Shedding Some Light on Pet Foods
By Ronald G. Biese, DVM
.JPG) |
| Ronald G. Biese, DVM |
One only has
to walk down the aisles and aisles of pet foods available and your head will spin. Then there’s the daunting task of reading the
label on the back of the bag. Is the content good enough for your precious dog
or cat? It would appear one needs a
degree in nutrition to help you decide the right food for “Fluffy”. I
keep it simple.
First of
all, a dog or cat food does not exist that is classified as perfect or “the
best” food for all pets. If it did, the
others simply wouldn’t exist. Often, the
salesperson working at your local pet store is 17, maybe 18 years old at best,
and they are giving advice that they have limited knowledge in. Or, a breeder or trainer will claim that this
particular brand is “the best” and no other foods shall be fed besides this
one. So, how do we make a good and
informed decision?
I put the excellent quality brands on the top
shelf that choosing any one of them will give great nutritional value to your
pet including a quality coat, less shedding and lead to over-all better
health. These companies hire
veterinarians as nutritionists to over-see what’s being put into their
foods. These companies perform many
tests, called quality assurance, on a regular basis to ensure the foods they
produce are of the highest quality. They
often choose human grade ingredients from reliable sources, and they run trials
on animals (in a very humane way) to ensure the foods are providing the utmost
nutritional support to the animals health.
The middle
shelf pet foods are produced by reputable companies that do a decent job at producing
quality products. They often do not do
testing on animals themselves, but will extrapolate the data the others have
obtained and put together a food with mid-grade ingredients. They often will put more money into marketing
instead of research so they can sell more of their food.
The bottom
shelf foods are much easier to recognize, because they are rarely advertised
and they sell the foods at a fraction of the cost of the other companies. They will have no quality assurance testing
in place. They certainly will not have a
veterinary nutritionist on staff and research is out of the question for them. The ingredient quality will be low no matter
how the labels compare to other companies foods. Keep in mind the list of
ingredients does not equate to quality.
So, if you
are looking for a great food to feed “Fluffy”, here’s what you do. You can take the easy route and ask your
veterinarian. Or, you can do a little
homework on your own. You should be able
to call or email any company making pet foods and ask these questions:
1. Do you hire veterinarians as
nutritionists?
2. How often do you run quality
assurance testing on the foods you produce?
If they can’t answer that question, it is a clear sign they are not a
good company.
3. Are any tests done on animals to
ensure you are putting in the nutrients in that my pet needs, and are the tests
done humanely?
I will share
few other pieces of advice. The rule of
thumb that states, “You get what you pay for”, does apply to pet foods. The cheaper the food is, the more shedding
your pet will do, the duller the coat, the more stool you will have to pick up
and the more health problems your pet will have over time. This will lead to more costly veterinary
care! Also, please don’t get caught up
in the marketing schemes of “grain free” and “all natural”. Proven research indicates that our fury
friends digest and use grains perfectly.
Period! The term all natural
means nothing more than companies selling more food with that claim on the
label. Remember, rat stool and saw dust
is all natural, but it doesn’t mean they have any nutritional value. That term “all natural” is not defined by the
government, so it can mean anything. By no
means does it equate to nutritional value.
It simply sounds good and sells more food.
Examples of
foods by using the shelving system discussed above include, but are not all
inclusive:
1. Top shelf foods- Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Fromm and
Purina ProPlan
2. Middle shelf foods- Iams, Blue Buffalo, Nature’s Recipe, Natural
Balance, and Purina ONE
3. Bottom shelf foods- Ol’Roy, Sprout, Gravy
Train, Gaines Burgers, and Prince
For all sorts of great websites on pet nutrition, please click the link below!
No comments:
Post a Comment