Free Report on why there are 110 Million Sick Pets....
and what you can do about it!
Nutrition....the Foundation of Good Health
By: T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM
Unfortunately for our pets who cannot make decisions about what they will
eat, there are products being presented to them that are full of artificial
colorings, flavor enhancers to entice them to eat, ingredients such as meat
and bone meal that are so highly processed they have questionable nutritional
value, and preservatives to allow a long "shelf life" at the grocery
store.
This is a sorry state of affairs for our pets; and often the consumer
believes they are providing good food for their dog or cat!
The field of canine and feline nutrition is clouded with misconceptions,
misleading advertising and an overall lack of commitment to educate pet
owners. During 30 years of experience treating dogs and cats, plus 7 years in
Veterinary School, I have learned far more "on the job" than I ever
did in the few classes that were offered in College. I am committed to passing
on to you, the responsible guardians of our dogs and cats, some of the
important aspects of pet nutrition I have learned.
There are so many topics to be discussed that it is difficult to select
where to start. The Internet has many informative places to visit for
background on how to read pet food labels, what responsibility the Association
of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) has and even a web site about the
Pet Food Institute.
Many of these sites have factual information and are not slanted by pet
food manufacturers' marketing strategy, profit margins, or advertising
agencies' creative design departments. Other sources of information available
to the pet owner looking for good advice may not be quite so objective. The
Golden Rule you should keep in mind is "Does the advice make sense?"
For example, if some pet food "expert" tells you that eating
animal fat is bad for dogs and cats and that a plant source of fatty acids is
much better, your common sense should tell you that dogs and cats successfully
evolved over the eons by consuming animal fat in their diets. So does it make
sense to say that animal fat is bad for dogs and cats?
Another example is the common notion that lots of protein in a pet's diet
will cause kidney damage. Again, looking at the nature of the dog and cat as a
meat-eating animal and having evolved by capturing and consuming other
animals, we know their diets have always been high in protein.
Think about what makes sense IN NATURE. If you hear about a nutritional
product that "just doesn't make sense" ...be cautious about it's
factual basis.
Here is the biggest and most common misconception of all ... the promotion
of some low priced, grain-based foods as being a Complete and Balanced diet
for dogs and cats!
Having done physical exams on tens of thousands of dogs and cats and
learning from their owners what these pets are being fed has taught me that
dogs and cats look, feel, and perform better if they are fed a meat-based diet
rather than if fed a corn, wheat, soy or rice-based diet.
This does not mean that grains are bad for dogs and cats; they surely can
contribute certain limited nutrients to a good diet (mainly calories in the
form of carbohydrates). Nevertheless, many veterinarians believe that grains
should not be the foundation of a diet intended for a dog or cat.
I'll give you one second to answer this question. (It's so simple that you
won't even need the full time allowed!)
If you could pick only one product to properly feed your dog or cat, which
would you choose... corn or meat?
It has been shown that all-meat diets are harmful over a period of time
because of mineral and other imbalances. Properly formulated meat-based diets
have ingredients added in specific amounts to insure a nutritionally
beneficial diet. DO NOT feed your dog or cat a home-made ALL MEAT diet!
By-Products...
Are they getting a bad rap? As you read various pet food producers'
advertising material you will often find such statements as "No
By-Products Added!" or "Our food contains no animal by-products so
you know it's top quality".
I will let you decide if By-Products aren't good for dogs and cats after
you learn what they are. To most people the term "by-products"
congers up images of whatever is left over after the animal is processed, or
maybe whatever can't be used for human food, or maybe even what's cleaned up
off the processing floor at the end of the day. (I hear this misconception all
the time!)
It's time you learn what by-products are; so here is the legal definition
as described by the official agency in charge of directing animal feeding
practices in the U.S....AAFCO: Association of American Feed Control Officials.
By-Product... Secondary products produced in addition to the principal
products. Well, there is nothing here to indicate good or bad quality of
product. Maybe we should look at what the principal product is to find out
what the secondary products are; then we can decide if the secondary products
would make good food for meat-eating dogs and cats.
If Meat is the primary product (meat refers to the skeletal muscles of the
slaughtered mammal) then ...
Meat By-Products - the non rendered (uncooked), clean parts, other than meat,
derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs,
spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted
low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their
contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.
Think about this for a moment... in a free roaming and natural state,
wouldn't dogs and cats feed on exactly these parts of a killed prey animal?
Wouldn't a meat-eating animal consume the liver, stomach, lung tissue, and
intestines of the prey? These tissues are what we call by-products! They
happen to be very nourishing for meat-eating animals like the canine and
feline! My conclusion is that Meat By-Products are a good source of nutrition
for dogs and cats; what's yours?
(For hundreds of pages of definitions, rules for processing, amounts of
preservatives and additives allowed, feeding trial protocols and much more,
you should consider purchasing an Official Publication of AAFCO
Phone:1-404-656-3637. Ask for the AAFCO Official Publication of the
Association of American Feed Control Officials)
If you are interested in learning more about sensible nutritional
practices, I would recommend these two books, The AAFCO Publication and Canine
and Feline Nutrition by Case, Carey and Hirakawa; C.V. Mosby, for your
library. You could spend lots of interesting hours discovering what many
veterinarians and other animal caretakers have not ... that sensible
nutritional practices are based on proven scientific research.
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More on Grains
Contrasting Grain-based and Meat-based diets fed to Dogs and Cats
Pet food manufacturers know very well how to make a great diet just like
the one we put together. The problem is that it would be expensive to
produce, especially if eggs and beef and fish were in it. And to be
competitive with other pet food producers, the price of the food dictates what
the foundation (primary ingredients) of the diet will be.
ENTER CORN... it's cheap, takes up lots of room in the bag of food and in
the pet's stomach so it will "fill 'em up", it's a good carbohydrate
source so the pet will have some energy, it has a few amino acids in it so the
corn will contribute to the protein totals on the guaranteed analysis list,
and there's a cheap and steady supply of corn.
So the pet food manufacturer makes a corn diet, adds some "meat and
bone meal" (which has been cooked at least twice before it gets in the
bag and may contain too much calcium) to "complete the amino acid
profile" and adds a few other calculated substances so that COMPLETE AND
BALANCED can be stamped prominently on the pet food label.
The natural world was set up in such a way that, in reference to dog and
cat food, cheap ingredients based on plant products and resulting in cheap pet
foods always turn out to be a poor choice when attempting to nourish a meat
eater. Conversely, expensive substances such as eggs, meat, poultry and
fish are far better choices when designing a good diet for meat eaters.
NOTE! "Expensive" and "costs" are human terms and have
no relationship to what Nature set up regarding what constitutes an ideal diet
for a meat eater.
The above is adapted from an article written by T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM
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Your Education is important for your Pet
The Poisons in pet Food
http://www.patmckay.com/Article_2.html
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Tippy & Alfred eat ...... Life's Abundance
Premium Pet Foods!
If you would like to know more about a very high quality food that has the
right amount of meat proteins to carbohydrates, and one that contains no corn,
wheat, or by-products, then please take a few minutes and check out our site:
Here's one Alfred's satisfied
feline customers
Begging for more of the Life's
Abundance Cuisine
Tippy and Alfred both feel sooooooo much better now that Dave took them off
those crappy corn based foods.
They tried to tell Dave that they needed protein from a high quality meat
source...but Dave used to be a cheapskate and wouldn't listen.......
And even though Dave "thought" he was saving money by buying a
cheap food, it was actually costing him in the long run....Big Time!
Dave spent right around $1750 at the vets trying to keep the guys well.
Well Dave woke up when Tippy and Little Cat C had some serious health
problems. Tippy went through two major surgeries and almost died the second
time around.
We couldn't have bared the loss of our best friend, and Dave asked the vet
what was the problem. Point blank, he told Dave, "It was because of the
garbage food Tippy was eating."
Dave felt about 6 inches high, but it sure did wake him up!!!
We searched and searched to learn and educate ourselves, and finally ran
into Life's Abundance. The difference in
Tippy's and all our cat's health
after switching was just Totally Amazing!
It was like miracles happened, especially with
Little Cat C.
She had major skin and coat problems, skinny as a rail and Dave thought for
sure she was going to check out.
Today Little Cat C has all her hair back, & is now a really nice cat
(except when she comes in with wet paws and walks all over Dave's important
papers.....)
So while we are not allowed to make any medical claims that a certain brand
of food can alleviate, or cure any disease or medical condition.....we can
tell you we have testimony after testimony of how pets have gotten better
after switching to a high quality meat protein diet.
All we can suggest is, hey, try a bag of food and the right supplement, and
see what happens. While a good quality food does cost more up front, Dave is
actually saving tons of money cause Tippy and her cat friends no longer visit
the vet for health related problems.
Try
some of Tippy &
Alfred's Favorite Dining Cuisine here
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