a disease or an infection and die as a result because their immune system cannot fight the ailment.
For more information, visit http://www.ohmydogsupplies.com/
| By Kelly Marshall Published: 1/12/2008 |
So, now you know why protein is important for your dog, but you need to be aware that not all dog food contains the right balance of proteins for your particular dog. Be sure to do a thorough dog food review before deciding on what’s best for your pooch.
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Natural Dog Diet
Posted by Rae and Mark on Jan 23, 2009
We’re a firm believer that one of the best ways to protect your pet is to feed him a high-quality dog food every day. Now, that does mean that you must seek out real dog food quality and disregard those brands of dog food that provide little or no nutrition and are chemically laden, especially if you have a special needs dog and you must use a hypoallergenic dog food * because your pet has dog food allergies or you have a chubby pooch that needs a diabetic dog food.
Whatever your situation may happen to be, it would be in your pet’s best interest to check out the Drs. Foster & Smith brand of pet food.
Drs. Foster And Smith Pet Food: Complete & Wholesome Daily Diets
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Drs. Foster & Smith Educational Staff |
When choosing a food for your pet, keep in mind one important point: proper nutrition is key to keeping your best friend healthy and happy for years to come. Choose a quality food with healthy, wholesome ingredients to keep your best friend in optimal health.
Now you can rely on our veterinarians’ extensive research, experience, and expertise for the complete, balanced nutrition you want for your pet. Drs. Foster & Smith healthy pet foods are formulated with wholesome, delicious, healthy ingredients. They’re meticulously tested for quality throughout their entire manufacturing process - from mixing the ingredients to sealing the packaging. And they contain no artificial ingredients, preservatives, colors, flavors, or by-products.
Only the healthiest ingredients
Drs. Foster & Smith pet foods meet or exceed the standards recommended by AAFCO with high quality sources of protein, fats, fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that have been carefully selected and included in the correct amounts to provide optimal nutrition.
- Protein for strong muscles and healthy tissues comes from highly digestible real chicken, lamb meat, ocean whitefish, salmon, and herring. And the doctors carefully established protein percentages in each individual formula to best fulfill the needs of growing puppies/kittens, adult dogs and cats, and senior pets, respectively.
Whole vegetables and fruits such as carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, tomatoes, cranberries, and blueberries serve as quality sources of vitamins and antioxidants.- Energy-boosting carbohydrates are found in quality, natural sources like rice, whole barley, and whole sweet potatoes.
- Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids for healthy skin and a shiny coat are derived from quality sources such as sunflower oil (Omega-6), whole ground flaxseed (Omega-3), and marine fish oils (Omega-3).
- Natural, quality fat sources like chicken fat provide necessary energy and maximum flavor.
- Quality fiber sources such as beet pulp, whole barley, pea fiber, and rice bran help maintain digestive system health naturally.
Natural - not artificial - ingredients
Drs. Foster & Smith pet foods are also nutritionally significant for what they do not contain. You will not find artificial ingredients, artificial colors, artificial preservatives, or by-products - meat or otherwise. The natural brown color of the doctors’ foods is the result of the natural ingredients in each unique formula. Each Drs. Foster & Smith pet food is preserved with natural preservatives such as Vitamin E, rosemary, and citric acid. You can feed Drs. Foster & Smith pet foods with confidence.
A wise investment in your pet’s health
In addition to being nutritious, the doctors’ healthy foods are, in fact, quite affordable. Consider this…some pet foods require that you feed a 50-pound adult dog about 4 cups a day. With Drs. Foster & Smith pet food, you’ll feed the same 50-pound dog only 2 1/3 cups to provide the same, if not higher levels of nutrients. In fact, the doctors’ foods are so packed with usable nutrients, you’ll consistently feed less, spend less to have a healthy dog, and pick up much less waste.
Extensive research, thought, and effort went into each formula, and every step in the production process has met our high standards for quality and quality control.
Drs. Foster and Smith have created several formulas of healthy dog food. They have the formulas for Puppies, Adults (chicken and lamb), Lite, and one for Senior dogs. Give them a try, your pet will thank you.
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While Drs. Foster & Smith pet foods are not true hypoallergenic foods, they contain natural ingredients, natural preservatives, natural colors, and natural flavors which typically agree with pets’ dietary and digestive needs. If your pet has allergies and you’re not sure which food to feed, contact your veterinarian. |
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Protein In Dogs
Posted by Rae and Mark on Jan 22, 2009
It is crucial for your dog’s health that the dog food protein is of the correct type for your dog, so where can your dog get the right type of protein?
Well, this article will help answer this question…
Natural Protein Sources for Dogs
In light of the messy dog food recall, it’s important to consider some natural protein sources for your pet. New brands are getting added to the recall list every week, so it might be better to be safe than sorry.
There are five common foods that are great sources of protein for your dog that you can find at the grocery store. Some of these sources will require a little more work and money than others, but they are all great sources of protein for mans best friend. Keeping an adequate amount of protein in your dog’s diet will help them stay healthy and active.
Protein Source from Eggs
The first food that is a great source of protein is eggs. Eggs are very cheap and are a great source of protein for both humans and dogs. You do have to cook the eggs for your dog as well. Dogs cannot eat raw eggs due to its reaction with vitamins. Cooked eggs are an easy and cheap way to get protein in your dog’s diet.
The Right Balance of Milk
Another great source of protein for your dog is whole milk. You do need to be careful though, as too much milk will cause digestion problems, and upset stomach. An excessive amount of milk could also give you dog diarrhea. You want to make sure you measure the amount of milk your dog is getting and do not exceed two ounces of fluid milk, and two tablespoons of dry milk in each pound of dog food. This amount will prevent your dog from having trouble digesting milk.
Cottage Cheese Has As Much Protein as Horse Meat
Cottage cheese is another cheap, and easy way to get more protein in your dog’s diet. The protein in cottage cheese is different than that of the whole milk, so you don’t have to worry about digestion. Cottage cheese does not have to be cooked or measured exactly, so it is an easy way to give your some extra protein.
Using Cheese for Energy and Protein
Cheese is another great source of protein. Cheese also contains fat that cottage cheese does not have. This fat will give your dog energy, as well as protein. Cheese tends to be a little more expensive than the eggs, or cottage cheese, but well worth the money.
Cooked Fish
Another common food that is a great source of protein is fish. You don’t often hear about people feeding their dogs fish, but there is no reason you can’t. Fish is a great source of protein, but it, just like eggs, needs to be cooked. Cooking the fish will ensure that the harmful chemicals are destroyed, and is ready for consumption.
These are all great ways to get more protein in your dog’s diet. These food choices are all commonly found in your grocery store, and are inexpensive. Most of these items are probably in your refrigerator already. Keeping your dog healthy takes more than just walking them and piling on a cup of dried food. By using natural foods like eggs, milk, cottage cheese, cheese, and fish you can increase your dogs protein and help them maintain an active lifestyle.
Important Note:
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably concerned about the dog food recall. The author has put together the complete guide to the topic, downloadable as a PDF file. It’s a free report called The Definitative Guide to the Dog Food Recall, covering how the problem started, which foods have been recalled, symptoms of illness, what to do if your dog ate tainted food, and contains the answers to all the other important questions.
| By Kelly Marshall Published: 4/27/2007 |
Of course, you don’t need to worry about your dog getting the right amount of protein in his diet, which is why we use the best dry dog food on the market with our own dogs.
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Dog Food Protein
Posted by Rae and Mark on Jan 21, 2009
When trying to determine what constitutes healthy dog foods, or what makes up healthy pet foods, or in general what is the best pet food available, you have to take a close look at some of the key ingredients, namely protein, and what is the source(s) of it.
This article will help to explain about the types of protein used in the Drs. Foster & Smith brands of pet food.
Nutrition: Understanding Protein In Pet Food
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Drs. Foster & Smith Educational Staff |
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Many people make the mistake of judging the quality of a pet food simply by looking at the percentage of protein shown on the label. This is not the best way to judge overall quality for several reasons:
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Let’s take a closer look…
Not all protein is created equal
What would you rather feed your pet - four ounces of real chicken meat or four ounces of ground chicken feathers and corn? All three ingredients contain protein, but they are definitely not equal. Ounce for ounce, the real chicken provides more protein, and the protein is highly digestible and usable, allowing pets to eat smaller quantities to receive the optimal level of protein.
In contrast, the ground feathers contain protein, but in a non-digestible form. Digestibility is key to evaluating a protein’s nutritional value. Real meat offers highly digestible protein - protein that is easily broken down by your pet’s body. Your pet cannot digest and cannot live on the protein contained in feathers. It simply passes through the digestive system unused.
Utilization is another key to evaluating protein sources. Corn has digestible protein that is absorbed, but it is not as usable by the body as the protein from meat or eggs. Corn must be combined with another grain to supply the range of essential amino acids that meat or eggs supply by themselves. Pets will need to eat larger quantities of corn and other grains to obtain the same amount of usable protein that is in chicken.
When comparing pet foods, be sure to consider the type and quality of protein used - not just the quantity. Look for foods with highly digestible, usable protein. Real meat, fish, and eggs, for example, provide your pet with the highest levels of usable protein, while allowing you to feed lesser quantities of food.
Different pets have different protein needs
Many people wrongly assume that a pet food with a high protein level is automatically better for their pet. This is incorrect for two reasons. First, as described above, the quality of the protein is a critical factor - it doesn’t matter if a food has a high percentage of protein if the protein comes from a less-digestible or less-usable source. Secondly, optimal protein levels for different life stages and activity levels vary. Senior pets generally require less protein than active adult pets; and active adult pets need less protein than puppies and kittens. Look for a food that provides the optimum level of protein for your pet’s particular life stage and activity. Otherwise, you’ll feed your pet excess protein that will simply be converted into fat.
A diet must be balanced
Protein is important, but so are the many other essential nutrients in food. Pets cannot live on protein alone. Calories, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals must all be present in the proper levels and ratios for your pet to have a balanced diet and properly use the protein in the food.
Choose your proteins with care
Be a critical thinker when it comes to evaluating the protein in your pet’s food - first determine whether the protein is derived from a high-quality source that will give your pet the maximum amount of usable, digestible protein. Then, look at the protein percentage to see how much protein the food includes. Remember, a high protein percentage does not guarantee a healthy, beneficial pet food, especially if it merely shows a high percentage of a lesser-quality protein. Finally, don’t forget to look at the other nutrients. Your pet may not be able to use the protein as well if other nutrients are lacking.
In creating their line of healthy pet foods, Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith performed extensive research and consulted nutritionists to formulate pet foods with the right amount of highly digestible, usable protein for each life stage. The doctors’ formulas were designed to provide the proper level of protein and other nutrients for puppies and kittens, adult pets, and senior pets, respectively.
Whether you have dogs, cats, ferrets, or other pets, Drs. Foster and Smith are the largest pet cataloger in the nation. Their Signature line of pet food has been around since 1983 and it has gone through all of the paces, so you can feel confident in feeding your pets this high quality food.
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