Would you like to see your pet’s health improved without having to go to the vet for MORE medication and more of the same diagnoses? Would you like to help prevent your pet from getting sick in the first place? Would you like your pet to live a longer more productive life?

How many pets out there have hot spots, smelly ears with chronic ear infections, itchy skin, incessant paw licking, and frequent trips to the vet, tartar ridden teeth or allergies? Do you feel guilty feeding your pet a tiny amount of food because he’s overweight and he looks at you with those big eyes wanting more? How many of us have lost a pet to cancer?

If you want something better for your pet, or to possibly prevent these things from happening in the first place – read on….

I lost a dear friend, Tigger, to cancer several years ago. Since then I have been researching what I could have or should have done to have prevented this awful tragedy from happening. In my dearest memories of Tigger and with a lot of help from my biology and genetics background I now strive to help pets in a whole different way in addition to providing daycare and boarding.

In my business I see many pets come here with health problems and it has made me more than curious for years why all these problems exist. When I have a vet fax me vaccination information for an upcoming stay, sometimes all the visit records come through as well. In this I have seen 5-10 pages of visit after visit and most of the time antibiotics and/or some kind of steroid like prednisone being prescribed like it was candy! Yet still these problems recur. Most places charge extra for administering medications. I would be a rich woman if I did that.

Why is it wolves or bobcats don’t have these problems? Why did our ancestors’ pets not have these problems 100 or less years ago? This country spends billions of dollars each year to feed and treat our pets better than those before them. Yet still, 50% of dogs over the age of 10 will die from cancer. The occurrence of bloat has risen some 1,500% in the last 30 years. Pets are becoming as obese as humans are! Fat animals don’t and won’t survive in the wild. Dogs are on Phenobarbital and potassium bromide for seizures at an alarming rate. At times it seems our pets see the vet more than we see our own doctors. I will also admit that technology allows for better diagnoses nowadays and that may be why we see a higher incidence in these problems that may have gone undetected before.

So many pets come through here with skin conditions and other health problems that are ‘just a part of his life’. Why is this? Could it have something to do with what he eats and just as importantly, what he does not eat?
Dogs have eaten their natural diet for 14,000 – 5,000,000 years, depending upon how one defines the difference between dogs and wolves. Dogs have eaten overly processed dry dog foods (Science Diet, Iams, Solid Gold, Nutro, Ol’ Roy, Innova, Nature’s Recipe, etc) for less than 100 years. Commercial dog foods were first introduced in 1860, but did not become popular until Purina developed the extrusion process in 1957. For 99.995 – 99.999% of the canine species existence, dogs have eaten their natural, ancestral diet. For only 0.005% of their history, they’ve eaten overly processed dry dog foods.

I am now going to quote information from an independent report done by The Animal Protection Institute. If you would like to know more about the information provided here, please contact me as it is rather lengthy.
This report explores the differences between what consumers think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands — the pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets and discount stores — but there are many highly respected brands that may be guilty of the same offenses.

What most consumers don’t know is that the pet food industry is an extension of the human food and agriculture industries. Pet food provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered “unfit for human consumption,” and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts.

Three of the five major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational companies: Nestlé (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina products such as Dog Chow, ProPlan, and Purina One), Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe), Colgate-Palmolive (Hill’s Science Diet Pet Food). Other leading companies include Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba and Iams), Mars ( Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, Waltham’s), and Nutro. From a business standpoint, multinational companies owning pet food manufacturing companies is an ideal relationship. The multinationals have increased bulk-purchasing power; those that make human food products have a captive market in which to capitalize on their waste products and pet food divisions have a more reliable capital base and, in many cases, a convenient source of ingredients.

Ingredients

Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determine whether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of quality. It would be impossible for a company that sells a generic brand of dog food at $9.95 for a 40-lb. bag to use quality protein and grain in its food. The cost of purchasing quality ingredients would be much higher than the selling price.

The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass — bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans — is used in pet food, animal feed, and other products. These “other parts” are known as “by-products,” “meat-and-bone-meal,” or similar names on pet food labels.

Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone meal are common ingredients in pet foods. The term “meal” means that these materials are not used fresh, but have been rendered. What is rendering? Rendering, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is “to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting.” Home-made chicken soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms over the top when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process. Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid materials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial contaminants, but may alter or destroy some of the natural enzymes and proteins found in the raw ingredients. Meat and poultry by-products, while not rendered, vary widely in composition and quality.

What can the feeding of such products do to your companion animal? Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. The cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers — such as rendering, extruding (a heat-and-pressure system used to “puff” dry foods into nuggets or kibbles), and baking — do not necessarily destroy the hormones used to fatten livestock or increase milk production, or drugs such as antibiotics or the barbiturates used to euthanize animals.

 

Animal and Poultry Fat

You may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a new bag of pet food — what is the source of that delightful smell? It is most often rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans.

Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. “Fat blenders” or rendering companies then pick up this used grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies and other end users.

These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of these sprayed fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog or a cat to eat something she would normally turn up her nose at.

Wheat, Soy, Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein

The amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over the last decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry, cereal and grain products now replace a considerable proportion of the meat that was used in the first commercial pet foods. The availability of nutrients in these products is dependent upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of carbohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient value the animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of the nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. The availability of nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats is poor. The nutrients in potatoes and corn are far less available than those in rice. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used for filler or fiber, and have no significant nutritional value.

Two of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly dry foods, are almost always some form of grain products. Pedigree Performance Food for Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. 9 Lives Crunchy Meals for cats lists Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first three ingredients. Since cats are true carnivores — they must eat meat to fulfill certain physiological needs — one may wonder why we are feeding a corn-based product to them. The answer is that corn is a much cheaper “energy source” than meat.

Additives and Preservatives

All commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay fresh and appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a preserving process itself, so canned foods contain less preservative than dry foods. Some preservatives are added to ingredients or raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be added by the manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to ensure that dry foods have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping and prolonged storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved with either synthetic or “natural” preservatives. Synthetic preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For these antioxidants, there is little information documenting their toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic use in pet foods that may be eaten every day for the life of the animal.

Contaminants

Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product meals are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be rendered until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate more than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce during their growth and are released when they die. These toxins can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins.

The 100% Myth — Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition

The idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a companion animal will ever need for its entire life is a myth.

Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, companion dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or intolerance to pet food ingredients. The market for “limited antigen” or “novel protein” diets is now a multi-million dollar business. These diets were formulated to address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods that animals have developed. The newest twist is the truly “hypoallergenic” food that has had all its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller than can be recognized and reacted to by the immune system.

Dry commercial pet food is often contaminated with bacteria, which may or may not cause problems. Improper food storage and some feeding practices may result in the multiplication of this bacteria. For example, adding water or milk to moisten pet food and then leaving it at room temperature causes bacteria to multiply. 8 Yet this practice is suggested on the back of packages of some kitten and puppy foods.

Pet food formulas and the practice of feeding that manufacturers recommend have increased other digestive problems. Feeding only one meal per day can cause the irritation of the esophagus by stomach acid. Feeding two smaller meals is better.

Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are sometimes inflated so that the consumer will end up purchasing more food. However, Procter & Gamble allegedly took the opposite tack with its Iams and Eukanuba lines, reducing the feeding amounts in order to claim that its foods were less expensive to feed. Independent studies commissioned by a competing manufacturer suggested that these reduced levels were inadequate to maintain health. Procter & Gamble has since sued and been countersued by that competing manufacturer, and a consumer complaint has also been filed seeking class-action status for harm caused to dogs by the revised feeding instructions.

Urinary tract disease is directly related to diet in both cats and dogs. Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are often triggered or aggravated by commercial pet food formulas. One type of stone found in cats is less common now, but another more dangerous type has become more common. Manipulation of manufactured cat food formulas to alter the acidity of urine and the amount of some minerals has directly affected these diseases. Dogs also form stones as a result of their diet.

History has shown that commercial pet food products can cause disease. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is now known to be caused by a deficiency of the amino acid taurine. Blindness is another symptom of taurine deficiency. This deficiency was due to inadequate amounts of taurine in cat food formulas, which itself occurred because of decreased amounts of animal proteins and increased reliance on carbohydrates. Cat foods are now supplemented with taurine. New research suggests that supplementing taurine may also be helpful for dogs, but as yet few manufacturers are adding extra taurine to dog food. Inadequate potassium in certain feline diets also caused kidney failure in young cats; potassium is now added in greater amounts to all cat foods.

Rapid growth in large breed puppies has been shown to contribute to bone and joint disease. Excess calories and calcium in some manufactured puppy foods promoted rapid growth. There are now special puppy foods for large breed dogs. But this recent change will not help the countless dogs who lived and died with hip and elbow disease.

There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be related to excess iodine in commercial pet food diets. This is a new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when canned food products appeared on the market. The exact cause and effect are not yet known. This is a serious and sometimes terminal disease, and treatment is expensive.

Many nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based commercial pet foods. Some have occurred because the diet was incomplete. Although several ingredients are now supplemented, we do not know what ingredients future researchers may discover that should have been supplemented in pet foods all along. Other problems may result from reactions to additives. Others are a result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or other toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet food is understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that diets composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meat meals are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect for your cat or dog.

We suggest changing your pet’s food after every bag or case of canned food. You can also add a different protein source through offering treats such as raw meaty bones for dogs and Raw Diet for dogs and cats that we also sell here.

The raw foods come in very convenient portion sizes as well as convenient bag sizes. I am the first to admit I am terrible at thawing out my own dinner from the freezer. With these raw diets, you don’t have to. Our staff dogs just eat it right from the freezer. No mess, no hassle. This also gives them much needed chewing time to help their teeth. In feeding part raw or the frozen or freeze dried bones there is no need to add Glucosamine to their diet. The amounts of Glucosamine in a commercially prepared kibble are not going to have enough of what most large breed dogs need anyway. Nature did not intend for dogs to get their calcium and Glucosamine in such an artificial way.

Is your dog or cat overweight? Do you struggle w/ how much to feed and feel you are not giving them enough when they are still overweight? Most pet foods rely on inexpensive carbohydrates for the bulk of the product and that is what keeps them fat. Dogs and cats need meat, not carbohydrates. These diets are our doing and it is not Nature's way. Just as doggie daycares were seen as overindulging our 4-legged friends 10-20 years ago (depending on what part of the country you are from) so have our pets’ diets. One study done by a fellow who deals with show and performance dogs showed a conservative estimate that about 50% of the dogs that he sees are overweight; approximately 25% are actually obese. These are not couch potato dogs. These are dogs whose owners expect them to jump in obedience, to run over rough ground in retrieving tests, and to perform in agility. And we are seeing the sad results: ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments (often both legs), severe degenerative arthritis in dogs in their prime, degenerative disk disease, and many more conditions that are caused by, or exacerbated by excess weight. Now imagine our dogs that most are not in competition. I would bet the numbers for being over weight and obese are much higher. Our over weight cats can suffer from severe problems as well.

To reduce the weight we must first decrease the amount of calories in the diet. Why not start with carbohydrates? Commercial dog foods are loaded with empty carbohydrates that dogs and especially cats do not need. All 3 major textbooks used in veterinary schools in the US agree. The carbohydrate content of the natural diet of dogs is about 14% mostly from fruits and vegetables, with little if any coming from grains. The carb content of most commercial dry foods ranges from 50%-90%! Grains are used because they provide inexpensive calories. Why pay for and abuse your pet’s digestive system with a product that is going to raise insulin levels and raise metabolic conversion only to produce more waste. Unfortunately many people think if they pay a low price for a large bag of food, they are getting a good deal.

These diets we offer are obviously more expensive than mass produced diets as they contain higher quality ingredients that cost more. The savings you will see with fewer vet visits and a longer more productive life from your pet will more than outweigh the cost. We do pride ourselves in charging less than the other few places in town who offer Nature’s Variety. Let me know if you are interested in trying any of these products. We have a $2 off coupon for everything but the canned that you could use if you want to try it. We get promotional offers as well being providers of Nature’s Variety. Every can and raw diet comes in beef, chicken, lamb, duck, rabbit & venison. Every kibble diet comes in beef, chicken, lamb, venison and salmon. They also offer wholesome grains variety with each meat or total grain free kibble called Raw Instinct that is great for pets with skin irritations or allergies. All these are available in dog and cat varieties.All of the canned food comes in 5.5 oz but the better deal is the 13 oz. All canned dog food comes with the Taurine in it that is necessary for cats’ diets. This makes the large cans a better deal for our cat people, although the small cans are designed for freshness that cats prefer.

 

 

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