Animal Pets and Friends Articles and Websites

Because we owners - and not the dogs themselves - are the ones choosing what our dogs eat and what kind of nutrition they get, it's up to us to know exactly what we're feeding them, and how it affects their health and well-being.
Dog food and dog treats make feeding our pets easier, but what's really in those cans and plastic bags? In most cases, sad to say, it's some of the worst things you could feed your dog. To know what your dog food is made of, read the label. The components are listed by weight, and the first few ingredients comprise what makes up the majority of the dog food.
Don't buy foods and dog treats that list "meat byproducts" or a lot of wheat and grain ingredients like "potato product" or "grain fermentation solubles." These grain by-products tend to add large amounts of carbohydrates in your dog's diet. Many of these foods have up to 70 percent of carbohydrate ingredients, while the dog's body is typically made to handle a diet that is less than 30 percent carbohydrate. Many cheap pet food manufacturers like to use wheat by products like corn and wheat because they act as extenders- letting them make more food from inexpensive ingredients. Excessive carbohydrate intake, though, may cause health problems for your dog: maldigestion, and obesity, along with all the health problems that being overweight brings.
Animal by-products aren't much of an improvement. While they do contribute protein in the diet, this meat is basically parts that are thrown away because they're unfit for human consumption: lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, and stomach and intestines. To make things worse, there is little to no regulation for the sources of this meat: it could be from a meat processing plant, but it could also be roadkill, or 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying) livestock.
So it pays to read those ingredient labels, and to understand what those ingredients mean. If you invest in buying a premium dog food, like the Wellness dog food brand, you can be assured that your dog is eating right. Dog food and dog treats from brands like these are made of primarily whole foods like deboned chicken and lamb meat, and other nutritious ingredients, so that your dog can live a long, happy and sickness-free life.

Author's Resource:

Buying premium dog food can help you avoid harmful ingredients that can be found in many dog food and dog treats brands today. Those cheap brands have animal and grain byproducts which come from questionable sources and can lead to problems like digestive diseases and obesity.

Visit Animal Pets & Friends for more pet and animal articles.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5

Not yet Rated