I've been reading a lot over the years about pet food and nutrition and asking vets who give widely varying opinions on the subject. Grain free? Alternative proteins? Canned food? Dry food? What brand? Supplements? It can be absolutely confusing and inundating. Vets don't always help because they don't always have the knowledge and a lot of times are schooled only on what the pet food company representatives tell them. Not good enough.
Thank goodness then for vets like Dr. Karen Becker, Dr. Pitcairn and other vets who have studied, written about and made it their business to understand pet nutrition. As it turns out, what's most beneficial and healthy for humans is typically the same for dogs and cats with a few exceptions. We'll get to those exceptions later. First, let's talk about what's good. What's most beneficial and healthy is natural. Eating foods that come from nature and are in their natural state. Lean proteins, raw vegetables, healthy grains. Therefore, the ideal diet for dogs would be a raw food diet, followed by home cooked meals using nutritionally complete pet recipes or pre-made mixes like Sojo's, Dr. Harvey's or Grandma Lucy's. These things, though healthy do need to be prepared with care and with the proper ingredients and preparation. In order to do so, using the pre-made mixes makes it easier as does following recipes in books like Dr. Pitcairn's New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats and Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats.
Dr Becker has written several articles on the subject of dog food which I cannot do justice to explain, therefore I am linking to her article on mercola pets and please feel free to search more of her food articles on the site! Subscribe to her newsletter to get daily pet information in your email inbox too they are all entirely helpful and informative.
What you need to understand about commercial pet foods is that the industry is not well regulated and you need to be very educated about what you're reading on the label. You would NOT believe what goes into some pet foods simply because it's cheap filler and they don't have to list it specifically on the label. It truly does include things like diseased animal parts, food unfit for human consumption, euthanized animals including collars and all and even newspaper. If you really want to know what's in your pet's food check out Ann Martin's book Food Pets Die For. Ann spent years researching the pet food industry after unexplained sickness in her pets. Dr. Pitcairn also sheds some light on this subject in his book. To get a start on learning about what you should know about pet foods, read this article also by Dr. Becker:
For more on pet food and any questions you may have, please don't hesitate to ask. I will give you my best advice and if I'm not sure will help guide you in the right direction. As always give your pets the best in health, happiness and LOVE!
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