Years and years of marketing have perpetuated
the greatest pet nutrition myth of all – the belief that
it’s totally appropriate for a dog or cat to eat nothing
but cooked, processed, preserved pellets day after day. But
in reality, the first pet food was only created to profit from
by-products and ingredients deemed not fit for human consumption.
The resulting pellets are great for convenience sake, in that
they require very little effort to feed. But kibble is far
from being biologically-appropriate for a living, breathing
animal that in reality thrives on fresh, REAL, homemade
pet food.
To a certain extent, this myth was exposed with the recent
pet food recalls, as huge
numbers of pet owners became more health-conscious and began
looking into home-prepared
pet foods.
Unfortunately the same slew of media attention directed toward
the recalls gave birth to, and helped perpetuate, another slew
of pet food myths. Many media reports, internet blogs, and
chat room discussions about the recalls also included false
warnings about feeding a homemade
dog food or cat food diet.
In celebration of this flood of false information, we present
our list of
the top 5 pet food myths that you’ll find out there.
Remember, these five are absolutely unfounded and 100% false.
Myth #1: Garlic is toxic to dogs.
Lately many articles written in response
to the pet food recall, have included ingredient warnings for
people who are considering
a homemade diet. These warnings are regarding foods that are
supposedly toxic to dogs. And right there next to chocolate,
they list garlic. The truth is, garlic is indeed toxic to dogs
-- IF YOU FEED 50 CLOVES OF GARLIC IN ONE SITTING! I would
imagine garlic would be toxic to anyone if fed in that quantity.
Heck, even water can be deadly if you drink too much of it.
Obviously no one would ever feed that much garlic to their
dog. Truth is, when fed in reasonable amounts, garlic is a
fantastic ingredient to a homemade dog food diet. Not only
is it a great natural flea repellent, but garlic is also a
tremendous antioxident and detoxifying agent for dogs. For
more information on the benefits of garlic, visit http://sojos.com/garlicarticle.html.
Myth #2: Dogs and cats cannot eat table scraps.
If this were true, we’d be out of business! I’m
amazed every time I hear this one. Naturally, (for the record)
when we refer to table scraps, we are referring to healthy
leftovers, not pizza, chips, doughnuts, and French fries. With
that said, yes, in some cases dogs do experience loose stool
after eating healthy table scraps. But that typically happens
to pets that have been limited to eating bland, processed pellets
their entire lives, and their bodies are not accustomed to
digesting a complex variety of nutrient-rich food. When an
animal is properly transitioned to fresh, real food like humans
eat, they can easily digest a variety of foods including, yes,
table scraps.
Just like humans, dogs and cats absolutely thrive on fresh
fruits and vegetables. Some people maintain that fruits and
vegetables must be ground up in order for pets to properly
digest them. This can be true for some dogs with very sensitive
digestive systems. But by-in-large most dogs and cats do very
well on chunks of fruits and vegetables as well. Much like
table scraps, it can take a little bit of a transition period
when first introducing a new fruit or vegetable. But once they’re
used to it, dogs and cats not only find great health benefits
from fruits and vegetables – but they also are passionate
for the taste! Fruits and vegetables to avoid would be raisins,
grapes, onions and highly acidic fruits like like oranges,
lemons, and tomatoes.
Myth #3: If dogs and cats eat meat, it
must be cooked.
These days most people know this not to be true. But the more
popular raw meat pet diets become, the more it seems the commercial
pet food industry tries to convince the public otherwise. I
guess we can expect more of the same until the big commercial
pet food companies come out with their own raw
pet foods.
In reality, raw meat is probably the best thing you can do
for your pet. Much the same as wild animals and zoo animals,
a pet’s digestive system was designed to handle raw meat.
That is not to say it isn’t important to follow safe-handling
guidelines, much like you would for yourself. And, of course,
every pet is an individual, and some might prefer cooked meat
or may have a compromised immune system and unable to handle
raw meat. Typically, dangerous bacteria such as salmonella
are fought off your pet’s highly acidic saliva. As an
extra safe-guard, bacteria doesn’t have time to incubate
when traveling through a dog or cat’s short digestive
system. On a positive note, there’s a plethora of benefits
that come hand-in-hand with the naturally-occurring nutrients
and enzymes present in raw meat. We don’t twist anyone’s
arm, and you can still cook the meat that you add to our foods
(though we do recommend adding a general vitamin/mineral supplement
in those cases to compensate for the nutrients lost in the
cooking process). But in all the years we’ve been advocating
raw meat for pets (since 1985), we’ve never heard of
one case where it had a negative effect.
Myth #4: Dogs and cats should live on an all-meat diet.
Those that maintain that cats, and to a certain extent dogs,
should live on meat alone typically site animals in the wild
as their proof. While it is true that animals in the wild eat
more meat than domesticated dogs and cats, a few things must
be kept in mind. First of all, domesticated dogs and cats are
not exposed to the same high level of environmental elements
that wild animals are. Domestic dogs and cats spend much more
time at rest (and on the couch), and as a result require less
meat. In this way, feeding an all-meat diet is like putting
rocket fuel in your car. Second, the first thing that animals
in the wild eat when they kill their prey is the contents of
the stomach, which namely consists of grains and plant-life.
Plus wild animals do graze on grains and greens in between
feeding on raw meat. Make no mistake, our pet food mixes have
a high protein content – but we believe that variety
in the form of grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs – in
addition to raw meat – is an essential part of any healthy
dog or cat’s diet.
Myth #5: Dogs and cats cannot eat grains.
Grains have definitely gotten a bad rap over the years. Mostly
because of the pet food companies that use low-quality “bottom
of the barrel” grains as affordable fillers. Many feed-quality
grains are leftovers from the human-grade grain production
process. And the recent pet food recall, resulting from tainted
wheat gluten, hasn’t helped the reputation of grains
as pet food. But make no mistake, as long as you stick to whole
grains from high-quality, “top-of-the-barrel,” human-grade
sources, they’re an excellent food for dogs and cats.
Grains are chock-full of naturally-occurring nutrients and
can form a fantastic foundation for a healthy homemade pet
food diet. Our original Sojos European-Style
Pet Food Mix,
which contains a variety of whole, human-quality grains, has
been around since 1985 – and the results have always
been consistently tremendous. For those with dogs that do have
genuine allergies to grains, we offer our Europa
Grain-Free Dog Food Mix.
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Sojourner Farms. All rights reserved.
