Today’s commercially prepared pet foods often defy common sense and may even contradict nutritional science. Outside of a few metabolic similarities to typical omnivores (the conversion of Carotene to Vitamin A, Tryptophan to Niacin, Cysteine to Taurine and Linoleate to Arachidonate) our canine friends still remain anatomically and physiologically related to their carnivore ancestor the wolf.

A Closer Look at Packaged Pet Food

If a dog food ingredient label says beef, chicken or lamb then, by law, it contains real meat. Beef, chicken or lamb meal is the “rendered” product of those meats. When an ingredient list says meat “by-product“ then it contains everything but meat. See the AAFCO definitions »

Let’s take a closer look at many of today’s commercially prepared diets. To arrive at the carbohydrate content of each dog diet you add the following:

Protein + Fat + Fiber + Moisture (usually 10-12%) and then subtract from 100%

Green = good (actual meat source)
Yellow = cereal grain (not optimum)
Red = bad for pets

The choice you make in selecting which cat or dog diet to feed your pet is the most important in terms of creating a healthy pet. How can today’s pet foods not be good for our pets… after all, look at the claims made by every pet food manufacturer.

Today’s foods are not what I would consider “best” for your pet in terms of good cat and dog nutrition. They often contain more grain than meat - with most of the grain coming from leftover human food and beverage industry scrap. The meat sources aren’t much better either. The bottom line is today’s pet food manufacturers are provided minimum nutritional guidelines and for them to remain competitive from a price standpoint – minimum cat and dog nutrition is exactly what they provide. It would be much more expensive to provide a higher quality, high protein dog food that met “Optimum” nutritional guidelines.

What about the long term effects of feeding minimal cat and dog nutrition to your pet. Many animal nutritionists feel that over time this is a recipe for disaster. Overall, our pets are getting sicker according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. When you consider that allergies, autoimmune disease and immune deficiency conditions, diseases of major organs and cancer are increasing faster than the general population of dogs…something is wrong. Just because a dog doesn’t appear ill or exhibit the classic signs of a nutritional deficiency doesn’t mean it is a vibrantly healthy pet.

With large stomachs and a short intestinal tract…the ideal canine diet should be a high protein dog food, with low to moderate in fat and very low in carbohydrate.

In fact, according to all nutritional experts, dogs do not require any carbohydrate at all. As such, they would benefit from higher quantities of higher quality meat sources, less carbohydrate and fiber and more biologically available vitamin and mineral sources in their daily diet.

Marketing hype would have you believing that today’s cat and dog diet is all that is needed for optimum cat and dog nutrition and well-being just like MacDonald’s would have you believe that a Big Mac, fries and a Coke is a healthy, nutritious meal as well.

The cat and dog nutrition facts are:

• The commercially prepared cat or dog diet is based on minimal nutritional requirements
• Protein / carbohydrate levels are determined by ingredient cost rather than nutritional adequacy
• Protein quality of cereal grains and animal by-products (a measurement of essential amino acid availability) is poor
• Foods that list meat like chicken, lamb or beef first on the ingredient list are able to do so because fresh meat contains moisture that makes it heavier than most other ingredients. They also divide the cereal grain sources into multiple forms…sometimes two or more kinds of the same grain i.e. whole ground corn, ground yellow corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal, corn grits.
• Natural or Holistic brands do not provide anything more natural or holistic than the majority of commercially prepared cat or dog diets
• Extensive cooking often destroys naturally provided vitamin content
• Mineral sources the packaged cat or dog diet routinely use oxide or sulfate forms that are poorly absorbed and are not easily utilized by your pet
• Artificial colors and preservatives are routinely used to enhance appearance and preserve ingredients that easily become rancid
• The normal distribution chain for the commercial cat or dog diet involves a lengthy process of trucking, storage and shelf sitting…fresh takes on a new meaning when it comes to pet foods

Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Definitions

AAFCO sets the standards and guidelines for pet food manufacturers.