Dog food debate – Part 1

Want to start an argument? Get a few dog owners together and ask them what they feed their dogs. Then stand back.

Dog food is a hot topic these days: grain vs. no-grain, single protein vs. multiple, dry vs. canned, cooked vs. raw, etc. There’s almost no aspect of dog food that’s universally agreed upon.

In the olden days, I’m told, there was no such thing as dog food you purchased. Dogs ate what people ate – table scraps were the name of the game.

Thanks to Listal use Agent Kermit D. Fonz for the photo: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/8427264h

Then came the age of packaged and processed food – for people and for dogs. I’m embarrassed to admit that our childhood dog (Spunky, a Boston Terrier), ate Top Choice. We thought we were doing the right thing – and Spunky loved it.

When you know better, you do better. We moved our dogs to kibble rather than semi-dry, in the mistaken belief that chewing would help their teeth. Two flaws in this argument – our dogs don’t really chew their food, they gulp it. And kibble bits have no cleansing effect on teeth at all.

We learned more and started actually brushing our dogs’ teeth. And bought better-rated, better foods the more we learned.

And then the recalls started happening a few years ago. The first I remember were the warnings about dog food and treats made in China containing melamine and killing dogs. And then we started hearing about recalls of U.S. made foods, including some from highly-rated, smaller manufacturers.

Our regular veterinarian’s advice – stick with big dog-food manufacturers that have their own sources and manufacturing facilities.

Our holistic veterinarian’s advice – the optimal diet for dogs is the equivalent of “stick a bunny in a blender.”

It’s almost impossible to figure out the “right” thing to do.

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