All Things Dog Blog |
| Our Dogs' Food: The Big Decision Posted: 26 May 2011 09:01 PM PDT by Carrie Boyko, CEB
Every family has to set their food and health priorities, both for themselves and for their pets. Visit any pet products store you choose and you're sure to find out that there are dozens and dozens of brands to choose from. Even after you ask your veterinarian about food, you may still find yourself wondering, "What's best for my dog?" The experts say it all comes down to balancing healthy sources of protein, fats, fruits, vegetables and fiber. For my family, there is the added criteria of leaving the synthetic toxins behind. Conventional Pet Food As I've discussed recently, conventionally produced food ingredient sources have a dirty little secret: Produce, including meats, vegetables, fruits, and even dairy, are laced with invisible layers of toxins from pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, antibiotics, and even growth hormones. It's these unlisted, invisible ingredients that we have chosen to avoid. Natural Pet Food Your next best choice will be a natural dog food. The term 'natural' has been tossed around quite loosely. You can look it up in Wikipedia and you'll find that even these definition experts have thrown up their hands and said, "Who knows?" However, its intention is to indicate that food is minimally processed and has no synthetic ingredients added. Organic Pet Food Moving on to the organically certified foods, you'll find there are 2 grades. The USDA's National Organic Program has two levels of organic labeling. Third party certification is overseen by the USDA, and certified by a small number of highly regulated organizations. Their certifications provide confirmation of 70-94% organic ingredients in a product with their labeling. Our dog food company calls this "Natural Plus". The next level of organic certification is, as you may have guessed, the most difficult to achieve. The USDA Organic label, earned directly from the USDA, is your sign that a product is guaranteed to be 95-100% organic. Sounds great! Let's all run out and find USDA Organic dog food...right? Sorry to say, it's not that easy. Pet food manufacturers making USDA Organic pet food have come and gone. The stiff criteria makes this cream-of-the-crop level a hard task to accomplish over the long term. When I went shopping for brands that I could purchase locally with good availability, I learned very quickly that changing brands regularly would likely be inherent in the decision. That wasn't part of my plan, so we chose to go with a brand of dry food that offers third party organic certification, has a U.S. production facility, and is widely available. In addition, this company's track record impressed me, along with the fact that their canned dog food was available with the USDA organic label. No, I don't use canned food on a daily basis. But my dogs certainly do enjoy the treats I make with it, and it's quite handy for delivering medication via meatballs. I'll be sharing some of my Fidos' favorite recipes with you, so hang in there until after I announce the Big Reveal and the product giveaway announcement—tomorrow! HINT: If you don't want to miss a single opportunity like a terrific dog food giveaway, be sure to grab your FREE subscription to All Things Dog Blog in the dog house on our sidebar. Did you miss the first two installments of this series? Just to make sure we get the word out to all the pet owners we can, I'm linking this post up to April's Friday blog hop. Didn't she do a great job of helping me redecorate my site?!!! Let's send her some comment love. We'll also be linked up to Hoppin Weekend, where I've been finding some new families with dogs that are interested in what we share. I hope you enjoy visiting some new sites:   
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from All Things Dog Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment