What Exactly Does Commercial Dog Food Contain?

Commercial Pet Food For Your Dog?

by Brigitte Smith

Have you ever wondered what exactly commercial pet food is made up of? If you’ve never applied your mind to this question, perhaps you should.

What you feed your dog is really SO important for your dog’s ultimate health and longevity. It impacts on his/her susceptibility to illness in a major way.

In fact, if you really want your dog to be as healthy as s/he can be, you should probably stop feeding ANY of the widely available commercial dog foods.

I’m referring to the types of dog food commonly found in your supermarket. And you’d be surprised to learn the dog food ingredients in even many of the supposedly superior brands sold in some supermarkets, pet food shops, and even by many vets.

The cheaper the brand, then generally the more full of garbage it is, but even many of the more expensive brands leave much to be desired.

What do you think is an ideal diet for your dog?

– fresh, juicy, chickens?
– choice cuts of fresh beef and lamb?
– perhaps you’d add a few healthy grains (e.g. rice, maize, wheat, etc.) for variety?
– perhaps you’d expect the odd fresh herbs, vegetables and fruit to be part of a healthy dog’s diet?

You’d be right.

But how many of the above types of dog food ingredients do you think actually go into commercial pet food?

A lot? Only a little? If you said yes to either of these, you’d be dead wrong.

The average commercial dog food bears NO relation to the above list of choice ingredients, despite what pet food manufacturers display in some of their marketing, and despite what the list of dog food ingredients on the pack or can might tend to indicate.

There is very, very little (if any) of the above ingredients in the average commercial dog food. And by the time the third rate excuse for food been overcooked at sustained high temperatures, and sprayed with preservative agents, the resultant “food” (and I use that term loosely, because commercial kibble and canned pet food contain little, if any, real nutriiton at all) can be very harmful to your dog’s health and well being indeed.

Yes, if you’re feeding your dog ANY commercially available dog food, you’re potentially exposing your dog to a source of chemically enhanced, overprocessed, garbage, the meat source for which may apparently even include diseased carcasses which have been left for up to 5 days before being processed.

Enough to turn you off for life? It was for me. As you may know, I’ve always fed my dogs a diet of mainly raw meat and bones. But I like to give them a little treat in the mornings rather than just feed them once a day (which, by the way, IS all a dog NEEDS). I used to give them a handful of dry dog food each morning, sometimes the cheaper supermarket brands, and sometimes the “brand” names which cost 4 or 5 times as much. Now that I know better, I never give my dogs any of that garbage.

I should say that SOME of the expensive pet foods which are readily available ARE better than the cheaper brands. BUT, most are still far from an ideal diet for your dog, so I have to wonder whether the extra money is money well spent. I have come to the conclusion that it is not.

If the product says it’s “with real chicken”, did you know that it only needs to contain 3% of chicken? Only 3%.

If the first item listed is meat or chicken, did you know that this doesn’t mean that’s the main ingredient? How can that be?

Well, take a close look at the label. It’s likely to list a meat first, and then 2, 3, 4 or 5 types of grains. This is a very misleading tactic used by the commercial pet food manufacturers. Each of the grains individually may be slightly less in quantity than the meat. But added together? They’re probably nearly 2, 3, 4 or 5 times the quantity of the meat ingredient.

After having looked into this issue in a great deal of detail, I’m convinced that the most healthy diet for your dog is mainly fresh meat, with some fresh veges and a little grain thrown in. And this alone is probably NOT enough, because of the leeching of nutrients from the soil due to environmental soil erosion that is extremely widespread today. You need to give your dog a vitamin supplement always, for optimal health.

And for the very best health, there ARE some reputable HEALTHY, wholesome, holistic dog food manufacturers, which really DO provide wonderfully healthy food for our dogs. 

If you’re game to read the whole shocking report published by the U.S. Animal Protection Institute, about what’s really in commercial pet food, it’s posted at: www.HealthyHappyDogs.com/APIArticle

You can read about the vitamins I recommend at Recommended Pet Vitamins

And for details of the best dog food manufacturers, see all the details here: Really Healthy Premium Pet Food

(c) 2007, Brigitte Smith, Healthy Happy Dogs

Brigitte Smith is a dog lover with a special interest in holistic dog health. Her other site, Healthy Happy Dogs, has pages and pages of information on improving your dog’s health naturally.

For your special FREE report – “How to Improve Your Dog’s Health Within 30 Days – Maybe Even Lengthen Your Dog’s Life!”, Click Here for Your Free Dog Health Report!