I haven't fed grocery store brand dog foods for well over 15 years. The last one I remember purchasing with any regularity was Purina One. But even still, I've only been feeding human grade food for about the last 3 or 4 years. So, even though I have fed what I thought were the better foods, it's only been pretty recent that I figured out, hey, if it isn't fit for human consumption, do I really want to feed it to my dogs? Uhhh, duh! But why did it take me so long? I'm an educated person. I ate well myself and knew all about proper nutrition for humans. Why didn't the same standard cross over for my dogs? The truth is, just like the millions of people who have been scared straight by this recall, I truly didn't know. I had absolutely no idea the origin of the ingredients in most commercial dog foods. I never thought about it and assumed the ingredients were safe. I assumed they had to pass the same regulations as our foods. Ha! As they say, ignorance is bliss - until reality comes crashing down on you. I remember the woman who set me straight. Her name was Evie Velez. At the time I was confidently feeding Nutro Natural. When she told me that was a sub par food, I was flabbergasted. How could that be??!! And then she explained the difference between most commercial and human grade foods. My first question, why isn't this information getting out to the public. And most importantly, whose responsibility is it to educate them? Breeders? Vets? Trainers? The government? Ha Ha?
Is this what had to happen in order for people to understand that any food unfit for human consumption shouldn't be fed to our pets??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
My officemate laughs at me for the amount of money I spend on my dogs food. She buys mostly store brands and whatever is on sale for her dogs - always dry food. She takes them to the vet once a year for shots. This is the ONLY time her dogs are ever on a leash or put in a car. She says they are happy and healthy.
For most people in Southern Maryland, dogs are just dogs, they are not part of the family. Giving them baths or washing their bowls is unheard of. At least her dogs do sleep in the house at night.
So, I don't think any pet food recall will be a lesson or a wakening for many people. Dog food is dog food and quality isn't an issue.
Your supose to wash their bowls? ;)
LOL, Janet.
Sadly, Sandy, you are probably right for a good many pet owners, particularly those in rural areas. But, give overall the pet care industry brings in over 30 billion dollars a year. I believe the number of concerned, informed and conscientious pet owners continues to grow. My clients and customers make up that group. I have fielded countless frantic "what should I feed my dog" phone calls within the past few weeks. So overall, I think it will be a rude awakening and it's up to us who are "in the know" to help educate them.
Now, go talk to your neighbors about the raw diet! ;-)
No wait, you use bowls..... sorry I couldn't resist. What about raised bowls, stainless verses plastic and ceramic? Oh no I got it feed on paper plates. Sandy I know many people like that, what ever is on sale. But ask them as I have what are your favorite brands and do they switch when some other brand is on sale.
I'm scared of you guys' neighbors!! ;-)
"you guys'"? Is that Southern slang for "your"? ;)
Can you tell a quality dog food by what comes out the other end? Because what I switched to is much nastier then what use to come out!
Janet do you mean nastier as in smell? Amount? Consistency? I think a lot depends on the actual ingredients in the food. Some proteins smell worse than others. We can tell this from the foods we eat. However, in general, it's said the higher quality, human grade dog foods would produce less stools because the nutrients are more usable and result in less waste products. But also, remember that some dog foods that aren't human grade use products of no nutritional value to mask smell and firm up the stool as selling points. Eukanuba was one of the first to do this back in the 80's. They start putting beet pulp in the food to produce less, tighter stools and everybody loved that. Now, very few of the human grade food companies use beet pulp because its nutritional value has become questionable.
What I look for is the consistency of my dogs' stools to be, well, consistent. If it's runny one day, solid the next, then runny again, that means there's a problem somewhere. If my dogs are really gassy on a particular food, then, that means there is a problem somewhere, like maybe they need some probiotics to put their digestive tracks in order.
In response to Janet's comment:
The only real reason I switched from Solid Gold to Nature's Variety was the gas. Cote was going fine but Phoenix had some killer gas.
Now with the Nature's Variety and I've noticed the end of the gas, but also I've noticed a decrease in amount. Both dogs love it and even Pepper wants in on the N.V action :)
Post a Comment