Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts

Friday, January 28, 2011

Basic requirements of pet food


Dogs and cats have a group of requirements every day is important in order to maintain excellent health problems.

Certainly, we wish your beloved pets to remain as enjoyable and pleasant companions, those people who are filled with life and energy.

Therefore, so far as possible, we offer them just with the meals better, fresher and much more delicious for their continue going, growing and glowing.

We just want our animals the very best life for enjoy, No?

Food for animals at home from the brand name If we humans like to eat, so do our dogs and cats. Therefore, any good and delicious food we feed them is certainly appreciated.

We have two options when it comes to pet food, homemade type or brand pet foods.

Homemade can be quite meticulous preparation as you can easily visit pet shops and supermarkets, groceries and get a bag of popular brands of pet food in a supermarket counter.

Some pet owners prefer feeding their dogs with food for animals in the home. This is because they can control the kinds of ingredients for use in the preparation of food.

Obviously, that many people would prefer how the food they eat our animals are natural, sans chemicals, additives yet others have made synthetic things that are potentially detrimental for their health.

However, pet food brand may be the selection of many other individuals due to the popular notion that produced the meals stuffs are essays, the highest quality.

In fact, it is true that lots of brands that have become household names to wait due to the proven health and nutritional benefits these products provide pets.

Halo Spot's Stew Natural Dry Dog Food, Adult Dog, Wholesome Chicken Recipe, 4-Pound Bag

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Food stuffs spending trouble? Learn how to do it without the added cost!

Tired of giving your animal companion pet food when shows no signs of enthusiasm?


Well, some animals are really difficult to please. Because of this, you should be patient. As you can see, these animals are like children, who have their own preferences. You really have to take the time of day to choose the best kind of food for them, or otherwise, do not eat.


This is a common problem that my family faced when we had a cat in the past. Our feline friend was extremely stubborn. Do not touch his food and showed a loss of appetite.


Because of this, we had to try several different types of cat food, until he found his favorite. This is a very effective, but can be very expensive.


Not to worry, there is a great way to do it without spending money. The only thing you need to spend is time.


Spend the time to find ... Samples of pet food.


These samples are available almost everywhere. Nearly all producers to give these to their customers. In a sense, this is a marketing strategy for them. This benefit of both parties. In addition to being able to choose foods that as your pet, you'll also:


1. Obtaining various foods of dog or cat without spending.


2. Exposing your pets to different tastes and aromas.


3. Compare who has the best ingredients and that is best for your pet.


So, what do you expect? Find them now and get quality food stuffs for your animal friend loved the experience!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Best Pet Food-3 less known facts about your pet supplement!

Natural health supplements should be ideally to your beloved pet in order to ensure that the health of the animal is taken care off. It is interesting to note that while most dogs as cat owners give their pets with the supplements you want, the fact remains that very few pet owners are actually aware of supplements that are buying for their beloved pets. Well, here are 3 lesser known facts that you need to know your food for animals:


1. avoid gluten and chemicals


While choosing a pet supplement for your dog or cat, you must ensure that you are looking for and chose only the elements of food for animals which are relatively free of gluten and chemicals. You must try to ensure that you feed your pet with only food items that are free from artificial flavors. This is so, why do some pets can't digest artificial flavors, which can also fall ill after consuming food item. Therefore, whenever you choose to go to the elements of food for animals, you must ensure that they are 100% vegetable in nature and free from harmful chemicals.


2. opt for supplements natural herbal based


While home get food stuffs for your beloved animal, you must ensure that try and opt for natural herbs based on foods such as mistletoe, cat's claw, Huang Qi and ginseng. These herbs have been studied from various health nutritionists around the world and their properties have been known to be beneficial for the health of your pet. If this feed to your pet's immune system, your pet could start would work better, increase energy levels and your pet would also support the existence and ensure that your pet remains healthy.


3. look for Good Manufacturing Practice


While choosing pet supplements, you should try to collect only those that have been approved by the FDA. In addition, you should try to ensure that food supplements were passed by the legislative act health and dietary supplement are ongoing process in accordance with good manufacturing practice. If account is taken of these simple but effective tips, you can ensure that gift your beloved pet with the best food supplements.


Avoiding of basic chemicals, by promoting herbal supplements and the pet supplements are following good manufacturing practice, you can choose the best food for animals with ease. So, if you want your pet healthy, always remember to follow these simple but effective tips.


Friday, January 21, 2011

Buying the right kind of pet food

Newman's Own Organics Adult Dog Food Formula, 12.5-Pound BagLow-quality commercial pet food may contain fillers, animal by-products and chemicals that lead to health problems for your dog or cat. Without the proper power-including sufficient calories, protein, vitamins and minerals-pets can develop digestive allergies, ill health, and common skin problems and more. All natural foods and treats made with whole ingredients will make your companion pet, a healthier and happier. Look for products that are: 
Free corn-many foods contain corn and rice as fillers. Corn is a source of protein that provides little nutrition, can be difficult for pets to digest and can lead to problems such as excessive shedding, itching and skin allergies.

Fancy Feast Gourmet Cat Food, 3-Flavor Seafood Variety Pack, 3-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)Free wheat-like corn, wheat is often used as a filler inexpensive. So how many people are allergic to wheat, pets can have sensitivity that can lead to bowel problems.
Preservative-free, synthetic preservatives like BHA and BHT are USED, it is often added to foods pet to extend the lifetime. But there is concern that these ingredients (including even some human foods) can lead to serious health problems. Try natural preservatives like vitamin c and vitamin e for healthy meals.
By-product free-animal by-products in animal food can include animal parts such as heads, beaks, feet, lungs, kidneys, brain and other left after the flesh was stripped from the bones of an animal. Animal by-products may be listed on a label as "meat and bone meal," blended "or" meat, in particular, "products". Avoid food stuffs containing these ingredients when possible.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Keep clear of Pet Food recall-here are the ' red flags ' of Pet Food

Last year turned out to be the worst in history for pet food recalls. While there is no way to be 100% certain that a pet food is not tainted or will be recalled, there are some red flags to look for when selecting your dog's or cat's food. Avoiding these common pet food ingredients can greatly improve your odds in purchasing a healthy, safe pet food.


Judging the safety or the nutritional value of a pet food starts by ignoring the advertising, the price of the pet food, and ignoring the front of the bag. The real signs to the safety of a dog food or cat food lie on the back or side of the bag or can in the 'Ingredient Listing'. Regardless of what marketing terms ('choice', 'premium', and so on) are on the front of the bag or can of pet food, a pet owner cannot determine the quality or how safe the food is unless they look at the ingredients. With dry foods there can be 90 different ingredients (or more), with canned foods there can be 50 or more different ingredients. But don't panic...you don't have to understand hundreds of different pet food ingredients! You just need to be aware of a few key ingredients...pet food ingredients that you do NOT want to see in a dog food or cat food (or treats).


'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These three ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic to pets - these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens - imported from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.


Not only is it important to avoid dog foods and cat foods (and dog and cat treats) that contain glutens because of the possibility of dangerous added chemicals, it is important because they add no real quality nutrition to the food. Glutens are used as a thickener AND as a source of protein in pet food. Adult maintenance dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein, glutens are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food. The best nutrition for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food not from a gluten protein. Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain 'corn gluten', 'wheat gluten', or 'soy gluten'.


'By Products'. By-products have never been the cause of a pet food recall, but they are definitely ingredients you want to avoid feeding your pet. To give you an understanding of by-products, I'd like to compare this pet food ingredient to pies - you know, the dessert! How many different types of pies you can think of? There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies (yuck!) - I think you get my point. Now imagine if you purchased yourself a prepared ravioli dinner at the grocery and you looked at the ingredients and you see 'pie' listed as the first ingredient in your dinner. Hmmm, pie in ravioli - what kind of pie? You wouldn't know if it was apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner contained 'pie'. Considering 'pie' could be anything from apple pie to cow pie - my guess is that you wouldn't be having ravioli for dinner. Same thing with by-products in pet food.


AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials - the organization responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines by-products as "meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."


So, with respect to pet food - a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name. All left over meat materials from the human food industry are clumped into one ingredient name - by-product. There is NO certainty of what you are feeding - one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next batch of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. There is NO way of knowing what is actually contained in the pet food ingredient by-product (the pet food manufacturers themselves couldn't tell you exactly). Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain By-products of any kind...Chicken By-Products, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef By-Product Meal, and so forth.


'Meat Meal', 'Meat and Bone Meal', or 'Animal Digest'. These three ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as "the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices." Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) - no way of knowing what is actually in your pet's food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain 'meat meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal digest'.


'Animal Fat'. In 2002 the FDA tested many different brands of dog food (cat food was not tested) for the presence of the drug pentobarbital. Many brands of dog food tested positive to contain the drug. Pentobarbital is the drug used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.


How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet food? The answer - euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the end ingredients are placed in pet food. It has long been rumored that euthanized dogs and cats (from animal shelters and veterinarian offices) is the major source of the pentobarbital in pet food. However no one has been able to prove or disprove this rumor to date. The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) developed testing methods on two separate occasions to determine the species source of the drug. No results have ever been determined. The pet food manufacturers adamantly deny they use rendered dogs or cats - but NO clinical evidence has ever been released to confirm the pentobarbital is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as they claim.


However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their testing is the pet food ingredient 'animal fat' is the most common ingredient to contain pentobarbital. In other words, if you are feeding a dog food or cat food (or treats) with the ingredient 'animal fat' in the ingredient listing - you are (more than likely) feeding your pet euthanized animals. Not every batch of pet food tested that contained the ingredient 'animal fat' has proved to contain pentobarbital - but why would any pet owner want to take the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain the ingredient 'animal fat'.


'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin'. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the entire ingredient list to find them. It is worth the look because there is plenty of clinical evidence to associate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is allowed in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat treat that contains 'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin' on the label.


'Corn', 'Wheat', 'Soy'. While there is no scientific evidence that proves these ingredients are dangerous to pets - they are potentially dangerous ingredients associated with recalls in the past (1995, 1999, and 2005). These grains are highly prone to a deadly mold (aflatoxin). It is suggested (by AAFCO) that all pet food manufacturers test grains for the mold, but as recalls of the past have proven - that doesn't always happen. I do not think these ingredients are as risky as others mentioned above, but they are ingredients I avoid for my own pets.


There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or cat than avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a start - based on pet food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions, science and opinion of many pet food experts including myself. There are many quality pet foods available that do NOT use the above ingredients and that add health promoting ingredients to their foods and treats. Continue to learn as much as you can about what you are feeding your pet and ALWAYS read the labels!