Learning About What's in Commercial Pet Foods
Instead of trying to list and rate the long list of commercial pet food brands, this page will tell you what to look for and how to read and understand the content labels on the bags of kibbles or pet canned food!
For content labels, the ingredients are listed in order of percentage weight. For good pet food the main ingredient should be meat so the first ingredient should be listed as lamb, beef or chicken. The main meat ingredient should not say meat by-products or meal, as this can include things you would not like to feed your pet, like feathers, beaks, tumors or diseased organs. Most of the top reputable brands will have human grade meat and will say so on the bag. Be careful to look at all the ingredients not just the first one though. For example you might see Chicken listed first and think the pet food contains lots of meat but the rest of the listed ingredients might be be soy, corn, corn gluten, brewers rice, rice flour, and rice gluten. By looking carefully at all the items in the list and adding them up you might be surprise to learn that some pet foods contain more fillers (like corn, brwer rice or gluten) than actually chicken in this product.
To be on the safe side you should avoid any artificial coloring, flavoring or preservatives. In particular you should avoid Ethoxyquin, BHA and BHT which can cause health issues like liver problems and cancer. Do also take note that what is listed as "Animal Fat" does not usually mean good quality oils, and can be by-products of animal processing. On the other hand ingredients listed as specific oils like Flaxseed Oil or Salmon Oil or better choices.
Avoid the following ingredients:
Here are a shortlist of Good Things to Look for:
CANNED
The same things apply here. Fortunately there are at least a few healthier choices for pet canned foods out there that have human grade meat and vegetables as ingredients. Do remember to watch out for and avoid food with salt or other additives.
In some cases semi-moist foods can include chemicals such as propylene glycol, color enhancers, and lots of sugar, this makes them very poor choices in spite of their direct to the bowl convenience of use. Canned dog or cat food are also more expensive than dry kibble type of pet foods.
For content labels, the ingredients are listed in order of percentage weight. For good pet food the main ingredient should be meat so the first ingredient should be listed as lamb, beef or chicken. The main meat ingredient should not say meat by-products or meal, as this can include things you would not like to feed your pet, like feathers, beaks, tumors or diseased organs. Most of the top reputable brands will have human grade meat and will say so on the bag. Be careful to look at all the ingredients not just the first one though. For example you might see Chicken listed first and think the pet food contains lots of meat but the rest of the listed ingredients might be be soy, corn, corn gluten, brewers rice, rice flour, and rice gluten. By looking carefully at all the items in the list and adding them up you might be surprise to learn that some pet foods contain more fillers (like corn, brwer rice or gluten) than actually chicken in this product.
To be on the safe side you should avoid any artificial coloring, flavoring or preservatives. In particular you should avoid Ethoxyquin, BHA and BHT which can cause health issues like liver problems and cancer. Do also take note that what is listed as "Animal Fat" does not usually mean good quality oils, and can be by-products of animal processing. On the other hand ingredients listed as specific oils like Flaxseed Oil or Salmon Oil or better choices.
Avoid the following ingredients:
- Beet Pulp which contains way too much sugar and fiber and is a filler that's poor in nutrition.
- Beef Tallow comes from processed tissue of cattle that is low in linoleic acid, which is needed for skin and coat health
- Corn and Corn Gluten Meal is actually the dried residue from corn after the removal of the germ, this can cause the kidneys and liver to work overtime. Corn is also the No. 3 common cause of food allergies in dogs
- Rice Bran is the outer coating of the rice kernel, with little of the starchy part of the germ and is basically discarded food by products low in nutrients. Rice Gluten is similar to corn gluten with little good nutritional value.
- Sorghum is the ground grain of the sorghum plant and it is difficult to digest especially for the simple digestive system of our cats and dogs.
- Soybean Meal is the actually the by product from grinding soybeans, it is the flakes which remain after removal of most of the oil from soybeans by extraction. It is low protein filler and one of the main causes of allergy of dogs.
- Wheat and Wheat Gluten - again these are low quality fillers and highly allergenic.
- As you might have inferred from the above list, any filler that pet manufacturers can think and use are mostly low in nutrition and generally not good for your pet.
Here are a shortlist of Good Things to Look for:
- Human Food Grade ingredients
- All Organic ingredients with as little artificial ingredients as possible
- No food processing by-products
- Meat should as large percentage by weight as possible, the combined percentage by weight of all fillers should not be more than for the meat ingredient.
CANNED
The same things apply here. Fortunately there are at least a few healthier choices for pet canned foods out there that have human grade meat and vegetables as ingredients. Do remember to watch out for and avoid food with salt or other additives.
In some cases semi-moist foods can include chemicals such as propylene glycol, color enhancers, and lots of sugar, this makes them very poor choices in spite of their direct to the bowl convenience of use. Canned dog or cat food are also more expensive than dry kibble type of pet foods.
Supplementing a Commercial Pet Food Diet
If you do decide to do dry commercial pet food like kibbles, you can definitely add some steamed or pureed vegetables into the meal daily, and also some supplements like Salmon Oil, Yogurt, Probiotics, digestive enzymes and specific supplements that would benefit your animal companion. Try and get as good a quality kibble as you can, FDA meat based with minimal fillers and supplement, supplement supplement!
We highly recommend supplements to round out the ! We are living in a far from perfect world, the food sources are not perfect either, we are bombarded with chemicals in food and the environment, and many of our animals are sick, over-vaccinated and need supplementation.
Supplements is an important part of any cat or dog's diet. Even animals raised on a strictly natural raw food diet can benefit from the right nutrient & mineral supplements. However there are also many proponents or raw or home cooked food that do not supplement but the reason they can go without supplements is that they are feeding an extremely healthy diet and making sure the vitamins and minerals are supplied by the foods on a daily basis. That's great if you have the time and resources to do it right. But for the rest of us, we do recommend supplements myself in general.
We highly recommend supplements to round out the ! We are living in a far from perfect world, the food sources are not perfect either, we are bombarded with chemicals in food and the environment, and many of our animals are sick, over-vaccinated and need supplementation.
Supplements is an important part of any cat or dog's diet. Even animals raised on a strictly natural raw food diet can benefit from the right nutrient & mineral supplements. However there are also many proponents or raw or home cooked food that do not supplement but the reason they can go without supplements is that they are feeding an extremely healthy diet and making sure the vitamins and minerals are supplied by the foods on a daily basis. That's great if you have the time and resources to do it right. But for the rest of us, we do recommend supplements myself in general.
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