NUTRITION, THE CORNERSTONE OF PET HEALTH
by Cat Donnelly, Pet Nutritional Consultant

Nutrition is my passion and I have been studying canine nutrition for the past 6 years. I used to feed pet foods from the supermarket or pet food store until I found out a few things. First and foremost, most commercially available kibble is made of extremely low quality proteins and grains. This means that food that is too diseased or rotten to make it to our foods gets dumped in barrels and delivered to pet food companies. If the pet food is not made of human grade ingredients, then the government requires that the meat be denatured with chemicals as well, further degrading the product.

Keep in mind that the nutritional content on the label is set counting all the food as raw, and they are not required to tell you how much nutrient is left once they are done processing it. Pet food labeling is also deceptive in other ways. "Meat" is not beef, it's all the OTHER stuff that does not fall under the descriptions of chicken, beef, pork, poultry, lamb, etc. If it was beef, they would be more than proud to tell you that. Also, pet grade by products usually contain all the mostly undigestible portions of the animal, and NONE of the actual meat (the actual meat goes into fish sticks and chicken tenders, etc.). Dogs in the wild would typically get a balance of both in their diet, and only getting the hard-to-digest portions is taxing on their system.

When using all this waste in pet food, manufacturers have to make it look palatable so they use artificial colors, flavors and other "enhancers" to make it look and smell pleasing to us, and also appeal to our pets. These things only have to be cleared from the body by the filtering organs, which taxes them unnecessarily and lowers their immune system.
Then this stuff has to be preserved. In order to keep it's shelf life measurable in years, they use very harsh chemicals to preserve it. When any food is more than a year old at room temperature, I know I would be very suspicious of how good it was for me. Only honey can stay good for that long without spoiling. Ethoxyquin, polyethelene glycol, BHA and BHT have been used as rubber stabilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and they just so happen to retard spoilage. How convenient. Why don't I serve up some fresh chicken alongside a can of Raid or something? Yikes! Why would I want to feed my pet a suspected or known carcinogen?

So, what does this all mean for your pet? The proteins are mostly biologically unavailable to him and therefore pass through undigested. I think it should be a CRIME for these pet food companies to claim that this stuff is 100% of what your pet needs and even discourage your from supplementation. First of all, even at 100% of the AAFCO requirements for dogs, that is only the barest minimum for a beagle (the breed that was used in the experiments) to stay disease free for 2 years. What is wrong with that picture? I don't want my pet to simply "get by" on his diet, I want him to be a robust picture of health! Also, what if the dogs in the experiments all got sick in their 3rd to 5th year? I don't want that either! And what if I have a different breed of dog? Does it have different nutritional requirements? Or is it the same no matter if my dog is a Japanese Chin, a standard poodle, a J.R.T., a G.S.D., a Portuguese Water Dog, a pug, a Sibe, a working dog, a pampered foof? Is food one size fits all? I somehow cannot believe that.

So, the first things I do when working with someone's nutritional program is recommend what I think is best for most dogs. I personally feed my dogs as much grainless BARF as possible (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food). Anyone interested in that should read any book on the subject by Kymythy Schultze {TAMARA, INSERT LINK TO SCHULTZE'S BOOK HERE}and perhaps join an Internet discussion list about raw feeding that is geographically appropriate to your area. ARBARF@yahoogroups.com is an Internet discussion list mostly for the NW Arkansas area, and hot topics include pricing and availability of raw food.
Another wonderful way to feed is home cooked. I highly recommend Dr. Pitcairn's {TAMARA, INSERT LINK TO PITCAIRN'S BOOK HERE} book along with numerous others available. The reason why I personally like Pitcairn's book is because not only does he explain canine and feline nutrition, complete with recipes, but the book is also a valuable resource for when your animal is sick or hurt. I also highly recommend Dr. Goldstein's book {TAMARA< INSERT LINK TO GOLDSTEIN'S BOOK HERE} which is also a wonderful book on how to help your pet heal naturally.

If you are simply not ready to step up that far, but want to switch to a better kibble, there is a whole strata of kibble out there that is preserved naturally and made of wholesome ingredients. I would be glad to work with anyone privately on any of these changes. The kibble that we have used and recommended for 6 years is Flint River Ranch. Since no dog should eat the same thing 365 days per year due to it eventually leading to allergies, FRR has 2 different kibbles and a nice "Dry Water Recipe" so that you can feed your dog a variety. Personally, I highly recommend the lamb/millet/rice kibble and Dry Water.
We also carry and highly recommend Azmira's kibble which is also human-grade and does all the right things to be included in the upper echelon of pet foods. {MORE INFO AND LINK WILL FOLLOW}

My recommendations thus far would be the same no matter what. Nutrition is the cornerstone of your pet's health and nothing else you do will work as well if that is not improved. We always start with a good diet, and FILTERED water, and go from there.

The preceding program is a healthful recommendation, and not intended as a substitute for quality veterinary care. Please feel free to contact me anytime for a totally personalized, free health assessment or nutritional recommendations for your pet! I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Cat Donnelly
(501) 643-3026
naturalpetfoods@aol.com
Alternative Pets
PO Box 727
Elkins, AR 72727