Dogs and cats deserve healthy food, too

Care for your beloved pets with a tender loving diet and supplements.

How healthful is your pet's diet? When you open that can, tear open a pouch, or pour the dry food, do you really know what you're feeding your dog or cat?

Experts agree that, like humans, the best diet for pets would be home cooked. However, due to time constraints and myriad responsibilities, this is not feasible for many loving pet owners.

Here are some things you should be aware of when shopping for a commercially prepared food.

Additives & preservatives

When choosing a commercial pet food, be on the look-out for harmful chemicals. BHA and BHT are preservatives which are, according to The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, both "known to cause kidney and liver dysfunction." In his book, Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, Pitcairn says that sodium nitrate in food, used as a preservative and red food color, "can produce powerful carcinogenic substances know as nitrosamines." The common preservative ethoxyquin, he warns, "is among the compounds most suspect as causes of severe health problems in dogs."

Other chemicals to be aware of include artificial dyes, various forms of sweeteners and artificial flavorings.

Pet-grade and the 4-D's

Meat termed "pet-grade" comes from sources labeled as the 4-D's: dead, dying, disabled, or diseased (including cancer-ridden carcasses). "The meat scraps," reports Pitcairn, "can also contain hormone levels comparable to those that have produced cancer in laboratory animals." Other ingredients commonly used in pet foods "include food rejected by the USDA for human consumption, such as moldy grains or rancid animal fats," says Pitcairn.

Enzymes and other supplements

CJ. Puotinen, author of The Encyclopedia, advises those who are not able to provide an all-raw diet for their pets to give their pets enzyme supplements. "[Such supplements] replace enzymes killed by the cooking and processing of food....Enzymes increase the assimilation of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in food."

Pitcairn recommends the use of a variety of nutritional supplements for pets, including bonemeal, lecithin, vegetable oil, and vitamins. "Part of the purpose of these supplements," he says, "is to fortify the diet with plenty of important vitamins and minerals." If you use a commercially prepared vitamin supplement for pets, Pitcairn warns, avoid those "containing the preservative sodium benzoate, especially for cats, for whom this preservative is a poison."

Providing pure water

Many humans are foregoing tap water for bottled, filtered, or otherwise purified drinking water. Pets deserve no less, and should have unlimited access to fresh water at all times. "The purity of your pet's drinking water," states The Encyclopedia, "is a serious consideration....Municipal water contamination has become a national concern now that chemical pesticides, fertilizers, industrial solvents, road salt, bacteria, parasites, and heavy metals have found their way into kitchen faucets."

An acceptable compromise

There are definitely some commercial pet foods that are better for your animals than others. Find a pet food without artificial colors or flavors, free of harmful preservatives, and prepared with ingredients that would also be fit for human consumption. Additionally, supplement your pet's diet to compensate for what might be lacking in their food, and always provide the purest drinking water available. Your pet will thank you for it by being healthy, happy, and energetic!

[Reference]

REFERENCES

[Reference]

Pitcairn, Richard H., D.V.M., Ph.D., and Pitcairn, Susan Hubble. Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. Emmaus, Penn.: Rodale Press, 1995.

Puotinen, CJ. The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1998.