In our current ‘Nescafe Society’, the Western World wants
everything at the touch of a button and convenience food is a number one best
seller. The link between these foods and obesity, diabetes and heart attacks has
clearly been made and the government are attempting to educate the public about
a healthy lifestyle of food and exercise in their “Health for Life” campaign; their
bias being to help reduce the NHS costs incurred by a citizens’ unhealthy
lifestyle. Thus the question becomes, who is there to do this for our pets?
The pet food companies? – their bias is sales!
The veterinarians? – most of their information comes direct
from the pet food companies.
Who then? and what is in our conveniently packaged, well
advertised, pet foods?
Pet food labelling does not come under the same laws as that
of human food, therefore can be somewhat vague, it may read: Meat and animal derivatives,
derivatives of vegetable origin, oils & minerals – and little more. Some
labels may be much more explicit, but appear to use a language all of their own
i.e. ‘poultry digest’ ‘gluten meal’ etc. So how can the average pet owner
discern the health qualities of each individual food?
Simply put, they can’t.
Pet food manufacture swept the nation after the world war,
when cavalry horses were surplus to requirements and therefore canned and sold
as pet food, but when the horses ran out, so did the high meat content and
manufacturers found themselves needing a substitute.
Grains are cheap and have protein content and therefore made
a logical replacement, in fact Britains’ best selling pet food is 50% grain.
Scientists worked out which were the ‘essential’ vitamins
and minerals necessary to keep a dog alive and these became the premise from
which a product can be labelled “Complete”. Minimum requirements of each of
these, if met in the product, entitles it to be labelled “Balanced”. This
leaves the average pet owner not realising that the “Complete” pet food he or
she is purchasing, may well be lacking or overdosing on certain nutrients, leaving
a pet nutritionally imbalanced or even starving in certain areas. Symptoms of
which are often attempts to self-medicate via stealing human food or some form
of coprophagia, soil eating, etc.
So, with this knowledge and a plethora of foods on the market,
chose those which are both “complete” and “balanced” right?
If only it were that simple.
Not all of the pet food sold is Britain is made in Britain
and therefore subject to British laws on ingredients or manufacturing process.
Whilst the ‘Pet Food Manufacturers Association’ can assure us a certain quality
of ingredients on 95% of British made foods, ‘Made in Britain’ is often a
misnomer and actually only means that the item was packaged in Britain.
Outside of the UK “Meat and animal derivatives” can mean euthanized
pets, that much beloved dog, cat or horse, still containing barbiturates and
even wearing their identity collars or chemical infused flea collars, as these
are not ‘intentionally added ingredients’, the law does not require them to be
listed.
OK, so that’s what the ‘meaty chunks’ are?
No.
Often those ‘meaty chunks’ are processed soy, high in
protein and made to look like meat.
But the packet says “with Chicken”!
Yes, that means that the product in question contains a
minimum of 4% chicken.
Armed with this information, now which way do you turn?
When it comes to dried, tinned or moist foods, it is tricky.
A small number of manufacturers have a “closed recipe” on their product, which
means, that whatever happens, the percentages of all ingredients do not change,
these manufacturers may be happy to send you a list of ingredients so that you
can be somewhat more reassured as to what you are feeding your pet.
OK, so what do you do?
Personally, I prepare my pets food myself. After studying
canine nutrition and digestion for over a decade I feel able to get the balance
right and I know 100% what my dogs are eating, how it effects their digestive
tract, DNA and each individual cell in their bodies. Friends of mine that do
the same & I often hear the words “that dog eats better than I do” and in
all honestly, never a truer word were spoken.
If you want to know more about preparing a healthy, “complete”
and “balanced” meal for your pet, there are a great number of books on the market,
but if that is not “Nescafe” enough for you, get in touch.
