Your dog deserves a healthy pet food. Unfortunately, whether purchased in a grocery store, pet store, or veterinarian’s office, pet food may contain animal by-products. While many laws exist to regulate our food, the same assurances do not exist for pet food.

Animal by-products may also be known as rendered meat. These are meats from animals considered unsuitable for human consumption, but are found in all pet foods, from store brands to name brand products. If you wouldn’t want to eat rendered meat, why would you feed it to your pet?

Rendered meat can come from many sources. These include animals dead upon arrival to the slaughterhouse, and animals too sick or diseased for human consumption. Even euthanized cats, dogs, horses, or other animals could be used. Do you want to risk feeding meat to your dog that may once have been your neighbors dog?

Another thing to look out for is the preservatives used to keep the pet food from going bad. Specifically, the preservatives ethoxyquin, BHT, and BHA, are toxic. The preservatives that are better for your four legged friend are Vitamins E and C.

Conventional wisdom suggest a dog’s diet should contain 50% vegetables, 40% meat, and 10% grain or carbohydrates. However, price and value are are important to consider. Although cheaper brands may seem attractive, low-price alternatives often have less quality ingrediants than Healthy Dog Food.

One option is to purchase holistic pet food. Holistic pet foods are natural and nutritious and are a Healthy Dog Food. They have ingredients fit for human consumption. If you would not consume foods made with ingredients such as chicken beaks or toxic preservatives, do not feed it to your pet.

The most assured way to know what you are feeding your dog is to make the pet food yourself. Books can be purchased with delicious Healthy Dog Food recipes for your companion. Your veterinarian can also tell you the vitamins and nutrients your pet needs.

It is important to remember not all human foods are suitable for animals. Grapes and raisins cause damage to your dog’s kidneys; mushrooms can be deadly; raw, cooked, or powdered garlic and onions can damage red blood cells and may cause anemia; raw fish on a regular basis may lead to thiamine deficiency, which can result in loss of appetite, seizures, and death. Many other examples of harmful human food also exist. If you are unsure whether a new food is safe for your pet, you should always ask a veterinarian first.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 3:43 am and is filed under Health and Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.