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Thread: why dry food is making your pets ill...

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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Exclamation why dry food is making your pets ill...

    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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  2. #2
    High_Heel_Lover
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    I will speak to my vet about this. Thanks.

  3. #3
    mermaidnz
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    haha are people seriously stupid enough to feet their pets just dry biscuts? that stuff ,i thoguht, was always known just to suppliment their wet food. say during the day, leave a *small* bowl of dry food outside for snacking. not as their only food!

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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Um... no thanks. My pets do just fine on dry kibble.
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Wet food has way to high a concentration of salt/minerals.
    Want a cat with kidney failure? Give 'em wet food.



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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by mermaidnz View Post
    haha are people seriously stupid enough to feet their pets just dry biscuts? that stuff ,i thoguht, was always known just to suppliment their wet food. say during the day, leave a *small* bowl of dry food outside for snacking. not as their only food!
    Yes, my vet is! She told me to only feed dry food and that is was healthier than wet food!! I am very upset with her for being so uneducated and am giving her this info and then switching vets! This must be an American thing--any other non-US people with pets? What do you feed them?
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  7. #7
    mermaidnz
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    hmmm i always thought you gave them both?


    i know oprah feeds her dogs human food. like veggies and rice. sounds interesting?

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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by Sirona View Post
    Wet food has way to high a concentration of salt/minerals.
    Want a cat with kidney failure? Give 'em wet food.
    I agree that wet food is a bad option, but if you read the info I provided with an open mind you will quickly realize that dry food is much worse. This is why I am beginning a raw food diet that I make myself so I can control the content.
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    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Well, my moms cat is 14 and has never eaten wet food. She seems to do just fine. If I follow that diet Id be feeding my cats better than I feed my kid....

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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by AudreyLeigh View Post
    Well, my moms cat is 14 and has never eaten wet food. She seems to do just fine. If I follow that diet Id be feeding my cats better than I feed my kid....
    Well, my cats are my kids
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  11. #11
    Kaylinn
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    I have been rasied and have always adhered to the idea that wet food was not as healthy as dry food. Wet food contains to much fat and filler crap.

    I have always had dry food down for my animals to eat as they please, and give them a can of wet food once in a while as a treat.

    I could never see feeding my pets a diet of only canned food.

    Oh, and my pets have never been ill.
    ( at least not due to food. Peanut's illness has nothign to do with food)

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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    I want to clarify that I am not saying wet food is healthy, just healthier than dry.

    In an ideal world, cats would eat only freshly killed mice/birds/bugs. Both wet and dry food do not even try to mimic these normal perfectly balanced cat foods. Both of them have a horrible amout of fillers and are made only with meat and grains that are not fit for humans! But if you must buy your food at the store buy only grain free wet food.

    I was told my whole life as well that wet food was bad and dry food was good. Sometimes people (even doctors) are wrong and it is up to us to get the facts and make our own educated decisions.
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Actually, I disagree with most of what that article says. Nope. I've been using dry food on thousands of animals over the past 30 years.
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  14. #14
    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Well, if youre going to buy dry just buy stuff where the top 4 ingerdients arent some kind of filler... Ive had many many animals and never had one get sick from eating dry food - Ive never had a cat get sick at all. I, too have been told wet food is bad for them. Everytime Ive ever given a cat wet food its given them horrible gas and diarrhea.

    I also want to point out that if I google I can find just as many articles stating that dry food is best. Its up to each of us to come up with our own assumptions on dry, wet, or raw. Not saying your article is wrong.... just making a point.

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    Featured Member aviendha's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    my family and I have always raised our cats on dry food with the occasional can. Once I heard that it was better to give a mix, I started integrating canned food (I've tried the 'better' brands like Spa Select but my cat refuses to eat it, so Fancy Feast it is). My cat does have bad teeth, but EVERY other cat I've ever had never had problems, so I have to think it's the cat, not the diet.

    Regardless, I'm already spending about $30 a month on dry food and $35 a month on canned food. I really can't afford to spend any more.

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    Veteran Member Jenna78's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Please give me links to some articles that say dry food is the best. I googled "what should i feed my cats" and came up with 2 of the sites I listed above, another one against dry food, and a purina site (which is biased because they have a $ stake in the product). I'm not trying to argue with you, i just didn't get good google results.
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  17. #17
    AudreyLeigh
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    ^^ You took what I said out of context.

    Ill just go on what I know from first hand experience but kudos to you for having the time/patience to do a raw diet.

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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by PaigeDWinter View Post
    Actually, I disagree with most of what that article says. Nope. I've been using dry food on thousands of animals over the past 30 years.
    And so you've only see dry food results. I wonder if you raised an animal on raw food only if you would see a difference?

    Besides, I think when they say the whole raw diet (bones and organs and stuff) they don't mean that cheap crap in a can. Sorry, I shouldn't post half-asleep.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zinaida View Post
    And so you've only see dry food results. I wonder if you raised an animal on raw food only if you would see a difference?

    Besides, I think when they say the whole raw diet (bones and organs and stuff) they don't mean that cheap crap in a can. Sorry, I shouldn't post half-asleep.

    I've seen animals raised on only "wild animal" food. Those particular animals had the worst runs and bit a lot. I know folks who mix SOME meet in with kibble, and their pets seem to digest it better. Keep in mind that domesticated animals haven't had the stomachs for wild food in a long, long time.
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  20. #20
    Alaska
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Geez, I cannot believe someone would push even "high quality" canned food over dry. High quality canned food is such an oxymoron anyway.

    Agreed, some crap is horrible (maybe even most that's on supermarket shelves) but unless cats are going to live to 25+, it's just another thing to get up in arms about imo. And I'm a total animal lover and esp. cat person.

  21. #21
    Yekhefah
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Hm. We fed Buddy wet food because he liked it and had no teeth, and he puked all the time. The vet said put him on dry food only, it doesn't matter that he's toothless as long as it's small kibble because cats don't chew anyway. So we did that about a year ago and he still pukes, not as much but still way too damn much. I wonder if we started feeding him raw organ meats if he would stop puking everywhere? How much more would it cost?

  22. #22
    Alaska
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by Zinaida View Post
    And so you've only see dry food results. I wonder if you raised an animal on raw food only if you would see a difference?
    Also, what difference? All my cats (many in this lifetime so far) have had healthy coats, teeth, energy, zest, and live as long as they should. Again, show me cats that live 25+ years bc of this, and I'll change my mind.

    In an ideal world they'd live on mice, etc......okay, but this is NOT an ideal world, we have indoor cats too, and mice etc. carry germs and parasites. So our solution is dry food. I think it's good enough, have cats of the world been SUFFERING all these years they've been eating dry food? No, of course not. Wet food though, a whole nother story.

    Haha---what about OUR quality of life, having to grind up bones and organs and shit? What the hell ever. Talk about risk of bacteria and health problems, cost, time, being a vegetarian, etc.

  23. #23
    Alaska
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jenna78 View Post
    Please give me links to some articles that say dry food is the best. I googled "what should i feed my cats" and came up with 2 of the sites I listed above, another one against dry food, and a purina site (which is biased because they have a $ stake in the product). I'm not trying to argue with you, i just didn't get good google results.
    Uhhh there's also something called paying a premium to get your site listed on the first page.

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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    Quote Originally Posted by PaigeDWinter View Post
    I've seen animals raised on only "wild animal" food. Those particular animals had the worst runs and bit a lot. I know folks who mix SOME meet in with kibble, and their pets seem to digest it better. Keep in mind that domesticated animals haven't had the stomachs for wild food in a long, long time.
    really? wow, I didn't know evolution worked in fifty years (or a hundred and fifty if we're talking those few in England who fed their dog "biscuits.")

    Whatever food the dogs were eating that gave them runs and made them aggressive were not healthy-- and I highly doubt were along the lines of a raw food diet. My dog eats carrots, beets, watermelon, eggs, chicken, beef marrow bones, and occasionally other stuff thrown in. Obviously it is more expensive. As the original poster pointed out, for those of us who treat their pets as their kids, it IS the healthiest diet for the animal. Just because you don't have the money to supplement your pet's health doesn't mean those thousands of animals you've raised over thirty years didn't have health issues such as bloat, gas, bowel distension, diabetes, heart trouble or a myriad of other issues exacerbated or point-blank CAUSED by conventional dog food.

    Taken from: (they are quoting complete health mag but I didn't have time to track down the article)

    COMMERCIAL pet food is a MODERN INVENTION!!
    Dogs and cats can, in a natural environment, hunt, catch and eat their prey. As carnivores, their bodies are designed to handle living foods: they have sharp teeth for piercing and devouring flesh and digestive tracts designed to digest, utilize nutrients and eliminate wastes based on raw meat and vegetation.

    Date: 5/12/2006 10:57:38 AM ( 20 mon ) ... viewed 767 times
    Commercial pet food is a modern invention!! Common only since around the middle of the 20th century, although the first dog biscuits were made by an American in England in 1860. It was thirty years before the 'biscuit' was produced in an American factory, and forty years before canned cat food and dry dog food were introduced.

    By the 1950's there were dry foods for dogs, and from there it exploded. In another ten years, dry dog food, canned dog food, and cellophane packaged 'moist' foods, came on the scene along with millions of dollars worth of advertising. It was the advertising that sold people on the idea that their beloved pets need commercially prepared foods and that natural foods (meat and veg) were not good enough.

    Often commercial pet food contains grains and 'meat by-products' - meaning rice, wheat, etc., with fat, skin, trimmings, entrails and so on, all 'stabilized' chemically for a very long shelf life.


    What’s In Your Pet’s Dish?
    by Jo-Anne Hopkins-Bedard

    Bad breath, ear problems, gas, diarrhea, constipation, hot spots, bald patches, obesity, arthritis, lupus, gastrointestinal diseases, hyperactivity, urinary tract infections and kidney stones. Do any of these problems sound familiar? If so, your pet many need an adjustment in diet.

    While walking my dog I’m often asked: “What do you feed her? She looks wonderful, her coat is so shiny and soft.” “Real food, I make it myself, raw meat and ground vegetables,” I respond, and a look of shock spreads over their face. Then I explain the basics of the REAL food diet or B.A.R.F. (Bones And Raw Food) as it is sometimes called.

    Dogs and cats can, in a natural environment, hunt, catch and eat their prey. As carnivores, their bodies are designed to handle living foods: they have sharp teeth for piercing and devouring flesh and digestive tracts designed to digest, utilize nutrients and eliminate wastes based on raw meat and vegetation. When they gulp down their food, it enters their stomachs where hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) and enzymes break down the food and prepare it for movement to the intestinal tract, where nutrients are absorbed and excess is eliminated. Optimally this process should take about a twelve-hour period.

    Unfortunately with the invention of commercial “pet foods”, this digestive process is slowed down tremendously. Dry kibble food as well as canned food is highly processed, forcing the animal to work harder than necessary to digest and utilize nutrients.

    Enzymes, contained in the food when it was raw, are no longer viable and the added chemicals and preservatives must now be filtered out by the digestive process.

    Another concern is that due to the dry texture of the food, the pet must drink copious amounts of water, potentially causing bloat and torsion; water mixed with kibble in the stomach causes the kibble to swell and in some cases, activity after eating can cause the stomach to twist. Although bloat and torsion are mainly seen with large-chested breeds, this can happen to any dog.

    Another excellent reason to prepare raw food for your pets is the cost. Like any processed, commercial product, commercial pet food is expensive when you consider that you must also pay for packaging and marketing. The ingredients used in commercial brands are questionable and variable in quality due to the lack of strict guidelines.

    Each pet is different and, as such, requires different amounts of nutrients for lifestyle, activity level, age, weight and current health status. I encourage pet owners to seek help from holistic pet nutrition books, their animals’ holistic health care provider and their veterinarian to determine the best course of action regarding nutrition and supplementation.

    You get out of life, what you put into it. The same goes for nutrition, what goes into the body will affect how the body functions. Since pets can’t make nutritional choices, it is up to us, their owners, to make wise decisions for them.


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    God/dess fancygirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: why dry food is making your pets ill...

    do not tell me conventional dog food is good for your pet because it's obvious you don't know what you're talking about. Can a human live on crap food? yes-- but their quality of life, and in a lot of cases, the length of their life will be affected. Same with animals.

    I put certain parts in bold for those you just want to skim.


    What's your Pet Eating?

    So, you provide a food to a pet that has no nutritional value. It is pretty, it has different colors in it, it has different shapes in it, and that is all to appeal to the owner. Give your dog gravy bits, doesn't that sound good? Unfortunately, the gravy bits often are killers hidden in a bunch of brown gunk.


    5/12/2006
    Taken From:
    Original source below

    Must-read for pet owners: Exclusive, shocking interview with Dr. Lisa Newman on the horrors of pet food ingredients (part 1 of 4):

    Mike: Hello, this is Mike Adams. I'm here with Dr. Lisa Newman. Thanks for joining me today.

    Newman: Well, thanks for having me today, Mike.

    Mike: You are the founder of the Azmira Holistic Animal Care product line. You also run a pet care clinic, correct?

    Newman: Well, it's not a veterinary clinic. What I have is two retail stores, and my retail staff goes through a correspondence course that I put together so they're fully trained in providing the holistic animal care lifestyle.

    Mike: So, your staff can offer pet lifestyle consultations?

    Newman: What they do is educate pet owners, and what we also have is a direct phone line people can use. If they call 520-886-1727, they can get educated on their animal's specific needs. We're not a clinic that diagnoses; we're not there to prescribe medications. We do know a great deal of alternative care methods that can be applied to animals and can help reverse disease or prevent symptoms from occurring.

    Mike: This is really interesting. I want to get back to this. First, can you give a description of what is wrong with the pet food that is out there right now? Why are we seeing such an epidemic of diabetes in dogs and cats, for example? What's going on out there?

    Newman: Well, it is really scary. What we've seen is the lowering of the quality of the food and the addition of many chemical byproducts to cheapen the foods. So, you provide a food to a pet that has no nutritional value. It is pretty, it has different colors in it, it has different shapes in it, and that is all to appeal to the owner. Give your dog gravy bits, doesn't that sound good? Unfortunately, the gravy bits often are killers hidden in a bunch of brown gunk.

    Mike: It's processed food just like we see in the human supply.

    Newman: It's even worse processed food than what we see in the human supply, because, guess what? Animals can't lobby for themselves like humans can.

    Mike: That's right. What else is in there that would shock people?

    Newman: What about euthanized dogs and cats? We know this from a San Francisco Chronicle investigative report, which followed euthanized dogs and cats from clinics directly to the rendering plants and directly to the pet food industry.

    Mike: Okay, so just as a reality check to people listening, you're saying that when dogs and cats are put to sleep, some of those end up in the pet food supply?

    Newman: That's right, because they are "protein." They are animal meat, and the way that they show up on the labels is as animal meat or animal meat byproducts.

    Mike: Is this allowed by regulators?

    Newman: It is not only allowed by regulators, it is actually encouraged by regulators. If we were to look at the AFCO handbook, which is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, and we were to take a look under protein, for instance, we would also see recycled shoe leather. Now Mike, I'm going to ask you, would you sit down and feed your family recycled shoe leather for dinner? It's a protein Mike, come on. Do you think you want to try and assimilate that as a protein? Not only that but feathers, hooves, hides and horns? These are all sources of protein -- 100 percent protein. My fingernails are 100 percent protein, but my doctor sure wouldn't want me to eat my fingernails and try to survive on that, would he?

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