Best Dog Food - By-Product Debate
I started to get serious about health issues for dogs once mine started having them at the age of six. Instead of wasting time watching TV, lately, I have been studying ways to ensure my dogs have the longest lives possible.
People who are acquainted with me also know that I think the main reason for health problems with dogs is the commercial dog food. I have made it my purpose in life to educate people about the best dog food and strongly recommend homemade dog food.
The truth is most people, even if they do switch to a homemade diet, will need to supplement with some brand of commercial food. That is why I spend so much time on the best dog food subject.
There is much debate about the addition of meat by-products as well as some other controversial ingredients. This can be identified as chicken, poultry, beef or just about any kind of meat with the phrase by-product behind it.
So what is it and is it good for your dog? If you do research on the subject you will find two groups, one defends by-products as good, and the other saying it is toxic for your pet.
It may depend, lets look at what defines a poultry by-product.
“Poultry by-products consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of slaughtered poultry carcass, including necks, beak, feet undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, “except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices”The problem is you don’t know what is in a by-product ingredient at any give time. There is no standard that says there are so many feet and so many intestines or any consistency of nutritional value what so ever. The truth is none of this stuff is fit for human consumption.
Some will debate that a wild dog will consume anything that is found on the by product ingredient list and this is why it is alright to give this to your dog. Although there is some truth to it, it is like saying that humans could eat from dumpsters and garbage cans if necessary.
Because I want the best possible nutrition for my dog, I’ll avoid those foods that contain by-products and stick with the best dog food with natural ingredients.
Mike Considine has devoted a big part of his life researching the pet food industry looking for the best dog food for his two dogs. His top ten list shows how to select the best dog food brands.