Care to Your Dog!

Organic pet food is fast gaining popularity. The sale of organic pet food is increasing at a rate, which is three times greater than human organic food sale. People are getting aware that like humans, pets too need healthy and holistic food. Organic food means the food that is manufactured without the use of chemical substances like the preservatives, antibiotics, pesticides and hormones. Organic food is the healthier form of food, which contains 18 organic nutrients that are certified. Organic pet food has a positive impact on the health and the emotional well being of the pet resulting in increase in its longetivity.

The organic pet food helps in improving the skin conditions and allergies of your pet. This is because the organic food is manufactured using high quality grains and sources that are high in protein. Organic food also helps in increasing the immune system of your pet keeping away health problems like the skin infections. In addition, since the organic food is free of chemical substances, your pet is not affected by the health problems due to these chemicals.

The organic pet food is also low on fat and therefore, organic food does not create weight problems in your pet. It is studied that cats and dogs with greater weights are more likely to suffer from back problems, organic failure and hip dysphasia. Since, the organic food contains high nutrition per ounce of food your pet does not tend to over eat and gets satisfied with small amount of food does maintaining his body weight.

The organic pet food is conveniently available for dogs and cats. Though the organic food is expensive as compared to the non-organic pet food, they provide higher benefits to the pets. Organic dog treats are also available for the dogs, which are hypoallergenic and also free of wheat gluten. The advantage of organic pet food is that the organic food is easy for the pet to digest, as there are no chemicals added, which results in the absorption of all the healthy nutrients present in the food.

To cut down on the cost one can even make organic pet food at home. While preparing the organic food at home it is very essential to choose only the fresh ingredients including the poultry products like the beef, turkey, and chicken. It is advisable to use vegetables like the carrots as it contains beta-carotene, which is very useful for the pet.  It is also recommended that the meat be thoroughly cooked and blended together with the help of a food processor. The vegetables and the meat must be mixed and cooked together with the use of brown rice for the binding purpose. Thus, your organic homemade food is ready to be served to your pet.

The organic food made at home needs to be stored in an airtight container and should not be stored more than four to five days. Serving of the home made organic food should be done as earlier, practiced with the ordinary food. For example, if your dog is in a habit of eating one cup of dry food a day then the organic food must be served in the similar quantities. The home made organic pet food can be prepared once a week.

Depending on the processing methods employed to produce them, commercial pet foods fall into one or the other of the following two categories:  heat-treated and raw.

So-called ‘heat-treated’ pet foods are processed using all-too-often excessive levels of heat.  These foods are baked, cooked (canned), extruded, or heat-dried (often the case with kibble- or pellet-type pet foods).  Diets based on such heat-treated pet foods are probably the least desirable in terms of maintaining the health and general well being of most animals.

Heat processing of food destroys all enzymes, many vitamins and antioxidants, and changes the molecular structure of proteins and even fibers.  Attempts to replace nutrients that have been destroyed by heat with supplementary—and predominantly synthetic—nutrients can never compare nutritionally with the benefits and quality of natural, minimally treated nutrients.  At present, there is no way to replace structurally altered fibers or denatured proteins.  These alterations make heat-processed foods and their constituent nutrients less bio-available or beneficial, and certainly less effective in maintaining health, preventing disease, and helping the healing processes that normally follow injury.  Structurally altered pet foods may actually contribute to health problems (e.g., food allergies or inflammation).

Mineral and vitamin supplementation is often used to comply with the American Feed Control official standards for balanced or complete diets.  However, these standards can’t possibly reflect the actual nutritional requirements of every domestic animal species.  Accordingly, Dr. Junger believes that animals should eat a variety of foods that provide a broad spectrum of natural nutrients.  If animals are fed a variety of quality foods to begin with, supplementation with select high quality products can then be used to support good health at different life stages, to prevent age-related deficiencies, or to promote healing after injuries.

Today, with the availability of raw pet food options, consumers and their pets have good diet options.  The best raw pet foods are fresh, consisting of raw animal products, plant material, or a combination of the two.  Frozen raw pet foods are often a more convenient choice.  If fresh or frozen raw foods aren’t available, dehydrated raw foods are a good second choice.  The advantage of these dehydrated foods is that they can be stored easily for longer periods of time with little mess and no worry about short-term spoilage.

In terms of nutritional quality, not all dehydrated raw pet food products are the same.  Apart from the ingredients used, the quality of this variety of raw pet food depends largely on the temperatures to which their ingredients were exposed during the dehydration process.  Dr. Junger’s company, Onesta Organics, uses a truly gentle and slow dehydration process that preserves overall nutritional quality.

As with all pet food products, an important determinant of quality is the choice of ingredients used by manufacturers.  Onesta Organics uses only human grade ingredients that are certified organic by a USDA-accredited organic certifying agency.  This assures that the ingredients used are verifiably organic.  USDA organic certification also ensures that Onesta Organics products are free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), hormones, and antibiotics, and that no potentially toxic or otherwise unhealthy synthetics are added to your pet’s food.  It also means that all ingredients used are traceable back to their original source.  Such sourcing is impossible in the case of conventional pet food manufacturers.  Unlike the products of companies which state that their pet food is organic—and, in some cases, might even claim GMO-, hormone-, and antibiotic-free status—only USDA certified organic pet foods are inspected and scrutinized by an independent third party, which assures that all claims made are indeed true.  Aside from the fact that Onesta Organics uses healthful, certified organic ingredients in their raw pet foods, unlike other pet food manufacturers, this company sees no point in adding ingredients that are known to be highly allergenic to its pet food products.

The folks at Onesta Organics believe that USDA certified organic, raw pet foods are among the healthiest choices for your pet.  Moreover, it’s critically important for pet owners to provide their animals with a wide variety of food choices.  In most cases, such a broad-spectrum feeding approach will minimize, or perhaps even negate, the possibility of the kinds of nutritional deficiencies and chronic diseases in pets we hear about all too often these days.

Food plays a major role in keeping your pet healthy and ensures their proper growth. There are different brands of pet food available in the market. One of the popular pet food brands is the Merrick pet food. The Merrick pet food was founded in mid 1980’s and is a family owned business. The Merrick pet food is ranked as the second highest best selling pet food company across the U.S. The Merrick pet food is made using simple processing steps, which helps in retaining the natural benefits, avoiding any kind of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, thus offering simple, nutritious and healthy food products for your pet. The Merrick food product truly delivers the comfort for the soul of your pet with their healthy meal and treats. All the different types of the Merrick pet food features canned wet food, dry kibble diets, high-quality treats and long lasting chews.

Merrick pet food provides canned and dry food for the dogs, while canned food for the cats. The Merrick pet food, which is canned, is no less than a five star treat for your pet.  Every Merrick pet food is high on nutrition with farm fresh ingredients, vegetable and fruits. The Merrick pet food is manufactured using all the human grade ingredients along with fresh vegetables and fruits, with rich protein content. The specialty of the Merrick dog food is their use of apples in their dog food. The dog food contains a perfect blend of Fuji, granny smith, golden delicious and different varieties of the red apple, which is sure to provide your canine with the perfect taste and optimum nutrition. Some of the canned food for the dogs also consists of sweet potatoes, beef, carrots, green beans, granny smith and apples.

The canned food for the cats and kittens is sure to provide them with the required nutrients to maintain their activeness and healthy growth. If your cat likes seafood, then Merrick pet food has the right option for your cat. Apart from the farm fresh ingredients like the chicken, the Merrick pet food for the cats also serves specialized seafood products, especially for the cats. This canned seafood includes fresh stock of white fish, lobster, crab, shrimp and sardines, which are all blended perfectly together. To enhance the taste and the health, this seafood special cat food also includes fresh potatoes, carrots, fresh snow beans and delicious red apples.

The dry dog food is easy to store and serve. The dry food contains a home cooked feel, which is sure to be loved and enjoyed by your canine pals. The dog food contains of turkey, duck, chicken mixed with farm fresh vegetables. The Grammy’s potpie dry food for the dogs contains peanut butter cookies, cold pint of milk, which is sure to become your dog’s favorite food.

Merrick pet food also features treats for the canines, which are useful for keeping the different parts of the canines healthy like for the dentals, ears, bones, tendons etc. The other includes chews, hooves, sausages, rawhides etc. The treat consists of steak wafers, liver snaps and jerky squares, which is the most popular among the canines.

Every day, people by the millions pour food from a package into their pet’s bowl. Day in and day out, meal after meal, pets get the same fare. This strange phenomenon is widely practiced by loving pet owners who believe they are doing the right thing.

Why? Certainly because it is convenient, but also because the labels state that such foods are “complete and balanced,” “100% complete,” or that they have passed various analytical and feeding test standards. Furthermore, manufacturers, and even veterinarians, counsel pet owners about not feeding other foods, such as table scraps, because of the danger of unbalancing these modern processed nutritional marvels. The power of the message is so great that pet owners en masse do every day to their pets what they would never do to themselves or their children – force-feed the same processed food at every meal.

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Think about it. Our world is complex beyond comprehension. It is not only largely unknown, it is unknowable in the “complete” sense. In order for nutritionists and manufacturers to produce a “100% complete and balanced” pet food, they must first know 100% about nutrition. However, nutrition is not a completed science. It is, in fact, an aggregate science, which is based upon other sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and biology. But since no scientist would argue that everything is known in chemistry, or physics, or biology, how can nutritionists claim to know everything there is to know about nutrition, which is based upon these sciences? This is the logical absurdity of the “100% complete and balanced” diet claim. It is the reason a similar venture to feed babies a “100% complete” formula turned out to be a health disaster.

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In that instance, after sufficient disease and death resulted from attempting to retire the human breast to a mere appendage of adornment, government stepped in and controlled the commercial hype. Now doctors, nurses and purveyors of baby formulas cannot say these products are complete or that they are equal to or superior to breast-feeding. Good for the regulators. (Although they should have been proactive and prevented the disaster before it ever took root, not have merely stepped in after enough deaths accrued.)

Even with that lesson as a dire warning, pet food regulators turn a blind eye. Instead of preventing pet food producers from claiming a processed food concoction is 100% complete, they in effect promote the death and disease-dealing specious claim by setting bogus standards that supposedly justify and authenticate the claim. They legitimize sloppy science in order to win consumer confidence. All a manufacturer has to do is guarantee that their percentage of protein, fat and the like meets National Research Council standards. In the alternative, manufacturers can do feeding trials on caged laboratory animals for a few weeks, measure cursory blood parameters, and monitor growth and weight – as if survival after a few weeks on a food has anything to do with achieving optimal health and long life!

Down the primrose path millions of trusting pet owners go while at the same time unknowingly condemning their pets to terrible degenerative diseases. Pet food regulators then spend the majority of their time harassing pet food companies with picayune requirements about terminology on packaging and where certain words must be placed on labels. In this regard manufacturers must contend with the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials), and 50 State feed regulatory agencies. All for naught. It’s like the entire police force busying themselves ticketing people for jaywalking while turning a blind eye to the murder and rape going on in the alleys.

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Claiming that anything is 100% is like claiming perfection, total knowledge, and absolute truth. Has pet nutrition really advanced that far? Does a chemist make such a claim? A physicist? Doctor? Professor? Did Einstein, Bohr, Pasteur, Aristotle, Plato, or any of the greatest minds in human history make such claims? No. Has the science of pet nutrition advanced to the point where everything is known about the physiology, digestion and biochemistry of animals, or that everything is known about their food? Certainly not.

The fact of the matter is that the “100% complete” claim is actually “100% complete” guesswork. At best, one could say that such a claim is the firm possibility of a definite maybe.

Each time regulatory agencies convene to decide how much of which nutrients comprise “100% completeness,” debate always ensues and standards usually change. This not only proves that what they claimed before was not “100% complete,” but this should also make us highly suspicious about what they now claim to be “100% complete.”

Moreover, consider that in order to determine the minimum requirement for a certain nutrient – say protein – all other nutrients used in the feeding trials must be adequate and standardized. Otherwise, if vitamin E, for example, is in excess or is deficient in the basal diet, how would one know if the results of the study were because of the effects of protein or due to something amiss with the level of vitamin E?

If the minimum requirements for all 26+ essential nutrients were all set and absolutely etched in stone, that would be one thing. But they aren’t. They are constantly changing. This means each time any nutrient requirement is changed, all test results for all other nutrients using the wrong minimum for this nutrient would then be invalid. Most nutritionists simply ignore this conundrum, feeling like cowboys trying to lasso an octopus – there are just too many loose ends. But they continue to perpetuate the “100% complete” myth, and excuse themselves by saying they make adjustments when necessary. An apology of “I’m sorry,” when the false premise of “100% completeness” is still retained, deserves no forgiveness.

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Also consider that virtually all so-called complete pet foods are vigorously heat processed to gelatinize the unnatural starch components (making them “digestible” – meaning more easily converted to glucose) and to extend shelf-life by sterilization. Dry foods are extruded at hundreds of degrees and hundreds of pounds of pressure. Canned foods are retorted. Commercial pet foods also contain a mix of ingredients including meats, fats, starches (a variety of label dressing “natural” ingredient buzzwords) and vitamin/mineral “fortifiers.” Although the ingredient label is evocative and beguiling, what is in the final product is another matter. Essential fatty acids are oxidized and isomerized. Cytotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic cholesterol oxidation products (COP) are formed, including C-7 derivatives, 5,6-epoxides, triols, 25-OHs and 3,5-dienes – the real culprits in human atherogenesis, incidently. The cooked meats form heterocyclic amines, proteins are degraded and amino acids destroyed or racemized. Carbohydrates are glycated, acrylamides are formed, vitamins destroyed, oxidized and racemized and minerals are complexed into unavailable matrices. The end result is a potpourri of imbalance, unavailability and toxicity – not “100% completeness.”

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Yes, pets can survive for a time on such fare, but that is simply a testament to their physiological capacity to adapt. They seek equilibrium at higher and higher levels of toxicity until adaptive reserve is exhausted. Chronic degenerative diseases and immune failure is the end result.

The point is, don’t believe the claim on any commercially prepared pet (or human) food that it is “100% complete and balanced.” It is a spurious unsupported boast, intended to build consumer trust and dependence on commercial products – not create optimal health.

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Unfortunately, most people think animal feeding is a mystery. It is not. Animal nutrition is not a special nutritional science to which common sense human nutrition principles cannot be applied. Use the same reasoning in feeding your pets that you use for feeding your family. Nutrition is also not about some special ingredient, the absence of some boogeyman ingredient, or claims such as “natural,” “organic,” or the like.

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If you feed processed foods, use discernment since just about anyone can create a commercial pet food. The pet food industry has hundreds of brands. Business profiteers and the occasional movie star are the most common forces behind the labels. All one needs is a little money and they can go to any number of toll manufacturers and have them slightly modify a shelf formula. Then all that is needed is to dress it all up with a fancy package, a clever brochure, and some advertising. Voila! Another brand is added to the 20-billion-dollar pet food industry heyday.

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Nutrition is a serious health business, not a mere opportunity to turn dollars. Check the credentials of the decision maker at the head of the company you are entrusting your pet’s health to and examine closely its operating philosophy. Health competence and principle should come before pretty packaging and beguiling hoopla. The public is not well served by exclusively feeding products from companies without any real commitment to health… or knowledge of how to even achieve it.

For the past 25 years, I have been a lonely voice in the wilderness trying to get people to understand the deadly health consequences of feeding processed pet foods exclusively. People want convenience in a bag and the industry wants the flow of billions of dollars to continue uninterrupted. In the meantime, the scientific literature offers compelling proof that millions of animals have been maimed and killed as a result of feeding thoroughly tested “100% complete” foods… with the full imprimatur of government regulation. (Exactly the same thing that abounds in the FDA-pharmaceutical industry.)

Examples of pet food disasters include dilated cardiomyopathy from taurine deficiency, potassium imbalances, fatty acid and carnitine deficiencies and numerous other problems that would be expected on a steady diet of dead, devitalized, carbohydrate-based processed foods. Moreover, the whole panoply of human chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer, obesity, arthritis, autoimmunities, dental deterioration and organ failure are at epidemic levels in the pet population… as should be expected on such a diet.

“Thousands of pet cats die each year with dilated cardiomyopathy… observed in… cats fed commercial cat food…” (Science, Volume 237, pages 764-8)

Not only is feeding the same processed food day in and day out a formula for disease, it is a cruelty to pets. It is one thing to take them from their interesting and active wild setting and confine them, but to not even offer them interesting natural meal variety is really quite inexcusable. The answer, like everything else good in life, is a little attention and common sense. Knowledge is the best beginning point.

Further reading and resources of scientific references:

Wysong, R. L. (2002). The Truth About Pet Foods. Midland, MI: Inquiry Press.

Science, Volume 237, pages 764-8

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 199, pages 731-4

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 201, pages 267-74

Feline Practice, Volume 20, Number 1, page 30

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 202, pages 744-51

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 191, pages 1563-8

Journal of Nutrition, Volume 129, pages 1909-14

Journal of Nutrition, Volume 126, pages 984-8

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 203, pages 1395-1400

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 198, pages 647-50

Veterinary Clinics of North America Small Animal Practice, Volume 19, pages 527-37

Veterinary Forum, Volume 9, pages 34-5

Veterinary Forum, Volume 9, pages 26-8

American Journal of Veterinary Research, Volume 62, pages 1616-23

Petfood Industry, May/June 1998, pages 4-14

Journal of Animal Science, Volume 75, pages 2980-5

Veterinary Business, Volume 2, page 1

Waltham International Focus, Volume 3, Number 1, page 9

For further reading, or for more information about, Dr Wysong and the Wysong Corporation please visit www.wysong.net or write to wysong@wysong.net. For resources on healthier foods for people including snacks, and breakfast cereals please visit www.cerealwysong.com.