FOCUSING ON PERCENTAGES AND INGREDIENTS DOES NOT GET YOU THE BEST PET FOOD

A few decades ago, nutrition was thought to be a simple matter of percentages. If a food had a certain percent protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, etc., it could be claimed to be 100% complete and balanced. Lonely and maligned voices argued that a food could be no better than the sum of its ingredients, and how it was processed and packaged. After all, boot leather and soap cooked into oblivion and put in a paper bag can create beguiling fat and protein percentages.

Today, while percentages are still given consideration in formulations to permit the complete and balanced claim, there is a new marketing focus on ingredients.

Sleuthing labels in this regard has become the obsession of an entire new industry of pet advisor, reviewer, and ranking Internet sites. Unfortunately, percentages and identifying savior and demon ingredients do not create the best pet food or provide the keys to health.

These marketing canards distract pet owners from using their own common sense in feeding their pets.

Thinking pet owners must understand that dogs and cats need to be fed as they were genetically designed. That does not mean finding the one perfect food with just the "right" percentages and ingredients. It means a method, not a certain product. That method, the best pet food, is to mimic the natural dog and cat diet by varying, rotating, and making sure to include fresh, non-processed foods.

This will remove you from the clutches of the merchants and the ill-advised advisors and put you in charge of your pet's best chance for health and long life.

Video: Twin baby moose play in sprinkler

Thought for the day: "My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet." – Edith Wharton

Phrase for the day: 'di calcium phosphate' (DCP) - a natural product used to supplement two of the essential major minerals, calcium and phosphorus / Di Calcium phosphate is often added to food items like breakfast cereals and pet foods, and works to boost bone strengthening calcium and phosphorus.