All pet owners please read this and the attached articles!!!
This is something I feel strongly about. Please take the time to skim through this long article: http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1 After reading this I was so disgusted I took away my cats' dry food and am now trying to start a raw diet.
Dogs, ferrets, and especially cats are carnivores and should be fed raw meat and bones, just like they eat in the wild. Dry pet food is made from very low quality ingredients that are over cooked and then mixed in with a bunch of low quality carbohydrates (cats do not need any carbs--they can't digest it well). It's like feeding your pet (fake) meat flavored cereal everyday. Could you survive on just cereal all the time? Neither can your pets. Dogs, ferrets, and especially cats will have more health problems on this diet and tend to be over weight as well. Not to mention the bacterial problems dry food has, especially if it gets wet. And that dry food does NOT clean teeth! (Large chunks of raw meat/gizzards do.)
The Lazy Solution: If you must feed commercial pet foods, choose a good quality canned food. Wellness is a great canned food sold at Whole Foods Market (make sure you get the grain free one). It is a little more expensive than dry food and cheap wet food, but your pets are worth it! They will be happy, healthy and you will save money on vet bills! Go here for more brand suggestions: http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page. (This solution will not care for cat’s teeth correctly! You must feed chunks (size of dice) of raw meat/gizzards as a teeth cleaning supplement.)
The Best Solution: A completely raw diet that includes bones and organs. This is a great website by a vet that explains a raw diet and how to develop it: http://www.catinfo.org/ This is also an excellent site: http://www.catnutrition.org/index.php This is a great site to order whole, ground meat for the raw diet: http://www.hare-today.com/
Sorry most of my info is cat specific, but a quick google search will help dog and ferret lovers find good raw food sites as well.
Further reading: This is a link to an article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA): http://www.catinfo.org/zorans_article.pdf This is a good article for your vet (who will most likely think you are crazy when you tell them what you’re feeding your pets) and it is scientific backing of a raw meat diet.



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