Is Your Dog Food Safe - or Deadly?

More and more we're hearing about the disgusting things that some manufacturers are putting into dog food.

Last week I read that some even use the bodies of dogs and cats who have been put down in shelters. The poison used to kill them does NOT cook out in processing, so it goes into the food - and into our pet's tummies. The whole thing is way beyond awful.

But, even without poison and pets in the food, many dog foods contain other ingredients that aren't exactly health food. For instance, the first (primary) ingredient in Iams is corn. Dogs need meat, not corn. Plus, corn is known to produce allergies in many pets. Not only that, it contains "by products." By products can be just about anything (like other dogs and cats, intestines, feces, etc.) and are probably not something you'd eat if you knew about it.

But hey! The veterinarians sell it, so it must be good, right? No - not good. Just expensive and profitable.

So, I decided to read all the labels in town and find something with no by products.(It's a small town - one grocery store and one feed store that sell pet food.) That led me to Nutro. It was the only one I found without by-products.

But, in reading the analysis now, I see that it isn't so good either. Just expensive.

I had already stopped buying canned dog food, opting instead to create the soft portion of their diet from meat and vegetable scraps from our own human food. They love it and I know they're not getting any by-products.

So now, I guess my only option is to head to the "big city" and find a store that sells good food. Or maybe to buy on line. According to the pet forums, there are several brands for sale that are actually nutritious food for our dogs. Solid Gold, Eagle Pack, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, Mulligan, and Fromm are a few that were mentioned.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to see an analysis of the brand you're now feeding, go to http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/information.html

They have about 1,500 brands analyzed there, and I found other pages on the site to be equally interesting.