Monday, August 12, 2013

What is in it?

What do you feed your pets?
This time of year I pretty much eat from my garden and I know what is in it or more importantly, what isn't in there.  There are no sprays, no poisons, no chemicals, no Genetically Modified foods. It is all pretty healthy.  Like eating Hot Dogs, we really don't want to know what is in our food but my suspicions increase when the food I eat originate from a foreign country.  China has been accused of adding Antifreeze as a poisonous inexpensive sweetener in toothpaste and food additives.  Recently I read of hundreds (it might have been thousands!) of dead pigs floating down a river in China.  I wonder what they did with all of these dead pigs?
   I have discovered that with even traditional American Companies, the package will say "distributed by" and seldom "manufactured by...". It is ever more an International World and ingredients come from all over the world.  Hamburger comes from bits and pieces, the left overs of meat packers from hundreds of sources spread around the globe.  A single package of hamburger can have the DNA from over 400 cows!
   So the other day I was curious what I was feeding my dog?  He doesn't really care, he will eat anything but I like him and my job is to look after him.  He is a mix of Mastiff, Rottweiler, Pitbull and probably something else.  He doesn't know this and we make a point not to tell him.  He weighs 130 pounds and is the gentlest dog I have ever seen unless he sees a racoon!  He has been eating Purina, what I thought was a good, average American dog food.  Yesterday for the first time I read the package, all of it, hunting for American ingredients and there were none!  I went to the store and discovered that in an average American Supermarket it is almost impossible to find dog food that originates and it manufactured in USA!  The same is true for Tuna fish and lots of the food items we eat.   "Distributed by" is about the best you can get.  They seldom tell you where the food came from.
   So, continuing on my investigation, I went to Petsmart and did in fact discover that there are American dog foods!  I also discovered that Canada has a higher standard of ingredients for pet food than the USA does!
   So, what do you feed your dog? (or cat?)

4 comments:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

I feed my cat "Friskies" dry cat food "seafood medly" LOL. She loves it :)

Barbra Joan said...

Honestly Jerry, you'd be hard pressed these days to find American anything.. It makes me furious, package after package of food, pharmacy items, you name it ...made in China.. made in
Bum#$%^ Egypt. Scuse my crudeness,
but I guess you can find made in America products in specialty stores. And of course the cost is way up there.
I used to feed my Angie Iams but I suppose same story.. What can we do??
Yes, it worries me.. I look on every thing I buy... it's so frustrating..

Yvonne said...

I feed my dog Orijen Regional Red Grain-Free Dry dog Food made in Canada. Preservative Free, 75% meat, 25% veggies, fruit & herbs. It costs more, but he doesn't break out in scabs around his mouth anymore since he has been on this food. He only eats 1/4 cup in morning and again in evening, or else he starts putting on too much weight.

The cats eat Nature's Variety Instinct Grain-Free canned cat food, because they don't drink enough water to be fed dry, and not drinking enough water can lead to kidney disease. 95% meat and 5% veggies, fruit, & herbs. They get all the flavors available except the ones with chicken in them. They are allergic to chicken. It is made in the USA.

I'm pretty happy with what I feed them, and they do well on these foods. Sometimes it's hard to afford when Vic isn't making good money, but I make it all work.

Yvonne said...

Also feed my pets raw turkey, bison, or beef at least once a week.