How much time do you spend on picking your dog food? Do you understand how to read the labels and do you know what each ingredient really is?
I started my research on pet food shortly after my six year old Beagle started having seizures. What I found out was both amazing and scary, so I immediately started a crusade to educate pet owners around the world.
Dog Food
Relax I'm not going to try and sell you some upscale food, but I am going to show you how you should be choosing your loved ones food.
What if I told you that if you learn how to feed your dog properly, it could add up to 8.3 years to their lives? That's 8.3 more years of tail wagging, tongue liking unconditional love.
After many hours of research I finally found a resource that explained how to read the labels found on dog food. Believe it or not even thought the FDA regulates pet food labeling, it does not hold commercial pet food labeling to the same requirements as it does for people food.
The regulations for labeling seemed to be written to help the industry hide certain ingredients they use to enhance flavor and prolong shelf life. Not to mention just plain deceive the pet owner by allowing the commercial pet food industry to play with words in their labeling.
The difference between a pet food named Beef Dog Food and Beef Flavored Dog Food is that the first would contain around 70% beef (of some kind) and the second could contain 0% beef of any kind.
If the name of the food contains the word "with" then by law that food only needs to contain around 3% of that ingredient. The words "Dinner" or "Nuggets" along with many more words all change the quality of the dog food.
The truth is this industry has been allowed to deceive the pet owner into thinking they are purchasing quality ingredients, when the truth is we are purchasing ingredients not fit for human consumption.
The animal food industry is using the waste leftovers from human food production processing plants. This slop is deemed unfit for human consumption, but is sold as ingredients for pet foods.
The problem here is the FDA allows the pet food industry to label these ingredients in such a way that we think they are healthy. If your dog food has an ingredient listed as "Dried Egg Products" you might think that is healthy. After all eggs are a good source of protein, but dried egg products are the leftovers from the egg industry that are deemed not fit for human consumption.
The problem is there are hundreds of ingredients listed on pet food labels that seem to mean one thing when in reality they mean something completely different.
After doing my own research I have decided I needed to switch my dogs to a homemade dog food, but I know that is not particle for everyone. Therefore it is even more important to understand exactly what is in your dog food.
Dog Food Or Crap? Dog Food
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