If your pet really likes the food, does it mean that it is “good” for them? Are they getting all the nutrition they need? Pets can seem to like a certain dog or cat food and can even appear to be doing fine on it. But that doesn’t mean they are getting all the nutrients they need. In fact, they may even be ingesting harmful ingredients!
Flavour Enhancers in Pet Foods
It is sadly common for producers of “cheap” dog and cat foods to use flavour enhancers. Artificially increasing the palatability of the food allows them to use lower quality ingredients (i.e. lower cost products) to produce a food that pets will like. Consuming these low-quality foods can cause your beloved canine or feline companion to develop food intolerances in the future.
Pet Food Recalls
Do you remember the big pet food recall in 2007 that resulted in a few thousand pets dying? Some of these recalled foods had aminopterin (a chemical used as rat poison), melamine (a kind of plastic also used as a fertilizer), and cyanuric acid (often used to stabilize chlorine in swimming pools).
By themselves, small isolated doses of melamine and cyanuric acid do not necessarily kill pets. However, when these two chemicals are combined, they produce an insoluble crystal that can quickly block the kidneys and result in renal failure. Menu Foods, a large producer of pet foods for various big box store lines in North America, ended up recalling more than 60 million containers of pet food.
When it comes to your pet’s health, it’s really worth taking the extra effort to select a food brand that doesn’t use “resourceful” suppliers.
Pet Food Regulation in North America
All pet foods sold in North America must meet AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) requirements. AAFCO establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods. This includes setting standards pets need for protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, etc., and establishing definitions of ingredient terms.
However, AAFCO does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet foods in any way. These standards are set as minimums and maximums, not optimums. The responsibility lies with the pet food company to formulate a pet food that meets AAFCO standards. Also, these standards do not even begin to address the whole concept of what should be bioavailable to the animal.
To establish this point, a few years ago Market Place created a “pet food” made with an old leather boot (protein), motor oil (fat), shavings (fibre), and a vitamin/mineral supplement. Using these “ingredients”, they were able to make a product that met AAFCO standards for a “Nutritionally Balanced” food!
AAFCO does not establish quality standards, and does not specify where the proteins or fats have to come from. Therefore, just because a food meets AAFCO standards does not mean that it has quality ingredients that are bioavailable to the animal.
Dead, Dying, & Diseased Animal Ingredients in Pet Foods
Unfortunately, the pet food industry has a whole other issue of some pet food manufacturers using dead, dying, and diseased animals. Their ingredients can include cancerous organs, euthanized pets and zoo animals. How can quality, healthy proteins come from these kinds of sources?
Our furry, four-legged companions deserve proper pet nutrition that not only tastes good, but is actually good for them! We recommend taking a look at the ingredient panel on your pet’s food. Research the ingredients you don’t recognize- you may be surprised by what you learn! If you have any questions or would like to discuss high-quality pet food options, stop by our store and we will be glad to help.
