Comments on: Fresh, frozen and homemade diets: A movement with legs?

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:18:53 +0000

Look at this handy nutritional content calculator I just found:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

By: Leslie k

Leslie k — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:59:25 +0000

Thats a great idea Canada has ! After all look how well industry policing itself has worked for the US. Do any NA gov’ts ever think about the EU’s food standards ? They actually seem to work !

By: perkysmom

perkysmom — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:48:35 +0000

Something’s going on when WAL MART, of all stores, jumps on the organic bandwagon and is going to sell its own brand of organic pet food called “Natural Life.” Wal Mart’s Ol’ Roy brand was produced by Doane, a private label manufacturer; Doane has been bought by Mars (they produce Pedigree). All of this was on the Pet Industry Weekly blog. Wonder how the quality control is going to be on Wal Mart’s organic pet food.

By: hornblower

hornblower — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:17:30 +0000

Your Canadian readers need to stay on top of the planned changes to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Slowly leaking out over the last few days are reports that the CFIA is planning to drastically cut costs, have industry police itself, and cut funding to cattle producers for BSE testing. The plans have been around since last fall but were held back due to “significant communications risk” - ie. backlash. Pls Canadians, let’s make *this* particular risk a reality.

As petconnection has been teaching us so well - it’s not a pet food issue, it’s a food issue & in Canada, things are about to get much worse, unless we speak out now.
http://www.canada.com/edmonton.....912d897a7f
http://www.canada.com/ottawaci.....0127fd01c7

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:24:40 +0000

Christie,
The thing I find most surprising and the thing I’m most happy about since home cooking for my dog (a year now)-she has had no upset stomachs, no gas and no runs; these were all common occurances on commercial kibble. It also has meant less trips to the vet clinic.

Gina,
Your friend might want to talk with his butcher; whether it be supermarket or wholesale, etc. I’ve found that if I ask for 10 or 20 lbs of meat wrapped as a large order, they will give a nice price cut.

Katie

By: thomas

thomas — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:34:23 +0000

PFPSA found cyanuric acid in pre recalled food . I am not surprised . It is my understanding the pet food companys don’t need to put on labels of food the ingredients of additives they buy premixed.

Also who can use the test results in a lawsuit? The owner of the site or anyone? If the test results are posted are they part of public domain?

By: Carol V

Carol V — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:46:38 +0000

“Finally, the pet-food industry continues to obsess on raw, the better to frighten you.”

What they should obsess over is why additives like cyanuric acid keep “popping up”—this time in PRE-recall food manufactured in 2006 prior to the “ChemNutra incident”.. more detailed testing is being done.
http://www.pfpsa.org/news.html

By: 2CatMom

2CatMom — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:31:15 +0000

Considering that most commercial dry foods are largely cereal, that’s an apt comparison.

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:48:29 +0000

For years I’ve fed my dog a variety of fresh foods and occasionally whatever ripped bags of dry or dented cans I get each day (I own a holistic pet supply store). We tend to eat really healthy whole foods in my house so I also feed them whatever is left after a meal. Sometimes I cook for them and sometimes they get raw meat, bones and veggies or fruit. Every once in a while one of them might get a bout of diarrhea or just not do so well with a certain food. I keep cans of pumpkin around for those times; a tablespoon or two usually does the trick and then I just avoid or give smaller amounts of whatever it was that upset their tummies. My dogs and cats enjoy excellent health and personally, I LOVE the bonding and happiness of daily food-sharing that comes with doing more than just throwing a handful of dry cereal in a bowl twice a day.

The whole idea of “complete and balanced” pet food has been so twisted with advertising and research claims. A complete and balanced DIET (not necessarily each meal) actually requires variety. But the claim for commercial pet food is based on one simple question - if whatever is in this can/bag is ALL the pet ever eats - will it sustain that pet’s life?

And I guess if all the pet is going to eat is that one brand or type of food, it better be “complete and balanced”. Kinda like if Kelloggs created a cereal to sustain kids eating only that cereal -at the exclusion of any other foods. If that’s how we fed our kids, we would want that cereal to contain proper amounts of every possible nutrient the kid might ever need. Right?

By: Christie Keith

Christie Keith — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:03:46 +0000

I’ve never had a dog or cat who has gotten diarrhea or any other digestive issues from the fact that they never get two meals in a row that are the same. I change their diets literally every time I feed them, and they never blink.

And this means 22 and a half years, dozens of dogs and cats of all ages and states of health.

It’s not normal (although it’s common) for pets to react with digestive problems to a diet change. It’s caused by feeding them the same exact thing day in, day out, with no variation. Perhaps the intestinal bacterial population adapts to the mono-diet, and they lack the proper microbes to easily digest anything else. Perhaps that’s not the cause at all, I don’t know.

But I do know that the fact that a dog or cat gets sick when you take them off their mono-diet is just one more indicator to me that the mono-diet is a bad thing.