Cat Counselor

Understanding the Ingredients in Dog Food by Rod Angus

Once people learn about the ingredients found in dog food brands they switch to feeding their dogs a healthy, home-made nutritious diet instead. They have seen the light and understand that their pets can live much longer and healthier lives when their diet is full of quality, fresh food. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to understand why this is so.

Dog food is made up of animal byproducts. When animals such as cattle, pigs and chickens are slaughtered, humans get the best bits - the lean muscle which has to be trimmed away. Typically about fifty percent of an animal carcass remains, and these leftovers -- including heads, feet, bones, blood, intestines, lungs, spleens, livers, ligaments, fat trimmings, unborn babies, and other parts -- are used in pet food, animal feed, fertilizer, industrial lubricants, soap, rubber, and other products.

The nutritional and dietary quality of byproducts is not a constant; each batch can be different. It wasn't that long ago that roadkill was being used as part of dog food. Although there are still no laws or regulations against the practice, using roadkill in dog food is uncommon today. However, animals labeled as "4D," which means dead, dying, diseased, or disabled are still legitimate ingredients in dog food, even though they were only recently banned for human consumption.

The picture is just as grim for grains and vegetable dog food ingredients; they are no better than the meats and some are also labeled as unfit for human consumption. The amount of plant products used has risen dramatically in recent years, and now replaces a large proportion of the meat that was common in the earliest commercial dog foods. As you can imagine, this change has created severe nutritional deficiencies in our pets.

Most dry dog foods contain huge amounts of cereal grain or starchy vegetables in order to give the food texture. These high-carbohydrate plant products also provide a cheap source of energy in the form of calories.

Gluten meals, which are high-protein extracts from which most of the carbohydrates have been extracted, are often used to boost protein percentages instead of expensive animal-source ingredients. Corn gluten meal is the most common plant product for this purpose. Wheat gluten is also used to create shapes in the food, such as cuts, bites, chunks, shreds, flakes, and slices, and as a thickener for gravy. In most cases, dog foods containing vegetable proteins are amongst the poorest quality fare.

Even the low-carb dog food, where grains are substituted with potatoes, green peas, and other starchy vegetables, offer no particular advantage to pets - except for dogs that are allergic to grains. The big problem with dry low-carb diets is that they tend to be very high in fat, and this can result in weight gain.

The lack of nutrients is not the only problem as dog food is almost drowning in additives and preservatives. Manufacturers need to ensure that dry foods have a long shelf-life (typically 12 months) to remain edible through shipping and storage. Therefore, fats sprayed on foodstuffs to make them more appealing to dogs are preserved with either synthetic or natural preservatives. This is hardly the way to give an animal the rich, healthy and nutritious diet that it needs. Consequently, it is plain to see why so many pet owners are exploring their kitchens to feed their dogs delicious and life-enhancing home-made fresh meals.

Rod Angus runs the very popular website Dog Food Recipe Answers. Want to learn more about dog nutrition? Discover more with a *free mini-course* at http://www.dogfoodrecipeanswers.com/ingredients-in-dog-food

For information on Proper Nutrition And A Healthy Diet proven to improve health and behavior LIKE MAGIC.

Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/Understanding-the-Ingredients-in-Dog-Food/1107040

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