NUTRITION
[ Your Text Here ]
1. HOW DIGESTABLE ARE YOUR INGREDIENTS?
1st 2nd 3rd 4th And so on…. You never want Corn or By-Products . These are un-digestible.
By-Products are what the slaughterhouse throws away- (Chicken-By-Products) for example are: Beak-Feet and Intestines.
CORN is NOT digestible, it goes out the same way that it goes in.
You get more meat with Chicken or Lamb Meal , than wet meat.
Meat meal is wet meat with water and fat cooked out.
It is turned into a concentrated form of meat.
Wet meat is 80% water.
Soybean - used as a protein source in food instead of meat.
Corn Gluten - liquid part of corn that is digestible protein and it makes it tasty for the dog.
Rice or Ground Rice - easiest grain to digest- very good.
Barley - digestible grain. - digestible grain.
*****VERY IMPORTANT*****
Unidentified Sources - whenever you see the word "meat" or "animal" instead of Chicken, Lamb, Beef, etc. BEWARE of these. It's something that they don't want to list in ingredients because it could have come from Horse or something worse.
Brewers Rice - easy to digest but it's what's left over after brewing beer, so nutrients have been cooked out.
Wheat or Wheat Flour - digestible grain. - digestible grain.
Sorgham - sweet stuff to get the dog hooked on the taste.
2. HOW IS IT PRESERVED?
Mixed Tocoperals-is a natural form of vitamin E. It's derived from fat or oils. This is a good natural way to preserve.
Some food is chemically preserved with BHA or BHT. AVOID chemically preserved at all costs. They are doing cancer carcinogen tests on BHA now. It's believed to cause cancer in animals- but not proven yet. If it's in their food, they are getting a dose of it with every bite.
3. SUPPLEMENTS What has been added to the food to improve skin and coat or to protect joints is; Linoleic Acid and Omega Fatty Acid are skin and coat supplements. Glucosamine Chondroitin is for joint protection. Glucosamine doesn't work well without the Chondroitin.
4. FOOD ALLERGIES Symptoms are:
Chewing on paws or legs, itches without fleas, Rashes on the tummy, prone to ear infections or hot spots.
MAIN FOOD ALLERGY TRIGGERS: CORN, BEEF, WHEAT, SOY- It's what's pumped into the cow that is the trigger like; Bovine Growth, Steroids, Euthanasia drug.
For a HYPO-ALLERGENIC FOOD TRY:
KIRKLANDS, ZACH'S, NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE and NATURES RECIPE VENISON, NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE LINE including, Lamb and Rice, Chicken and Oatmeal, Dental, Silver Senior and Lite are all hypo-allergenic.
It takes about 8 weeks for the dog to de-tox allergy triggers off of them.
5. CANNED FOOD It is 80% water.
It is not very nutritional. It rots out teeth and gums over time. It's just like ketchup or mustard, not dinner.
If you need it to get a dog to eat dry food, go 75% dry to 25% wet. Or, try Chicken and Rice soup at the grocery store.
6. HOW TO TRANSISTION A DOG FROM ONE FOOD TO ANOTHER.
It's very important to gradually begin to mix the new food with the old food, if not, they can get an upset tummy, gas and loose stools.
Starting with day one, you will put 75% old food to 25% new food for at least 3 days. Then 50% old food to 50% new food for at least 3 days. Then 75% new food to 25% old food for at least 3 days.
Written by: Cheryl Lantz