As I said I would in my last article, I spent some time looking up dog foods and their ingredients. Some of the well-known brands you’d think are just wonderful have crud for ingredients. I won’t mention the brands that less-than-desirable, but I will talk about the two I reviewed with only wholesome foods in them.
Here’s some of the ingredients in the less-than-desirables: chicken by-product meal, which is practically everything on the chicken except for the muscle meat – you know, heads, intestines (cleaned out, thankfully) feet, undeveloped eggs, liver, brains, necks. What else is there to a chicken, right?
And what’s really gross is some of the other ingredients listed are made from what’s called “4D” animals. Those are: Disabled, Diseased, Dying prior to slaughter, and Dead. I don’t want my dog eating that kind of junk, do you?
And then there’s fat. Chicken fat is not bad – it’s made from the skin of chicken and we eat that in fried chicken – yummy. HOWEVER, poultry fat is made from all kinds of humanly non-edible birds.
Here’s Hope – the foods with good ingredients that you can get at your local pet store.
One of the two dog foods I looked at is Blue Buffalo. It contains many natural ingredients, such as blueberries and kelp that work as antioxidants, and cranberries, parsley, and flaxseed that help boost the immune system. I looked up the other ingredients and they were safe as well.
The other dog food I looked up was Organix. Not only are the ingredients good, but they’re organic, grown without hormones and other nasty chemicals. Organix is even certified naturally organic by the USDA. Now that’s something to talk about!
Something to think about is cost. Both Blue Buffalo and Organix can be found at your local pet shop. I looked up the prices at Petsmart and Petco and found the prices the same. One of the Blue Buffalo’s prices was 14.99 for 6lbs on up to 30lbs at 45.99. Organix was 4lbs at 23.99 and 10lbs for 49.93. (expensive, but well worth it due to the organic ingredients.
What’s really cool is, in California, there are several stores that cater to dogs in regards to food. Preparation is done in ultra-clean kitchens and the food standard is high enough for human consumption complete with natural food ingredients. The name of one popular kitchen is JustFoodForDogs. I would think purchasing this sort of food is really best, and is about $35 per month more than regular dogfood.
So we have cost or nutrition. It’s a good idea to spend a little more to make sure your dog is healthy. Be very careful with cheap and name brand dog food. And look at the ingredients to see what’s going into your dog’s body. It does make a difference.
Here’s to your dog’s health,
Carol
Photos: Babis Eating Dogfood by Kiewic, Chomp by Shawn Allen, Food? by Elsa Self