Do Today's Diet's Compromise Your Pet's Health?

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What Compromises Your Pet's Health?

1). Nutrition - Many things compromise the immune and digestive system of the body. First and foremost is nutrition. Poor quality "grocery store/utilitarian level" foods which are advertised on the television. Foods that are grain based (grain is the first ingredient on the bag), and poor quality protein sources, lack of prebiotics and probiotics in a daily feeding routine, poor quality fractionated grains that convert to sugar quickly and become a food source for any yeast/fungus issues. This is why humans that crave sweets and carbohydrates are prone to systemic yeast issues as well - that yeast loves to eat sugar.

This is not to say your dog should not eat grains, it means the diet should not be grain based (first ingredient). There are in fact many myths about grains in dog foods. Corn Myth and Grainless Diets.

Quality foods should have specific meat based, preferably multiple protein based foods with human grade or organic and the grains used should be ground whole grains with fiber in tact...like in the wild, like the predigested contents of the stomach of prey.

The buzz word in the ads and on TV is "quality" - over and over they say "quality" but no definition of what that actually means. You never hear them say it is human grade, USDA inspected, organic, holistic or natural in any of the ads in magazines, on TV or on the bags.

I know of one dog food company that has a food that actually has the word HOLISTIC in the name and yet, it is made in a plant that is not a human grade plant, and with ingredients that are not human grade or organic. Now they have a whole line up of Holistic foods they advertise?? So,...How does that work??

For future reference, normally only small independently owned companies, vet clinics, pet shops, groomers, boarding kennels, training facilities etc. sell the better quality pet foods. (This does not mean prescription diets either, which are not always made of the highest quality ingredients).

The inferior quality pet foods are owned by huge conglomerates - well known names you see advertised all over the television and in magazine ads; Mars, Proctor and Gamble (owners of Iams and Eukanuba and recently acquired Innova, Healthwise, Evo Grain Free, and California Naturals), Dad's now owns Back2 Basics, Delmonte, Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, Berwin (Wellpet) new owners of Eagle and Wellness, to name a few.

They dump massive amounts of money into their marketing personnel and advertising budgets because the foods can't sell on their own merits once they make their so called "upgrades" - note the new packaging always come first. You know when they are in trouble when they start showing up at Petsmart and Petco. (watch for Wellness in Petsmart soon).

At some point they start tampering with the formulas to deceive the public by using lesser grade ingredients and the proof is in the dogs stool and health. The dogs don't know the company has changed hands, but their stools tell us a great deal about the products. Did you know that companies can make ingredient changes, like blending chicken byproduct meal in with their chicken meal and not have to put it on the bag, until the bags run out and they print new ones. Many of the smaller companies making high quality foods do little or no advertising and yet they still continue to grow because of quality of the food.

One example is the former Eagle Pet Foods company when it was owned by the Cocquyt Family. Eagle had done no advertising, had no budget nor staff for advertising. With a handful of quality, nutritional savvy sales staff, a good veterinarian and myself educating people about this product line, this pet foods sold itself because of the performance of this product line over the past 20+ years, the company grew like a weed after a spring rain, just on it's merits alone.

But Eagle Pet Foods was acquired by Berwind Industries in 2007. Wellness was acquired by Berwind in 2008 and they merged the two companies into a single entity now called WellPet LLC. Regrettably, due to the changes in ownership and the management personnel, the style of management, the removal of key Eagle personnel, the stopping overseas distribution of Eagle, and deep philosophical differences, I will no longer endorse nor feed the Eagle product line. (7/10)


History shows us what happens to companies when they are acquired by larger companies. Some of us who have been in dogs a few decades actually remember when Iams was a good food - NOT NOW. I am now feeding and endorsing the Precise and Precise Plus product line and recommending these to my puppy buyers.

These are some examples of good pet foods that sell themselves based on their merits without huge national advertising budgets. These foods are the human grade, and/or organic combination diets that are Natural Holistic lines: Precise/Precise Plus, Nutri Source, Pure Vita, Planet Organics, Petcurean, Fromms, Honest Kitchen Dehydrated Diets, http://www.darwinspet.com Diets Raw Diets and Freeze Dried Raw, Azmira, Wysong, to name a few.

These are smaller independently owned pet food companies and they put their money into quality ingredients and product development and not into huge advertising budgets. These foods literally sell themselves by word of mouth because they work... and they bring wellness and longevity to our companion animals. When I started out in Great Danes a 6 year old Dane was OLD, that is if they made it to that age. I have had Danes consistently live to 10 years or older - up to 14, and be vital and active - just a little slower.

When pet foods are not human grade, it means they are made of substandard ingredients, high gluten grain formulas, colorings, enhances, sugars, artificial preservatives, fractionated grains, crude forms of minerals (not usable by the body), lacking in trace minerals critical for all metabolic functions, and protein sources that are unfit for human consumption i.e.; road-kill, euthanized pets from shelters and the 4D meats; dead, diseased, disabled and dying-- these inferior ingredients are passed off into the pet food market. When pet foods are not human grade, they do not provide the body with the nutrition needed to sustain long term health and bring with them substantial toxins.

Also note..very single kibble on the market, no matter how good is also lacking in dietary enzymes lost due to cooking, processing and storage. This means Dietary Enzymes need to be put back into the diet through supplementation using if you only feed a kibble to your pets. www.FirstChoiceNaturals.com carries two brands of dietary enzymes - to put the living component back into the pet's diet. This is why keeping your pet on on of the CORE 4 Supplement kits is imparative because dietary enzymes are part of this program.

.The purpose of dietary enzymes is to provide nutrients to the body so the body is not over run with free radical damage. Dietary enzymes help the body to provide the antioxidants needed to cleanse the body of toxins and yeast/fungus die-off. If your pet has skin issues, more than likely it is due to poor diet and over use of medications. If you have not been using probiotics, dietary and digestive enzymes you need to start all over with your pet's program and get the yeast and pathogenic bacteria in the gut back in balance. This is done through the Skin Recover Kit #30

.Click here: For a list of better foods and where to locate.

Please note, if you suspect your dog has a systemic yeast problem there are only certain foods you can feed during this time of rebalancing the intestinal flora. These foods are listed in the Mini-Course for Systemic Yeast.