Poisoning Your Dog? Part 2
Since I also breed French Bulldogs one of the most common problems with them is food allergies. I’d switch from one brand to another, from beef to lamb, from grain to rice, etc. and find myself frustrated at not being able to solve the problem. Things may seem to go well for a time and then the same old thing happens all over again. Changing to lamb from beef would appear to be a logical thing to try, but how on earth do you really know just what you are really getting? Let me give you an example of what could be in a run of “lamb” from the rendering plant and still legally be labeled as lamb.
If we were to bulldoze into the pit, say 25% of lamb parts, mix with 20% beef, 20% chicken, say 15% dogs or cats, and say a mixture of 20% of various road kill animal carcasses, we can say that the dominant ingredient of this run is lamb. (For this example we will ignore the % of plastic, metal, styrofoam, insecticide, etc.–all too small to affect the labeling process). As long as the rendering plant does not misrepresent the % of protein or fat or calcium, etc., they are legitimately entitled to sell the run to your favorite pet food manufacturer as “lamb.”
By the way, I should mention that the fat sold by the rendering industry does not all come from animals. Thanks to the proliferation of fast food restaurants, nearly half of the “raw material” is waste kitchen grease and frying oil cleaned out of the traps on a regular basis (another industry all of its own). Again, the pet food people rely on this source for the fat that is usually sprayed on the kibble at the end of the drying process.
Once you understand just what really goes into producing a commercial pet food, you can’t really be surprised to learn that many of the health problems we see in our companion animals are directly attributable to a lack of proper nutrition.
When someone asks me “aren’t you afraid of salmonella or contamination in the raw meat you use?”, I only wish I could take them out to a rendering facility and show them just how bad the commercial goop can be! Never again would they buy a bag or can of pet food without realizing just what they are really doing. Never again would they have any fear of using “fresh” meat in place of what the industry laughingly calls food for pets.
If you insist on retaining the “convenience” over health factor, and want to keep using your dry food, at least add a digestive enzyme to give your pet a break on his already overtaxed system.
Adding some fresh vegetables and fruits would also help a lot. Even if these too have been subjected to pesticides, at least they are still raw and have more to contribute to nourishment than the highly processed contents in commercial pet foods!
At the beginning of this century pets were fed on “scraps” from our own food. Around the middle of this century, the fast food life style started to make its appearance. As we approach the end of this century “scraps” have taken on a whole new meaning.
In natural foods (raw), Mother Nature does the balancing for us and the body takes what it needs. When artificially added–who knows what is absorbed?
Join me as we delve into creating a diet for our dogs. You’re starting out with a healthy, disease free Blue Lacy with no hereditary disorders. Why not keep him or her that way?