Be mindful when reading an ingredient list for pet food that most canned varieties are 75% water; thus resulting in significantly reduced nutrient values listed on a dry matter basis.
Protein is one of the three macronutrients (along with fat and carbohydrates) essential for maintaining good pet nutrition. Protein provides essential amino acids for muscle health.
Not All Pet Foods Are Created Equal
The optimal food choice for any pet depends on multiple factors, including their age, medical history, physiology, and behavior. Your veterinarian will be able to offer guidance and recommendations based on these specific needs.
Pet food-related information online can often be hard to disentangle and decipher, creating confusion for pet parents. From raw versus cooked to grain debates and beyond, these conflicting viewpoints and pet food facts may have serious ramifications on your pet’s health and wellbeing.
Large pet food companies will often rely on fillers like corn, wheat and soy to reduce manufacturing costs, but these ingredients can be difficult for your pet to digest and can lead to allergies or other health issues.
When searching for healthy pet food alternatives it’s essential to use high quality proteins instead of poultry meal, meat and bone meal or similar ingredients that don’t specify which animal was used as they could contain organs and lungs that could harm them; AAFCO defines ingredients and sets label standards which help make an informed choice easier for everyone involved
Avoid Too Much Meat
Your dog or cat’s food might have the word “meat” listed as its first ingredient, which could be misleading if you are unfamiliar with how conventional pet foods are produced. Most “meat” found in commercial pet foods is actually meat meal derived by rendering processes which transform animal tissues into protein and fat products – commonly including dead, dying, diseased, disabled animals (the 4Ds), grease recovered from restaurants, remaining meat cuts at factories, roadkill, zoo animals and even some euthanized pets.
Meat meal may not seem appetizing, but it can provide valuable sources of protein for dogs. Furthermore, organ meats, blood and bone may also be included within this ingredient – however if your pet food includes this component it should be labeled “animal by-products” or “meal,” and serve more as an addition than being listed among the top five ingredients. It would be ideal if you could identify its specific species/genus of meat used within its recipe.
Is Raw Food Good?
Many pet parents are opting to feed their animals raw diets. These diets typically combine ground meat with raw vegetables and some fruit for an all-natural approach compared to the hard brown kibble most of us are used to seeing in pet stores.
Supporters of raw food diets for pets contend that raw food provides them with all of the essential nutrients for optimal health while decreasing allergy issues caused by species-inappropriate ingredients found in commercially processed pet food products. Furthermore, raw diets reportedly promote strong teeth, reduced poop output and more energy.
Not all pets thrive on a raw food diet and this is one the most notable pet food facts. While most healthy dogs’ systems can handle the bacteria found in raw meat, puppies, elderly pets, and animals with compromised immunity may be susceptible to infection from harmful bacteria present.
High-pressure processing (HPP) is used to sanitize raw foods. Its application has become common practice when cleaning fresh juice, guacamole, seafood and salsa dishes for human consumption and is safe enough for pet feeding as well.
