SolveYourProblem.com
Article Series: Dog Food and Dog Nutrition
What Do I Feed My Dog or Puppy?
The
Truth About Commercial Dog Food
As a kid growing up in a family full of dogs,
I remember the old days when mom and pop used to feed our dogs
any type of table scraps that we had from our meals. And sometimes,
the dogs would all have their meals prepared ahead of time.
We ate all types of food and back in those days so did our
animals, except for one major difference of today's house pets
– they didn't eat a bite of commercial dog food.
Interestingly enough, three out of the four dogs we owned
lived to the age of 18 and 19 years of age, with one dog reaching
21 years of age. And the only reason why the fourth did not
hit these high numbers was because of bone cancer. Now our
experience with these dogs does not negate any type of nutritional
value that commercial dog food may provide, especially considering
the leap in information and nutritional research that we have
today, but it is a little ironic that standard human food did
so well just a few years back.
Pet Food Advertising Has Brainwashed Us
A lot has changed over the past 20 or 30 years. Most dog owners
feel that feeding their pets commercial dog food makes the
most sense. They believe that high quality dog food sold in
stores is not only the most convenient way to feed their animals,
but it also is thought to give their dogs and puppies the best
nutritional value offered, even better than human food. They
believe that this decision is the right thing to do.
You hear this sort of thing over and over again whenever a
discussion takes place about dog food. Just the other day I
was discussing some dog tricks with my neighbor and the subject
switched to what we fed our dogs. One comment that he made
which is quite redundant is that “I feed my dog 'dog food'
because it's for dogs. Why would I feed him human food?” My
neighbor goes on to display his sense of knowledge about nutrition
for dogs by insisting that my way of feeding Charlie (my dog)
table scraps was cheating him of the proper foods he needs
for energy and growth.
Processed Food is still Processed Food
I realized that there was little chance of me convincing my
neighbor of his falsely believed notions about proper nutrition
and his dogs. Try convincing one of these people that a dog
and a human both need similar nutritional foods. It's not that
easy. However, I did get across one point in which he understood
and that was about processed food.
No matter how you look at it, or what you believe a dog should
eat as opposed to humans, processed food is still processed
food! This stuff is manufactured, which means it goes through
various steps of processing, preservatives, and other additives
before it hits the can and is packaged. Every step that is
taken to get this food to the store shelves reduces its quality
and nullifies most of its nutritional value.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2009
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