do you have 3 minutes to spare?

Take those 3 minutes to walk over to your pet's bag of food.  Now take a look at the ingredient list.  Does it look like the ingredient list pictured above? 

If not, PLEASE make sure that NONE of the following poor quality ingredients are in there.  You could be feeding your beloved pup bowls of corn and beaks!  Ack!!  Oh and there's a good chance some of these ingredients are lurking in your pet's treats so check those out too.

By-Products

Corn, Wheat, and/or Soy

Animal Digest

any type of Gluten Meal

Animal Fat

Meat Meal or the super combo: Meat and Bone Meal

Propylene Glycol

BHA / BHT

This group of ingredients include those that are unfit for human consumption and others that are filler ingredients, both non-nutritious for pets and difficult for your pet to digest.  Chemical preservatives are also a tell tale sign of crappy pet food.  Sadly, there are more poor quality ingredients out there in pet food.  My list above are the ones I call the Big Offenders.

If you do not read another sentence of this post, that's fine with me.  Now you know what to stay away from in the pet food world and I know you want to feed your dogs the good stuff!   
However if you choose to read on, I will talk more about proper canine nutrition and rant on how horribly misadvertised most commercial pet foods are. 

What exactly are these inferior ingredients listed above?  And why should they be avoided?

Any type of By-Products.  By-products are the leftovers after all the good stuff is harvested for the human food industry and consist of the parts of animals that are NOT meat.  Meat by-products, especially those not specified as a certain kind of meat (ie. Poultry By-Product), contain unsavory ingredients like beaks, feathers, feet, brains, stomachs, hooves, hair, entrails – even tumors.  Basically, it’s what’s left over after slaughter and classified as inedible waste unfit for human consumption.  Please note,  the term Poultry does not necessarily mean chicken.  It might be chicken or it might be turkey, geese, buzzard, seagull, or an unidentifiable road kill with wings.

Corn and/or Soy in any form. Corn is a cheap filler ingredient, non-nutritious for pets, and a known allergenic. Soy is estrogenic and wreaks havoc on your pet’s endocrine system. 

Run as far as you can from Animal Digest.  Animal Digest is a “broth” made from rendered by-products including the contents of an animal’s stomach after it was slaughtered.  The animals used can be obtained from any source including “4-D animals” (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), so there is no control over quality or contamination.  Restaurant and supermarket refuse are some other sources for Animal Digest.

Poor quality, incomplete proteins.  These include corn gluten meal, wheat gluten meal, rice protein concentrate and soy protein.  For example, Corn Gluten Meal is corn AFTER the best parts of corn have been removed.  One of the absolute worst ingredients, corn does absolutely nothing for the animal and is actually difficult to digest.

Animal Fat, since there’s no mention of a specific animal, could come from almost anywhere including restaurant grease, slaughterhouse waste, and diseased cattle.  Generic Fats = Yuck. 

Meat and bone meal is a dry rendered product from mammal tissues including bone that can have a lower digestibility than most other meat meals.  Meat meal, how anonymous. It doesn’t even specify the sourced animal... gross! 

Propylene Glycol is a controversial food moisturizer that has been banned by the FDA for use in making cat food.  Yet it can still be found in mostly lower quality dog foods.

BHA & BHT are artificial preservatives associated with various cancers.  Just remember, when it comes to food, chemicals are not good.

And now for a little story about Minnow  

Minnow, our Italian Greyhound, was born at a puppy mill and sold shortly thereafter to a chain pet store.  She was purchased by a family who after 6 weeks decided she was not a "good fit" for them.  At 4 months old, this family surrendered her to a rescue organization.  I was notified about this IG and we took her into our home the very same day she was surrendered.  Yep, we changed her name to Minnow.  The rescue organization handed me a bag of the dog food her previous family had been feeding her.  I knew it was going to be bad but wow... SO BAD!  Just have a looksie at these ingedients...

Ground Yellow Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Brewers Rice, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (Preserved with BHA and Citric Acid), Animal Digest, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dicalcium Phosphate, Dried Egg Product, Choline Chloride, Color Added (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), Brewers Dried Yeast, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Niacin, Manganese D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid.

This bag of food found the dumpster very quickly, before we even got home with Minnow. Although she got a deluxe bath at the doggie spa before coming to our home, she smelled disgusting.  Just funky smelling and it seemed to be all over her body.  Guess what all that corn, rice, and crap in her diet blossomed into... a super sized yeast infection!  That stinky smell was Yeast.  Yuck!  Guess what else... it took about a month for that smell to go away.  The detox from a horrible diet takes time but I'm happy to say that Minnow, now eating a healthy raw diet, is completely smell-free.  Anyone still reading this?  That link to the word Yeast will take you to a fantastic article about canine yeast infections.  Perhaps your pup has been misdiagnosed with "allergies" because of some itching and paw licking.  So many folks automatically jump to allergies when there's paw licking.  It might be yeast and before you sign up for expensive steroids and big Vet bills, you might just want to put your dog on a grain-free healthy diet and see what happens.  In case you didn't know, steroids are well-documented as causing liver disease and even death in some dogs. Just sayin'. 

Back to yeast...
Yeast needs sugar as a source of energy. Carbohydrates break down into sugar. Both MDs and veterinarians advise patients with yeast to get the sugars out of their diets.   Got a yeast problem?  Avoid dog foods and treats with Corn, Wheat, Rice, Brown Rice, Potato, Sweet Potato, and Honey.  Honestly, if your pet is suffering from a yeast problem, there isn't a grain-free dry dog food that's going to completely solve your problems.  It might be a step up, but not a full solution.

Anyone still reading?  This is where I'm going to rant about all the misleading statements and false advertising that is happening with pet food.  A very popular bag of dog food containing ALL of the big offenders says " helps keep your dog happy and healthy with a perfect balance of healthful ingredients, quality nutrition and superb taste."  Healthful ingredients?  Quality nutrition?  I think not.  This is a bag of corn and beaks. 

The bag of food poor Minnow was fed states: "For active growing puppies. Essential nutrients for developing strong bones and teeth. High quality protein to help support the development of muscle mass. Quality ingredients to support vital organs including a healthy heart."  High quality Protein?  In what?  There are no essential nutrients in this food.  Once again, a sack of corn and beaks. 

Diet is the foundation of health.  I highly recommend every pet owner take a look at this link and its accompanying video by Dr. Karen Becker.  Everyone should learn how to identify a good bag of food.

I'll end my pet food rant hoping that at least one person made it all the way through this post.  I know HousePet is usually a place to find nice photos, MCM architecture, and stories of renovation projects however proper canine nutrition is a really important topic for me.  It's unfair for companies to prey on the consumer with all of their false advertising.  There are tons of HEALTHY options available for our pets.  Please drive the extra mile or two to visit an independent pet supply retailer.  Those small stores are the ones with a staff educated to help you select healthy food and treats.  They are the folks who want your pets to thrive and live long, happy, and healthy lives.  I guarantee the checkout person at (insert your favorite big box store) cannot tell you a damn thing about healthy dog food.