Hows your PET FOOD?

[Karlin]

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/petfood2.html

From an "alternative" view magazine, Nexus, is this article about pet food. His dog got sick, the vet found various heavy metals in the pet food.

[pet food includes meat from] "4-D" (dead, diseased, dying and disabled) animals, slaughterhouse waste, roadkill, garbage from restaurants and grocery stores, and even zoo animals. The use of such ingredients is perfectly legal.

If you are one of those people who think that "because it is on the shelf, it is safe, they regulate these things", you have some catching up to do.

Whatever it takes, any way at all that they can make money, that is what they do. Thats the corporate motto - increase shareholder value. Executives get creative or lose thier jobs.

It doesn't matter if it is against the law - as long as the fines are less than the extra profits.

A lot of these things don't even have laws - there is none in Canada, says this article, about pet food - you can mush together anything you want and call it pet food and sell it. If the dog dies, you could sue but "The pet food company chose to take the position that it was not responsible." is what they will say in court and there is no law, like I said.

it doesn't matter if what they do is immoral:
- certain industries have toxic waste that costs money to dispose of, and have been found out to be sending it to the pet food company who puts it in the pet food. The pet food company might be a owned by the same people, for eg..

That was the deal with Flouride too, but for humans to dispose of. Dental health? Its a lie - flouride hardens enamel allright, makes it brittle and it cracks and you get to see the dentist then. The medical industry is full of these stories, and they are not all stories.

There, I just KNEW you would find that interesting.
Do you have a pet?

PS - have you ever lived near a pet food factory? i did - 10 blocks away, and it could be AWFUL. I found out it is mostly AMMONIA that is given off when they cook the grain and renedered meat products. [/quote]

 

[bevvyd]

I'm not surprised at all. For a while we were buying the store brand (Western Family) dog food. I noticed that the dog food starting looking greener and there was NO way I could have fed that to any dog. I've switched and I won't be going back.

I've been finding lately that the store brands are changing either suppliers or quality levels and the consumer isn't finding out until the package is open. Specifically some TP could have been used for folding paper airplanes it was that stiff. Not on my tushy, nope no way.

 

[Reverend Blair]

We buy our pet food at the pet food store. Since Zeke got diabetes and we have to make sure she eats when she gets her shot we've been mixing in canned food...1/2 can between 4 dogs. Dogs really love the smell of horsemeat. Try opening a can of that when you're hung over.

 

[#juan]

Wouldn't it be great Bev,

if all toilet paper was sold in the same size rolls with the same number of sheets. It is a bizarre game where there are 29 different sizes of roll along with single ply and double ply and different pricing. Makes it difficult for my small brain to decide which is the best deal. :roll:

 

[bevvyd]

I just stick with 2-3 brands and take whatever one of them is on sale. I save my brain power for the munchie isles as that's where the majority of my grocery budget is spent. Now why is that?

 

[Durgan]

What I feed my small dog. Pom, female 12 lbs.

Every Day. A small piece of raw frozen liver about 2 inches in diameter cut into small pieces.

Plus in a two day cycle.

Day 1. Small bowl with a soft boiled egg and some cooked oats with a little milk to break it up, plus a spoon of cottage cheese.

Day 2. One sardine, oats, cottage cheese.

Repeat the two day cycle.

I put out dried commercial dog food all day in a bowl that can be eaten at random. This is a small amount to suppliment some ingredients that I think are beneficial. Meaning I don't know, and hope the road kill has some ingredients that have some science behind it. This science bit may be simply mass advertising, but probably worth the risk.

My dog never gets commercial treats, which I consider equivalent to junk food for people.

Periodically I give a small cross cut raw bone with the marrow as a treat. Never cooked bones.

From the table I may give a taste of my food and I mean a taste. I try bits of any vegetables with various degrees of success or mostly failure.

My criteria for amount of food necessary is from the dogs feces. My dog goes once in the morning the feces is soft and solid without running. Maybe once more in the afternoon only a little.
But never more than twice a day. The bone with the marrow once a week or so may cause a little more looseness, but I consider the bone marrow as beneficial.

I weigh my dog weekly and make sure the weight is fairly constant around 12 lbs in my case.

Summary: Egg, Sardine, Liver daily, oats, is main diet. Supplimented by commercial road kill dried, this is probably not required. Never commercial treat. If the weight is rising I remove the commercial road kill for a few days.

Exercise : Free run in back yard, plus 4 km walk daily.

For training ,I use praise and stern pointing finger for admonition.

My dog is alert, bright, active, friendly, and fun to have around.

I take the advertising claims with a grain of salt. Clap-trap based often on psuedo science, if any science at all. After all people have been feeding dogs for centuries without TV advertising. Was health the same or better I don't know.

 

[bevvyd]

Durgan, great post and welcome.

Good for you for taking such good care of your baby, see I use praise too (teehee). As with all animals each have their own special needs. Saturday I spent the better part of an hour with my vet discussing feed and grains as there are alot of misconceptions and untruths out there, plus a big price difference in some cases.

Have you checked out the natural doggy bakeries? They have wholesome snacks, places like Bosley's and Mr. Pets et al usually have a basket of them by their tills.

 

[Twila]

My cats get Eagle brand.

They were on Gold Seal Catz n Flocken, but my cat was throwing up and I was informed by the petfood store they'd switched formula's and other peoples cats were having troubles also.

No more problems for my kitty. The only thing he throws up now are hairballs. But that's to be expected he's a turkish angora. Lots of fur