Pet Nutrition: The Real Poop

dog boarding kennel near Austin airportby Adette Quintana

With the recent pet food recall affecting thousands of pets and weekly pet food recalls the importance of choosing a proper diet for our pets is brought to the forefront.

Pets, who are fed a super premium diet, will typically live longer and healthier.  Poor quality foods cause many types of health issues such as allergies, obesity, diabetes, CANCER, etc. It’s important to know the pet food industry is SELF REGULATED. The poor quality foods contain horrific fillers and by-products, including those involved in the recall. By-products are a toxic brew containing diseased and contaminated meat from slaughterhouses.  It also includes dead animals picked up from the nation’s roads, rancid kitchen grease, and millions of pounds of dead animals from our country’s animal hospitals and shelters. Please do not support companies that have these products in their pet food.  The goal is to purchase food from companies who care as much about our pets as we do and help our pets live a life where they feel good everyday. Poor quality foods will affect not only our pets’ health but also their daily quality of life.

It is the pet owner’s responsibility to educate ourselves about the foods we feed our pets.  We can help our pets live long, healthy lives simply by learning to read labels and choose foods with quality ingredients.  We care about our nutrition.  It only follows that we should care about what we feed our pets.

To keep up on the latest recalls and information join Truth About Pet Food.
And visit the PetsitUSA blog.

Two basic rules of thumb when choosing foods are the following:

  • PET FOOD PURCHASED FROM THE GROCERY STORE IS NOT NUTRITIONALLY VALUABLE TO YOUR PET-NO EXCEPTIONS
  • FOODS WITH CHEAP FILLERS ARE TOXIC TO YOUR PET FOR MANY REASONS-Do not choose foods with any type of corn (corn gluten, corn meal, etc)

Vet recommended foods such as Hills/Science Diet are also not recommended as they contain fillers such as wheat, corn and saw dust (listed as powdered cellulose on the label).

The next step is to purchase foods with human grade ingredients, no artificial colors, flavors, fillers or preservatives. Preservatives added to pet food are highly toxic.  Your pet could be consuming as much as 26 pounds of preservatives each year as well as Phenobarbital (the liquid used to euthanize shelter pets). Phenobarbital does not break down in during the cooking process.

Avoid foods with wheat gluten, soy protein, meat by products and digest.

A healthy food will have whole meat listed as one of the first two ingredients.

In my opinion, the BEST website for reliable information regarding pet food is www.DogAware.com, although I’m not in 100% agreement with the food recommendations on this site.

~~~It is vital to rotate your pets’ diet. Feeding the same food every single day for years is not only boring for your pet, it also limits the nutrition they are getting~~~ Your pet will not get an upset stomach from this. The reason they get an upset stomach when fed something new is because they are always fed the same exact foods. This would happen to your stomach as well.  Variety is key!!

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE PRICE OF THE SUPER PREMIUM FOODS IS VERY COMPARABLE TO VERY POOR QUALITY FOODS. This is because our pets require about ½ the amount of the super premium foods than the poor quality foods.  This is due to the fact that they are eating actual food and will absorb and benefit from the nutrition these foods provide.  This also leads to less poop.

It is also vital to add fresh foods to our pets’ diet each day.  This will also help stretch your pet food budget. Fresh foods include, but are not limited to, yogurt, cottage cheese, canned mackerel, canned salmon (bone-in), raw eggs, brown rice, fresh cooked and mashed veggies as well as fish oil supplements, vitamin E, and organ meats (beef heart).  Tripe is also fabulous.  For more healthy foods to add to kibble visit http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/mixing-fresh-food-with-kibble/

Does your pet eat grass?  The reason may be a lack of vital nutrients and enzymes.  All these fresh foods will help with this.

Do not ever feed your pet onion, grapes, raisins, chocolate, avocado, peach seeds, apple seeds or cherry seeds.

Cats REQUIRE wet, fresh food.  Cats are oblique carnivores!!    A high quality wet food will give your cat the intestinal support his/her system needs.  Dry food has the opposite effect. Fresh, wet food will also help prevent urinary issues.  If your cat is picky about wet food, you can add a little no-salt chicken broth to help with the transition. It’s also important to add fresh foods to your cats’ diet such (but not limited to) sardines, raw egg, mackerel, and organ meats.

HOME COOKING & RAW are wonderful alternatives to store bought foods.  I believe these are definitely THE BEST ways to feed your pet. There are many easy and healthy recipes..even crock pot recipes!! My favorite resource for information on all dog food information is DogAware.

Healthy Supplements are also important. Visit Nature’s Farmacy.

For Dogs: I VERY HIGHLY recommend you purchase Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs: The Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals. By Lew Olson. This book can be found on Barnesandnoble.com.

***Join www.YahooGroups.com K9 Nutrition and CatNutritionInfo for the BEST and most current information!!!***

For great, easy recipes, purchase The Healthy Dog Cookbook by Jonna Anne with Mary Straus (Canine Nutritionist)

For Cats: Visit Little Big Cat . Also join www.YahooGroups.com CatNutritionInfo, and Holisticat.

A few of super premium excellent foods are:

  • Go Natural
  • Orijen
  • Dehydrated foods are a GREAT choice.
  • Grandma Lucy’s is SUPER
  • Nulo (located in Austin) – not only is Nulo a local company, the food is healthy AND they contribute to local rescue. There is a ♥ on their label for a reason! Nulo pet food can be found at both Austin Whole Foods Locations as well as Nulo’s downtown location.

You can find these foods at many locations around Austin.