You know, if you really want your dog to be as healthy as s/he can be, you should stop feeding ANY of the widely available commercial dog foods.



I'm talking here about the types of dog food commonly found in supermarkets, and even about most of the supposedly superior brands sold in some supermarkets, pet food shops, and even by many vets.

The cheaper the brand, then generally the more full of garbage it is, but even many of the more expensive brands leave much to be desired.

What do you think is an ideal diet for your dog?

- plump chickens?

- choice cuts of juicy beef and lamb?

- maybe a few healthy fresh grains for variety?

- the odd fresh herbs, vegetables and fruit?

You'd be right.

But how many of the above ingredients do you think go into commercial pet food?

A lot? Only a little? If you said yes to either of these, you'd be dead wrong.

The average commercial dog food bears NO relation to the above list of choice ingredients, despite what pet food manufacturers display in some of their marketing, and despite what the list of ingredients on the pack or can might tend to indicate.

There is very, very little (if any) of the above ingredients in the average commercial dog food, and by the time it's been overcooked at sustained high temperatures, and sprayed with preservative agents, the resultant "food" can be very harmful to your dog's health and wellbeing indeed.

Suffice to say that if you're feeding your dog ANY commercially available dog food, you're exposing your dog to a source of chemically enhanced, overprocessed, garbage, the meat source for which includes diseased carcasses which have been left for up to 5 days before being processed.

Enough to turn you off for life? It was for me. As you know, I've always fed my dogs a diet of mainly raw meat and bones. But I like to give them a little treat in the mornings rather than just feed them once a day (which, by the way, IS all a dog NEEDS). I used to give them a handful of dry dog food each morning, sometimes the cheaper supermarket brands, and sometimes the "brand" names which cost 4 or 5 times as much. Now that I know better, I never give my dogs any of that garbage.

I should say that SOME of the expensive pet foods which are readily available ARE better than the cheaper brands. BUT, most are still far from an ideal diet for your dog, so query whether the extra money is money well spent.

If the product says it's "with real chicken", did you know that it only needs to contain 3% of chicken? Neither did I.

If the first item listed is meat or chicken, did you know that this doesn't mean that's the main ingredient? Neither did I.

Take a close look at the label. It's likely to list a meat first, and then 2, 3, 4 or 5 types of grains. This is a very misleading tactic used by the commercial pet food manufacturers. Each of the grains individually may be slightly less in quantity than the meat. But added together? They're probably nearly 2, 3, 4 or 5 times the quantity of the meat ingredient.

After having looked into this issue in a great deal of detail, I'm convinced that the most healthy diet for your dog is mainly fresh meat, with some fresh veges and a little grain thrown in. And this alone is NOT enough. You need to give your dog a vitamin supplement always, for optimal health.

And for the very best health, there ARE some reputable HEALTHY, wholesome, holistic dog food manufacturers, which really DO provide wonderfully healthy food for our dogs.

(c) 2004, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs