Dog Food Nutritional Content…Is it Sufficient?
For those of you lucky enough to own a dog, the bond and the companionship we receive from our shaggy friends is the driving force behind the pride of canine ownership. Most owners treat that bond the very same way they would a bond of marriage, but what if we had control of the whole “till death do we part” portion of that bond and could do it through increasing a dog’s nutritional uptake?
Would you want your dog to live longer? Does what we feed our dogs and our dog’s nutritional make up have anything to do with how long and how well they live ? You might be surprised by what our dogs are eating.
Is it really possible that commercial dog food is destroying our dog’s nutritional make up due to the ingredients used in it? What about all those wonderful commercials showing real beef and fresh vegetables and even a fish being poured into that huge back of epitomized dog food nutrition? That’s not real?
Afraid not and based on our, albeit unscientific, findings we think dog food nutrition is really one of the last considerations for the mass producers with their primary focus on dollars and cents.
Where’s the Beef?
With the recent economy we are are painfully aware of how much beef, chicken and fresh produce cost, but have you
ever considered how a commercial dog food manufacturer can include all those ingredients into a 50 pound bag, sell it for $25 and still make a profit for themselves and the retailer? At those prices, maybe we should all be eating the stuff, but that would be like eating fast food for every meal, every day. Could you imagine?
Taking it a step further, it’s also plausible that vets, as a group, are unknowingly recommending these mass produced dog foods for perceived dog food nutrition that could be killing dogs sooner than necessary. Although unable to confirm, it appeared that “Dog Food Nutrition” and “Optimal Dog Nutrition” are classes offered by many vet schools, but offered as and elective, not a required class.
Major producers of dog food are also involved and active in vet schools across the nation. Some even “sponsoring” young vets by giving them food for their dogs. Is this good will or good marketing?
Would You Eat This?
Were you aware that some commercial dog foods were found to contain up to 6 preservative chemicals that have been banned from human consumption because they’ve been know to cause kidney, bladder, skin and stomach cancers along with a host of other deadly diseases; yet the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition has link recommendations on their website for 3 major commercial dog food manufacturers. Why?
When we checked a 3rd party dog food nutrition analysis who has ratings on over 1500 dog foods for the best dog food nutrition, those brands weren’t even in the top 100 for dog food nutrition.
These sad instances are based solely on the ingredients found in dog food nutrition levels for the mass produced. Don’t believe me? the proof is in the label, right? Well, not so fast, it appears the labels themselves can be manipulated and it is perfectly legal. Do you know how to read a dog food nutritional ingredient label? Are you familiar with “ingredient splitting” for the benefit of making a label look better? These business practices are nothing short of astounding and what’s worse is how it affects our dog’s nutritional intake all when we think we are being diligent in reading the labels on what we feed.
Speaking of astounding, and I mean it in the heart breaking sense, watch the below video at your own risk. It speaks directly to dog food nutrition, and what it can legally be called. As the saying goes, viewer discretion is advised!
Pass the Buck, Please
How can this happen? Sadly, it’s not hard to figure out and what mass produced dog food nutrition boils down to is a high stakes game of old fashioned “pass the buck” where the “buck” eventually ends up in the hands of the one entity that has the most to gain, the manufacturer. Reminds me of a Wall Street vs. a mortgage broker story I recently heard.
There are two governing parties when it comes to dog food manufacturing and dog food nutrition requirements; the FDA and the 102 year old AAFCO or Association of American Feed Control Officials.
I’ll spare you the long drawn out version because when you get right to it, dog food nutrition is the victim of two
governing parties stating that they don’t regulate the industry, they just make the rules.
The AAFCO makes the following statement: “The AAFCO has no statutory authority to regulate pet products” Really? well aren’t you the association of….oh never mind, I’m sure the FDA is the enforcer here, they’ll do the right thing. Well…
The FDA, at least, has an ingredient guideline, but they also unfortunately adhere to an acronym called GRAS or Generally Recognized As Safe. Wow. Well I suppose a car is “GRAS” until you put a falling down drunk person behind the wheel, then its a deadly weapon. Is it the same for dog food nutrition? Is that what gets referred to as a loop hole?
This is Crazy, What Should We Do?…BARF!
It’s a terrific question. Part of me wants to scream from the roof tops as it seems that proper dog food nutrition has given way to “proper” profits and it’s generally accepted because the public is either not aware or doesn’t want to be aware. The reason everyone uses commercially produced dog food is because it’s quick and easy, but at the risk of years taken off our dog’s life and increasing the vet bills along the way, it’s just not worth it.
The only way to truly get away from this situation while keeping your dog’s nutritional health in mind is to feed a BARF dog diet or Bones And Raw Food, AKA Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. At least that way we know exactly what our dogs are eating and it is arguably the healthiest dog diet on the planet today, at least we think so despite the minority nay sayers and those whom have maybe drank too much of the commercial dog food nutrition “kool-aid”.
The BARF dog diet is most likely the best “anti-venom” we have, yet some loving dog owners will still stray from it’s benefits in favor of an easier way, and that’s fine.
But if that’s you, there is a way to at least take the necessary steps to help your dog’s nutritional uptake while they eat that crap in a bag and after that last under cover video, that may be a literal statement.
Often proven and often over-looked, optimized dog nutrition is the key to a long, happy and vet bill free life that we simply wont get through commercial dog food nutrition.
