What's Better? Store Bought Food or Home Made?

In 2007 there was a huge pet food recall and it pet owner worried that their pet food was going to poison them. Since that scary time you have most likely been more careful when choosing what you feed your dog. But honestly, how are you supposed to know what you are really feeding your dog? You can make your pet home made food and while it's worth it, it can be very time-consuming. Otherwise you need to know what commercial pet food is both safe and nutritious.

When it comes to what to feed your dog there are many ideas, facts, and theories. Too often we let our pocketbook decide which food we are going to get our pet. It may be easy to do this, especially when the monthly budget is taken into consideration, but it's absolutely not the best idea. Why would you feed your dog crappy ingredients and pay more money for vet bills later on that could have been avoided in the first place by choosing the right food?

The dog food that you find in your local grocery store, discount store, or dollar store is not usually the healthiest kibble you can get your dog. More often than not, these brands are full of fillers that are lower in quality and inexpensive. Yes they are cheaper but they are not recommended. Take a peak at your ingredient list and you will see the ingredients are not all that great.

When you see the word meat without an actual animals name in there you have to wonder where the meat came from. Stay away from anything that says meat like meat by-products - what meat by products? Or meat and bone meal - what meat are they talking about?. What you want to see is words like chicken, beef, venison, fish as a top, meaning number 1, ingredient... And please avoid foods that have corn as their number 1 ingredient. Chances are it's also number 3,5, and 7. You are feeding a dog, after all, and not a pig or a cow.

If your pet is delighted with the store brand food there is a very good, and sad, reason for that. Chemicals have been added to this cheaper food which creates a pretty color and nice smell which Fido finds attractive and covers up the real make up of this food. With a little practice you will know exactly what kibble has this and what doesn't. Coloring agents, drying agents, and texturizers are just some of the tell-tale ingredients that should cause you to sit up and take notice.

There are some really good premium commercial dog foods which provide high grade ingredients with no harmful preservatives etc..., but they will cost a premium price and this may make you more inclined to prepare your pets meal yourself.

This way you get to choose directly what is going into their dog’s bowl. There is a difference between table scraps and home made dog food. There is a proper balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats for your dog, and you have to know what will provide your pet with an easily digestible form. I know there is a lot of talk about the BARF diet. Everyone has heard of it but noone really knows what it is. I've fed all my dogs this diet and let me tell you they thrive.

And now–what does BARF stand for? Seems you can say it stands for a couple of things, but the most often cited explanation is Bones And Raw Food. The other one floating around on the Internet is Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, which is attributed to Dr. Ian Billinghurst, one of the original Barfers.

The BARF diet does take a little knowledge and research, and time, on the owners part. The purpose of your diet is too feed your dog the most appropriate and healthy diet you can.

BARF is about feeding a biologically appropriate diet for a dog that is made up of raw whole foods like those eaten by their ancestors. This would include muscle meat, bone, fat, organ meat and vegetable materials and any other foods that are just like what the wild ancestors ate.

The important thing you, as a dog owner, should know is that commercial dog food is not all the same. You can learn much more about the differences of dog food by becoming educated in label reading, and the AAFCO standards. You make the decision for your pet so you need to figure out what suits you best.

Sharda Baker has published several dog ebook and audios, including the internet best selling "Complete Guide to Your Dog's Nutrition".

Visit the link below now for Sharda's Special Free Dog Food Report.
http://www.dogsfooddangers.com

Splitting on Pet Food Labels

Meat - beef, chicken, lamb or venison should make up the bulk of what your dog or cat is eating and with a raw or homemade diet it is pretty easy to accomplish this task.

But with commercial pet food you get what you get so to speak and most people are quick to point out that chicken or fish or whatever meat is the first ingredient on their bags or cans label. Therefore they believe or picture it as the main ingredient in the food. But is it really the bulk of the food your pet is eating?

The first ingredient listed on a label always makes up the bulk of the food. That applies to all food that comes pre-made, canned, or bagged. So if corn is the first ingredient on the list than you already know that it's making up the most of the food and you can bypass it for a more meaty meal.

But pet food companies obviously want you to buy their food at the least cost to them. Because corn is an inexpensive filler for pet food pet, along with other grains, these pet food companies want to put it in there without us realizing that it is making up the majority of the food and they use label splitting to accomplish this.

Let's use corn as an example. There is a long list of corn products that can be used in pet food. These include:

Corn Flour - This is the small size, hard part of ground corn that contains modest amounts or none of the bran or germ.

Corn Bran - This is the outer covering of the corn kernel and contains little or none of the starchy part of the germ.

Corn gluten meal - This is the dried remains from the corn after the starch and germ are removed. It is a by-product of processing corn to make corn starch and corn syrup.

So to demonstrate food splitting let's use these corn products in an ingredient list.

Chicken, Corn Flour, Soybean Mill Run 16% (source of fiber), Chicken By-Product Meal, Powdered Cellulose, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Corn Bran, Soybean Oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, Vitamin D-3 supplement, folic acid, sodium selenite, biotin. A-4586.

So we may think that chicken is the biggest ingredient and corn flour is the second biggest ingredient but that's not really the case here.

When we pull out all the ingredients that actually come from corn we can see that they are spread around the ingredient list and clearly added together would make the bulk of the food. Corn as a whole would be the greatest ingredient of this food. And that's how food splitting works.

So check out your pet food and see if you've been feeding what you think you've been feeding or is food splitting with corn or other grains happening to you.

If it is you can bet that it's a trick to make you think otherwise and how much would you trust a food making company that's trying to trick you?

Learning your way around pet food whether it be commercial or homemade can be confusing. Learn how to make the healthiest decision for your pets by doing your research. Learn more at http://www.dogsfooddangers.com.

6 Tips For Choosing the Healthiest and Safest Dog Food

When you are trying to figure out which is the best pet food for your dog can be a complicated task that in the end still results in you being unsure if you made the right decision.

With pet food commercials telling you that their food is the best it can be hard to decipher who is really telling the truth.

If you plan on feeding kibble to your dog then here are 6 tips to follow.

1. Always read the ingredients. This is the most important step as ingredients may differ from what the front of the package or commercial looks like or says.

2. If the first ingredient is corn or grain then put it back on the shelf and move on. Grain and corn are not needed by our pets for proper nutrition. It's used as filler in pet food because it's cheap and - well, filling. So a good rule of thumb would be to buy a kibble with no or little grain or corn in it period.

3. Look for BHA and BHT in the ingredient list. Both of those are known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction and are banned in some European countries. Side note: look for them on human products that you eat as well.

4. Meat should be number one and two on the list. Dogs need meat. They are carnivores. You just have to look at their teeth which are meant for ripping and shredding meat to know that. You want a meat source that is not a by product or such. It should just say beef or venison or chicken.

5. Check the expiry date. Because it is a processed food that is preserved to keep it on the shelf it should have an expiry date. Rancid dog food is not something they should be eating.

6. Check the preservative used. If Ethoxyquin is used you don't want it. It is suspected of causing cancer and you really want a more natural preservative. Yes this will reduce shelf life but would you rather have a cancer free dog or longer lasting kibble?

This is just really scratching the surface of what to look for in your pets food but it is a really good place to start.

For a more detailed report on what kind of food you should be buying for your unique dog to give the best nutrition possible check out Dogs Food Dangers at http://www.dogsfooddangers.com.