Dog Food Revealed

There are a number of issues with most canned and dried commercial store-bought, store-available pet foods.

Preservatives

The pet food industry uses preservatives in pet foods that have a negative effect on the health and digestion of your pet. Read the ingredients of your pet food, look for names like Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) BHA, Propylene Glycol, and Ethoxyquin.

These preservatives can kill your pet's gut bacteria making it harder for your pet to absorb nutrients from their food. These preservatives may also cause allergic reactions and skin conditions, like itching and shedding.

Fillers

Dogs are carnivores, meat-eaters. In the wild, the vegetables and plant matter dogs usually eat are contained the bellies of their prey. The pet food industry uses filler to make their dog foods cheaper. Fillers such as soy, wheat, barley, oatmeal, white rice, and corn. The vegetable matter should be about 10–20% of your dog's diet. Pet food company uses a greater percentage of fillers than was is required for your dog.

Fillers like corn are not complete proteins. Dogs don't eat corn in the wild, it could cause an allergic reaction.

Artificial Coloring

Artificial coloring is added to pet foods to make them more appealing to humans. Dogs don't care about what food looks like. The idea that this industry needs to add food coloring to make the food more appealing to you should be all you need to know about what that food really looks like. It is as healthy as it looks, without the food coloring.

Meats

The best meat for dogs is raw organ meats. Nothing like this is added to commercial dog foods.

The meats added to dog food, are any part of an animal that can not be used for human consumption. These are the slaughterhouse wastes. There are nicely labeled on your dog food ingredients as; chicken by-products, beef by-products, lamb by-products, and duck by-products. 

A special shout out to Beef and Bone meal, which can be anything from roadkill to dead livestock.

No Regulation of Pet Foods

The USDA and FDA are not involved in pet foods. There is the AAFCO which sets the industry standards for the nutritional value of dog food. However, the AAFCO does not monitor or enforce any quality standards.

The pet food industry, after cooking most of the nutrition out of their pet food, will spray lacquer vitamins onto the pet food for it to meet nutritional standards. However, the bio-availability of these synthetic vitamins is doubtful.

Organic Pet Foods

If you believe organic pet foods are better, they are not. They use the same fillers and preservatives already mentioned. 

What to Feed Your Dog?

Top veterinarians like Judy Morgan DVM recommend raw foods. I myself, tried to feed a bit of raw food to my dog, he ate it, but it didn't sit well with him. So my dog gets cooked human food. My guy likes luncheon meats, ham, and roast beef. I do not buy highly processed prepackaged luncheon meats with nitrates.

I make sure he eats vegetables like broccoli and carrots. If I'm cooking a roast, I don't add seasoning, so the cooked meat is suitable for him to eat. I do not give me any cooked bones. I double-check anything I'm not sure about on the internet before feeding it to my dog, like blueberries (yes) and cherries (no).

Some vets will ask what I feed my dog, I tell them people food, or he eats what I eat. This usually starts with a quick admonishment of feeding my dog people food vs the virtues of pet food nutrition. Because the nutritional value of people's food, may not be good for dogs, etc.

I listen then look the vet directly in the eye, and start quoting a few facts, about how pet food is made from by-products considered unsuitable for human consumption, a sentence or two about preservatives, maybe a line about grain products, and if I'm in the mood, a sentence about the poisonous pet food imported from China. All the time holding eye contact.

The usual response is, "Well yeah, in that case, okay."