Sunday, September 14, 2008

A short rant.......


I was just reading some posts on VIN about some stuff I have ben working on and got led to another post concerning commercial pet foods. You know, you just gotta give credit to the marketing geniuses behind the "big.." pet food manufacturers - Hill's, Iams, Purina. Those pictures on the bags look like FABULOUS, balanced diets - for a human.
The product I was looking at was the Nature's Best Cat Food - on the lable, there are all kinds of "healthy" vegetables and grains. Last time I checked, cats were obligate carnivores. Also, on the Hill's website, they list "corn gluten meal" as a primary ingredient, but on the actual label, it says "maize gluten meal." I guess they know that people in Petsmart looking at bags will scorn foods listing corn as the first or second ingredient. Amazing.
Most of you reading this probably don't give a flip about this, but I get on this soapbox from time to time, but I get asked about this stuff almost daily and it is so hard to advise people on what they should be putting in the bowls. My own dogs are my guinea pigs, and I don't recommend anything that I haven't tried out on them. I have to admit, that if we try a new food and they don't really eat it with gusto, it is hard for me to recommend it. Right now, we have Solid Gold and Wellness in the buckets and some homecooked oats/turkey/mashed carrot in the fridge.
Oh well.....I can't figure it all out, but I can at least get the itchy dogs off whatever they are on!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOD I am so sick of seeing all these new "improved" so-called "premium" foods like Iam's and Science Diet and IT IS STILL GARBAGE. People really honestly believe that Science Diet and Iams and Eukanuba are the best foods out there! If I didn't have a job I swear I'd spend my time in the dog food aisles educating people on what they are really feeding their dogs. What really kills me is Beneful. It is a painfully unhealthy food. Do you know that they actually have some formulas that have NO MEAT in them at all?!?!

And I am so saddened to see all these poor people bringing in their obese cats saying they just won't lose weight by eating a cat food that's mostly carbs. They are only feeding them 1/2 cup a day and the poor kitties are still blowing up. I feel horrible for all the years I fed my cats dry cat food, and especially R/D, wondering why they wouldn't lose weight.

Ok I'll shut up now.