Best and Worst Pet Foods

Hey jammers! Once again, for the millionth time, I'm sorry for forgetting to post. Long story short, my brother keeps hogging the computer for 90% of the time, and I have garden club. 

If you listen closely, you can hear a lobster crying in the distance because no one thinks he's useful.

As another example of my laziness, I'm going to skip the new item today and focus on less news-ish content. You probably know the new item has something to do with ice cream and benches. A very sticky sweet bench. Kind of gross, if you think about it.

Remember when I used to do informational posts? Info posts? Does that ring a bell at all? I've decided to do a very short one here that as you may have already guessed from the title, is for pet owners– specifically cat and dog owners.

Something that I think people don't put much thought into is what they feed their pets. Well, sure you can talk to a veterinarian or go online to see which food is highest in nutrients, but there is a whole lot more in many commercial pet foods than just nutrients. The back of a Purina cat food tin shows what looks like over 50 ingredients, each more hard to pronounce than the last.

BHA, poultry by-product, and even corn can be extremely harmful. If you own a dog or a cat, or even know someone who owns one, you may want to read on to find out what exactly is in what you feed your pets that may be making them sick or act weird. 

–or even if they seem alright, damage isn't always obvious. 

First, I'll show you what exactly those weird ingredients are, their affects, and some pet foods that are both nutrient-rich and healthy. 

Before I begin, I hope you already know that you should never ever feed a dog sugar, chocolate, spices, bones that they could choke on, garlic, or hot sauce.

The following is found in popular pet food including but not limited to:

 Kibbles 'n Bits, Pedigree, Ol Roy, Gravy Train, Purina, IAMS ProActive Health, Alpo, and Beneful

Negative content 1: BHA/animal fat preserved with BHA

BHA effects: Scientifically proven to cause tumors and cancer.

Negative content 2: animal fat (on its own)

Animal fat effects/origins: "animal fat" can be from anything from diseased cattle to euthanized shelter pets to even roadkill. The euthanasia is not removed, and I'm pretty sure you've already speculated that disease is part of this.

Negative content 3: Yellow 6

Effects/origins: A yellow colored dye that is known to cause tumors in the kidneys and adrenal glands. 

Negative content 4: Propylene glycol

Effects/origins: Can be toxic if consumed over months– as if as frequently as pet food.

Negative content 5: Ground corn/corn germ meal/any thing that says "corn"

Effects/origins: It may sound innocent, but corn is completely indigestible to dogs and is the leading cause of canine food allergies.

Negative content 6: Soybean meal

Effects/origins: Indigestible

Negative content 7: meat byproducts of any kind

Effects/origins: Byproducts are deemed unfit for human consumption, so you're feeding your pet garbage basically.

Negative content 8: Dried beet pulp

Effects/origins: Beets are ultimately sugar, and in case you don't know, never ever feed a dog sugar. It's toxic, causes stress on the pancreas and adrenals, resulting in diabetes. 

Okay, but what are some good, healthy things?

Overall, dogs need at least 90% (good) meat content to be good and healthy, and no grains, but rice is less harmful. It's impossible for a dog to digest corn, wheat, or soy.

Here are some good kibble ingredients:

Sweet potato – Very good and easily digestible.

Potato – Easily digestible, good starch.

Peas – Good, simple fiber.

Guidelines for a good meat-based meal:

1. Stay away from unnamed animal sources for meat. No meat byproducts, no "animal fat," no "liver," no "digest," no "meat/bone meal."

2. In the ingredients, make sure the two mainly advertised (on the cover lid) ingredients are first on the list, like chicken or tuna. 

3. EVEN IF YOUR DOG ACTS LIKE THEY LIKE IT, THAT DOESNT MEAN ITS NOT DESTROYING THEM FROM THE INSIDE OUT. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH.

4. To be basic, choose a dog food with none of the harmful ingredients listed farther above.

In repetition, here is a list of THE WORST brands:

Pedigree, Kibbles 'n Bits, Alpo, Gravy Train (cringe), Purina Dog Chow, Beneful Original, Ol'roy...

Here are some OKAY brands:

IAMs Healthy Naturals, Pro Plan, Purina Beyond One, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Diamond brand,

 Finally some GOOD AND GREAT brands:

Blue Buffalo, Blue Buffalo Wilderness Taste of the Wild, Canidae, Wellness, Wellness Core, Innova, Diamond Naturals, Solid Gold, Acana, and Evo.

But what is the absolute 100% best diet? 

Raw diet including the meat, bones, and organs or prey animals such as poultry, cattle, venison, pork (If frozen for over three weeks), rabbits, rats, mice, and guinea pigs. Dogs can also be given veggies in small amounts, but no more that 10-15% of their diet can be vegetable. It is also important to grind/blend the veggies up in a food processor. Dogs can not digest the cellulose walls to get at the nutrients inside so its important to break the walls yourself.

Of course, not everyone can afford that. If you have enough money, save the raw diet for special days...

But read more on what a "raw" meat dog diet is online before you do anything drastic.

And before I conclude this info post, here are the sources for all this information, including the forum topic I learned this all from:

http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=917201

http://www.naturalnews.com/012647.html
http://www.preciouspets.org/truth.htm
http://www.purelypets.com/articles/whatsinfood.htm

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php ... ngredients 

http://dogfoodanalysis.com/

I hope this post can save pets and make their lives healthier and happier.

As always, jam on!

~DoomyPanda