IF YOU WERE A DOG OR CAT WHICH WOULD YOU PREFER?
The first set of ingredients is commonly used in commercial processed pellets. The second set of ingredients is commonly used in natural home-made style pet food. If you were a companion animal (or human) which would you prefer????
Ingredients:
Chicken meal Lamb meal fish meal chicken chicken digest pork liver barley sorghum dried whole egg cracked pearled barley ground whole grain corn pork by-products soybean meal dried whey maize wheat oatmeal brewers rice potato flour millet ground yellow corn chicken fat(preserved with mixed Tocpherois) animal fat rice flour dried beet pulp chicken liver flavor soybean oil natural flavoring flaxseed linseed yeast culture brewers yeast salt iodised salt sodium scienite sodium chloride potassium potassuim chloride chloride chlorine chloride dl-methionine hydroxyanalogue l-lysine vitamin e supplement vitamin d3 supplement d-activate animal sterol vitamin a acetate niacin calcium carbonate calcium iodate dicalcium phosphate d-calcium pantothenate biotin vitamin b12 supplement riboflavin supplement thiamine mononitrate ascorbic ascid pyridoxine hydrochloride folic acid iron oxide manganous oxide magnesium oxide ferrous sulfate copper sulfate zinc oxide ethyenediamine dihydriodide zinc proteinate manganous proteinate iron proteinate magnesium proteinate copper proteinate glucosamine hci marigold extract chondrotin sulphate
VS
Ingredients
Chicken mutton beef ostrich spinach carrots celery parsley broccoli sweet potato Butternut beetroot Brown rice pearl barley split peas lentils rolled oats wheat germ Cold pressed olive oil fennel basil rosemary garlic mint sage thyme oregano Yeast lecithin kelp calcium dandelion vitamin c
Don’t understand the ingredients??? Don’t feed it!
Despite the fact that the pet food industry is a much regulated industry, and that all pet food has to be labeled in terms law, it is very clear that the industry is not open, transparent and forthcoming with their labeling and ingredients.
Still, it is our responsibility as pet carers and responsible consumers to understand the food that we and our companions consume and understand the jargon written on our labels
The labeling is so complex and the script so small that it is no doubt that the consumer has no chance of understanding the label and deriving at an informed decision. So often we read of preservatives, colorants, stabilizers and emulsifiers without really understanding what they are or mean. Other terminology that is used which leaves us confused is: “meal, digestives, by-products, fat, flavouring, etc.”
Remember, your pet food contains very little meat and most of the composition of your companion’s diet is made up from the “other”. This makes it even the more important that you understand what is in fact the bulk of your companion’s diet.
Most people pick up a bag of kibble or a can of food and read “with chicken or “with beef” and think that they are feeding a diet that contains plump whole chickens or choice cuts of beef. But the law is very clear:
the “With” rule allows an ingredient name to appear on the label, such as “with real chicken,” as long as each such ingredient constitutes at least 3% of the food by weight, excluding water for processing.
As a responsible and discerning consumer and protector of your companion animal, one has an obligation to scrutinize and understand the labeling and the ingredients contained within your pets nutrition.
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