by Lynn Halladay
What you don't know could be bad for your dog, causing illness and even death. Most of us don't pay a lot of attention to what we feed our pets, trusting manufacturer labeling to be accurate and regulations to be followed. The truth is that there really aren't very many rules about what can and can't go into dog food.
Not Fit To Eat
Did you know that many different brands of dog food could contain unpleasant substances like hair, ligaments, organs, skin, nervous tissue, and meat from diseased animals? Or that spoiled meat and the bodies of euthanized zoo animals and pets could be used?
Most of the "good" meat that makes its way into dog and cat food has long since been processed so heavily that all its nutritive value is gone. If you see ingredients on your dog's food bag like "animal meal" or "poultry broth", you shouldn't imagine the sort of thing you'd eat.
Animal meal is what's left after a carcass has been processed to remove all the fat and meat. What remains is ground up and dried, resulting in a meal that has a similar texture to corn meal and included in pet food. Broths and similar substances in pet food are made of processed carcasses that come from many different kinds of animals, cooked until a liquid is produced.
It's Legal!
You might think this sort of thing would be against the law. After all, there are strict rules about what can be used in human food, and those laws are fairly well enforced. Unfortunately, pet food regulations are a lot looser and are rarely well enforced.
Just about anything could end up in your pet's food, and the labels mean almost noting, even if they claim the food is balanced and healthy. Those words just indicate that the food has a particular percentage of protein, fat, and artificial minerals and vitamins.
Toxic Additives
All of us have probably heard of the recent pet food recalls created by contaminated wheat gluten from China. However, melamine isn't the only dangerous additive that can be found in pet food. There are a lot of preservatives that aren't allowed in human food, and which cause illnesses like cancer, kidney failure, liver failure and more.
Not Only Cheap Brands
Unfortunately, it's not just the cheap brands that are causing the problem. High end and organic foods are also poorly regulated. They might be higher quality, but there's no good way to tell what ingredients they're using. That can make it extremely hard to find foods that are appropriate for your dog, since even those recommended by the vet could be dangerous.
What Can You Do?
There are a number of options. The first is to learn to read your dog's food labels. Ingredients higher on the label are present in greater quantities, so look for named meats high on the list - not meals or broths, and not generic words like "poultry" "meat" or "fish", but named species and types.
You can also learn about the additives and preservatives that can hurt your pets, and look for the foods with the lowest percentage of grains. There are also a number of excellent recipes out there that can help dedicated pet owners make their own foods. Just be sure to do something, since most foods are actually dangerous. - 20511
(http://www.naturalhealthydogfood.com/) Click Here to discover which dog foods have been proven to harm a dog's health. Find out what the (http://www.naturalhealthydogfood.com/) best dog food is to make sure your pooch is in perfect health.
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New Unique Article!
Title: Commercial Dog Food Can Be Dangerous - Is Your Dog Food Safe?
Author: Lynn Halladay
Email: articles@fastacnetreatments.com
Keywords: dog food,healthy dog food,natural dog food,dogs,pets,animals,home,lifestyle
Word Count: 560
Category: dog
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