Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Rule of Thumb for Pet Food Quality
When choosing pet food, it's good to remember this basic rule of thumb for food quality:
- Foods bought at your local generic grocery store are the absolute worst quality foods available. By and large, these pet foods are manufactured by companies that are small sibling companies attached to large human food/product companies. These pet foods generally are made up mostly of low-quality by-products -- unusable left-overs from the sibling human food companies. There is also the chance that some of these foods will contain 4D meats: dead, diseased, disabled and downed animals.
- Big-box chain stores usually sell middle of the road quality foods. Some have by-products, some don't. But mostly, they are foods made with cheaper ingredients, and you will often find ingredients such as corn, wheat, and other low-quality fillers. Again, depending on brands, you may run into 4D meats.
- Independent health-focused pet food stores are where you will find the highest quality processed pet foods. Plus, you will often find knowledgeable staff who will be able to help find a food that works best for your and your animal's situation. Also, you are more likely to find foods that come from companies that are willing to disclose their resources and manufacturing processes--much more important than you might think.
- Prescription foods at veterinarians' offices: You will find various foods recommended and sold at vet clinics, but more often than not, they are prescription diets from very large food companies, many of which are just bigger subdivisions of the very food companies sold at the grocery stores. People often go home with these foods following their appointments with little thought about the quality of these foods. I suggest that if you are feeding a food such as this, that you take a good look at the ingredient list. These foods tend to be made with low quality ingredients. I recently had a vet prescribe one of these foods for my cat, at which point I asked him what was in the food that would address the cat's problem. He was honest and said he did not know, and that he wasn't a nutritionist. I took it upon myself to research the food, and find myself the equivalent in a higher quality food. In our case, it was an ingredient within the food that I could find in supplement form, and simply add to my cat's already high quality raw food diet. There are usually better alternatives out there to the foods recommended at vets' offices.
A word on by-products. Surprisingly in the last couple weeks, I've had a number of people ask me what's so bad about by-products, anyway. By and large, by-products are not really bad at all. By-products tend to be the left-overs from the meat industry that we humans will not eat, but for animals who tend to eat , say, a whole chicken, by-products are meaningless to them. However, here is the key to why by-products are bad in pet foods, especially when they are the first few ingredients listed: a food made up primarily of by-products is sorely missing of nutrients. It's one thing to eat a whole chicken with the so-called by-products included, it's quite another thing to eat a meal mostly consisting of tendons, feet, intestines, etc., without any of the key nutrients for animals' health such as muscle meat, bones and organs.
I hope this basic rule of thumb for quality will be helpful. The more you can do for your animals' health while they are young and fit, the more you will keep them healthy when they are older and more vulnerable to diseases. Sort of an apple-a-day mentality for our pets.
- Foods bought at your local generic grocery store are the absolute worst quality foods available. By and large, these pet foods are manufactured by companies that are small sibling companies attached to large human food/product companies. These pet foods generally are made up mostly of low-quality by-products -- unusable left-overs from the sibling human food companies. There is also the chance that some of these foods will contain 4D meats: dead, diseased, disabled and downed animals.
- Big-box chain stores usually sell middle of the road quality foods. Some have by-products, some don't. But mostly, they are foods made with cheaper ingredients, and you will often find ingredients such as corn, wheat, and other low-quality fillers. Again, depending on brands, you may run into 4D meats.
- Independent health-focused pet food stores are where you will find the highest quality processed pet foods. Plus, you will often find knowledgeable staff who will be able to help find a food that works best for your and your animal's situation. Also, you are more likely to find foods that come from companies that are willing to disclose their resources and manufacturing processes--much more important than you might think.
- Prescription foods at veterinarians' offices: You will find various foods recommended and sold at vet clinics, but more often than not, they are prescription diets from very large food companies, many of which are just bigger subdivisions of the very food companies sold at the grocery stores. People often go home with these foods following their appointments with little thought about the quality of these foods. I suggest that if you are feeding a food such as this, that you take a good look at the ingredient list. These foods tend to be made with low quality ingredients. I recently had a vet prescribe one of these foods for my cat, at which point I asked him what was in the food that would address the cat's problem. He was honest and said he did not know, and that he wasn't a nutritionist. I took it upon myself to research the food, and find myself the equivalent in a higher quality food. In our case, it was an ingredient within the food that I could find in supplement form, and simply add to my cat's already high quality raw food diet. There are usually better alternatives out there to the foods recommended at vets' offices.
A word on by-products. Surprisingly in the last couple weeks, I've had a number of people ask me what's so bad about by-products, anyway. By and large, by-products are not really bad at all. By-products tend to be the left-overs from the meat industry that we humans will not eat, but for animals who tend to eat , say, a whole chicken, by-products are meaningless to them. However, here is the key to why by-products are bad in pet foods, especially when they are the first few ingredients listed: a food made up primarily of by-products is sorely missing of nutrients. It's one thing to eat a whole chicken with the so-called by-products included, it's quite another thing to eat a meal mostly consisting of tendons, feet, intestines, etc., without any of the key nutrients for animals' health such as muscle meat, bones and organs.
I hope this basic rule of thumb for quality will be helpful. The more you can do for your animals' health while they are young and fit, the more you will keep them healthy when they are older and more vulnerable to diseases. Sort of an apple-a-day mentality for our pets.
