Subscribe by Email
Subscribe in a reader
Pet
Mythbusters: 5 Pet Food Myths
Years and
years of marketing have perpetuated the greatest pet nutrition myth of
all – the belief that it’s totally appropriate for
a dog or cat to eat nothing but cooked, processed, preserved pellets
day after day.
But in reality, the first pet food was only created to
profit from by-products and ingredients deemed not fit for human
consumption.
The resulting pellets are great for convenience sake, in
that they require very little effort to feed. But kibble is far from being biologically |
|
appropriate for a living, breathing animal
that in reality thrives on fresh, REAL, homemade
pet food.
To
a certain extent, this myth was exposed with the recent pet food
recalls, as huge
numbers of pet owners became more health-conscious and began looking
into home-prepared
pet foods.
Unfortunately the same slew of media attention directed toward the
recalls gave birth to, and helped perpetuate, another slew of pet food
myths.
Many media reports, internet blogs, and chat room discussions
about the recalls also included false warnings about feeding a homemade
dog food or cat
food diet. In celebration of this flood of false information, we
present our list of the top 5 pet food myths that you’ll find
out there. Remember, these five are absolutely unfounded and 100% false.
Myth
#1: Garlic is toxic to dogs.
Lately
many articles written in response to the pet food recall, have included
ingredient warnings for people who are considering a homemade diet.
These warnings are regarding foods that are supposedly toxic to dogs.
And right there next to chocolate, they list garlic. The truth is,
garlic is indeed toxic to dogs -- IF YOU FEED 50 CLOVES OF GARLIC IN
ONE SITTING! I would imagine garlic would be toxic to anyone if fed in
that quantity. Heck, even water can be deadly if you drink too much of
it.
Obviously no one would ever feed that much garlic to their dog.
Truth is, when fed in reasonable amounts, garlic is a fantastic
ingredient to a homemade dog food diet. Not only is it a great natural
flea repellent, but garlic is also a tremendous antioxident and
detoxifying agent for dogs. For more information on the benefits of
garlic, visit http://sojos.com/garlicarticle.html.
Myth
#2: Dogs and cats cannot eat table scraps.
If
this were true, we’d be out of business! I’m amazed
every time I hear this one. Naturally, (for the record) when we refer
to table scraps, we are referring to healthy leftovers, not pizza,
chips, doughnuts, and French fries. With that said, yes, in some cases
dogs do experience loose stool after eating healthy table scraps. But
that typically happens to pets that have been limited to eating bland,
processed pellets their entire lives, and their bodies are not
accustomed to digesting a complex variety of nutrient-rich food.
When
an animal is properly transitioned to fresh, real food like humans eat,
they can easily digest a variety of foods including, yes, table scraps.
|
|
Just like
humans, dogs and cats absolutely thrive on fresh fruits and vegetables.
Some people maintain that fruits and vegetables must be ground up in
order for pets to properly digest them.
This can be true for some dogs
with very sensitive digestive systems. But by-in-large
most dogs and cats do very well on chunks of fruits and vegetables as
well.
Much like table scraps, it can take a little bit of a transition
period when
first introducing a new fruit or vegetable. But once
they’re used to |
it,
dogs and cats not only find great health
benefits from fruits and vegetables – but they also are
passionate for the taste! Fruits and vegetables to avoid would be
raisins, grapes, onions and highly acidic fruits like like oranges,
lemons, and tomatoes.
Myth #3: If dogs and cats eat
meat, it must
be cooked.
These days most people know this not to be true. But the more popular
raw meat pet diets become, the more it seems the commercial pet food
industry tries to convince the public otherwise. I guess we can expect
more of the same until the big commercial pet food companies come out
with their own raw pet
foods.
In reality, raw meat is probably the best thing you can do for your
pet. Much the same as wild animals and zoo animals, a pet’s
digestive system was designed to handle raw meat. That is not to say it
isn’t important to follow safe-handling guidelines, much like
you would for yourself. And, of course, every pet is an individual, and
some might prefer cooked meat or may have a compromised immune system
and unable to handle raw meat.
Typically, dangerous bacteria such as
salmonella are fought off your pet’s highly acidic saliva. As
an extra safe-guard, bacteria doesn’t have time to incubate
when traveling through a dog or cat’s short digestive system.
On a positive note, there’s a plethora of benefits that come
hand-in-hand with the naturally-occurring nutrients and enzymes present
in raw meat.
We don’t twist anyone’s arm, and you
can still cook the meat that you add to our foods (though we do
recommend adding a general vitamin/mineral supplement in those cases to
compensate for the nutrients lost in the cooking process). But in all
the years we’ve been advocating raw meat for pets (since
1985), we’ve never heard of one case where it had a negative
effect.
Myth #4: Dogs and cats should live on an all-meat diet.
Those that maintain that cats, and to a certain extent dogs, should
live on meat alone typically site animals in the wild as their proof.
While it is true that animals in the wild eat more meat than
domesticated dogs and cats, a few things must be kept in mind. First of
all, domesticated dogs and cats are not exposed to the same high level
of environmental elements that wild animals are.
| Visit Sojourner
Farms, and learn more about their fresh foods program for dogs and
cats, and how you can make all-natural, homemade pet food in minutes.
|
|
|
Domestic dogs and cats spend much more time
at rest (and on the couch), and as a result require less meat. In this
way, feeding an all-meat diet is like putting rocket fuel in your car.
Second, the first thing that animals in the wild eat when they kill
their prey is the contents of the stomach, which namely consists of
grains and plant-life. Plus wild animals do graze on grains and greens
in between feeding on raw meat. Make no mistake, our pet food mixes
have a high protein content – but we believe that variety in
the form of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs – in
addition to raw meat – is an essential part of any healthy
dog or cat’s diet.
Myth #5: Dogs and cats cannot eat grains.
Grains have definitely gotten a bad rap over the years. Mostly because
of the pet food companies that use low-quality “bottom of the
barrel” grains as affordable fillers.
Many feed-quality
grains are leftovers from the human-grade grain production process. And
the recent pet food recall, resulting from tainted wheat gluten,
hasn’t helped the reputation of grains as pet food. But make
no mistake, as long as you stick to whole
grains from high-quality,
“top-of-the-barrel,” human-grade sources,
they’re an excellent food for dogs and cats.
Grains are
chock-full of naturally-occurring nutrients and can form a fantastic
foundation for a healthy homemade pet food diet. The original Sojos
European-Style Pet Food Mix, which contains a variety of
whole, human-quality grains, has been around since 1985 – and
the results have always been consistently tremendous. For those with
dogs that do have genuine allergies to grains, we offer Europa
Grain-Free Dog Food Mix.
| Visit Sojourner
Farms, and learn more about their fresh foods program for dogs and
cats, and how you can make all-natural, homemade pet food in minutes.
| |
|
|
