The ugly reality of commercial pet food

There has always been the open debate of whether it is better to feed your pet table scraps, leftovers, and home made food, or whether they should only be fed with a commercial brand of dog or cat food. Some of the pet owners use a mixture of both products to care for their dog, and others feed only home cooked food, or only processed pet food.

We like to think that our pets are eating quality meats and grains like we buy for ourselves to eat, but the truth is, that pet foods are usually made from the leftover scraps from slaughter houses, and often from things like road kill, and even pets that are put to sleep at the vets office. These dead animals are often diseased, or full of chemicals, and not something we would even think of feeding our beloved pets.
The following article is gruesome, but an eye opener of just what is in our commercial dog and cat foods.

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-i...-dog-food/

I find it very shocking but in twisted way it does make sense, companies want to make a profit so why not use things like scraps from slaughterhouses or roadkill to reduce costs?

The thing is, if this is going on now, what else are they doing? The melamine contamination scare in milk made in China actually started in pet food. They cut costs by adding melamine into pet food so that the pet food would seem to have a higher protein content when tested in a lab (besides the usual bone meal and rendered animal protein from the sources in the article mentioned above) It was only a matter of time before they decided put it into the human food supply for the same reason.

My only fear is that this practice to use road kill, slaughterhouse waste and euthanized animals would extend to human processed food. If not in the US, then maybe in some Third World countries where people do not have as much choices and as much say as we do.

Thank you to BWP for being concerned with the food of the people in 3rd world countries. I am from the third world Let us all just hope that each FDA (food and drug administration) will make sure that none of this sort happens. Anyway, after reading this, I don't know what to feed my dog anymore. We all want the best for our pets but the question is - do we even have a consensus on what is the best? Some say that dog food is better because it contains the necessary ingredients to keep dogs healthy. Commercial dog food also don't contain ingredients that may be otherwise bad for our dogs. On the other hand, some believe that it is better to prepare food for dogs at home. I was warned against splitting it because once a dog gets a taste of home cooked food, he will never touch commercial dog food again. Is this true?

I think that a lot of the food that we buy in the store to eat that is sold as being healthy, is actually over processed, and has lost most of the vitamins and healthy enzymes that are meant to be in our food, so it is not just the dog food that is not healthy, it is pretty much a lot of the commercial food products.
Now that they are using the genetically modified seeds to grow crops, things are becoming even worse, and many countries are forbidding the use of the GMO seeds.

Even though I make food for my dogs, I still put out some dry dog food for them, so they have something to crunch on, and it is supposed to have extra vitamins supplemented in it.
Short of living on a farm, and raising all our food ourselves, there is really no way to avoid consuming some of the commercial foods made both for us and our pets.

I would be very interested in what kind of homemade foods I can feed my cat. I think after I submit this post I will certainly do some Googling on the topic. I am very familiar with making food for dogs at home. My aunt and uncle do all these great turkey loafs for their pug dogs. Rice, turkey, eggs, and a couple other things I think.

Well as you see in my name, I do have family from Iceland although I was born and raised in America. I have traveled there many times, and my heart really belongs there. Occasionally I have my favorite Icelandic foods imported and one of them as a dried cod fish called hardfiskur. My cat LOVES the stuff. The first time I had it in the house with him around, he shredded a bag of it while we were out. I had mistakenly left the bag on the dining room table within his reach.

Whenever I get it now, I make sure to give him some as a treat. If I had my way, I'd feed him nothing but hardfiskur!

I am now very, very concerned about what I feed my dog and cat. I've started cooking meat, fish and rice for them again. Goodness knows what else they are putting into pet food! Given the fact that a lot of pet food where I live is imported from China (which isn't exactly a country well-known for its food security) we have basically rejected all the store-bought and are going all-natural!

I think the problem is that pet food manufacturers are so keen on making money that they lose sight of the picture. Just because animals are not human does not mean we can treat them in a way that might potentially hurt them!

(08-10-2013, 01:54 PM)Tribie Wrote: Thank you to BWP for being concerned with the food of the people in 3rd world countries. I am from the third world Let us all just hope that each FDA (food and drug administration) will make sure that none of this sort happens. Anyway, after reading this, I don't know what to feed my dog anymore. We all want the best for our pets but the question is - do we even have a consensus on what is the best? Some say that dog food is better because it contains the necessary ingredients to keep dogs healthy. Commercial dog food also don't contain ingredients that may be otherwise bad for our dogs. On the other hand, some believe that it is better to prepare food for dogs at home. I was warned against splitting it because once a dog gets a taste of home cooked food, he will never touch commercial dog food again. Is this true?

I think that's the same for both cats and dogs. Once you give them home made foods or feed them from your table, they gt spoiled and they don't want to eat their food which is made for them with the stuff that they need to survive. Their digestive system is different than ours. That's the major reason of why they got to stay in their line of food.