MAKING THE BEST PET FOODS

It would seem that there is no saving grace in any processed food. Although heat processed foods are inferior to fresh ones in many respects, there are many things that can be done to processed foods to make them excellent foods when fed in rotation.

Clearly, people are not going to stop using convenient packaged products and just feed home prepared raw foods. So the best compromise is a packaged food as close to the ideal as possible, plus fresh food, rotational feeding, and intelligent supplements.

There are things to look for in packaged foods that compromise the least. But first and foremost, if the company is deceptive, is just a marketing entity traded from one venture capitalist to the next, and promulgates erroneous fads and myths that have really nothing to do with health, they should not be trusted with your pets health. Otherwise, look for these features:

• ORGANIC: Organic, and non-GMO ingredients as available and affordable.
• FRESH: Fresh or frozen meats, organs, and bones as starting materials.
• WHOLE: Whole ingredients where possible to capture all nutrients.
• FREE RANGE: Meats from animals which live and feed in nature.
• FATTY ACIDS: Essential omega 3,6,9 fatty acids.
• ENZYMES: Enrobed post-heat with active enzymes.
• PROBIOTIC CULTURES: A spectrum enrobed post-heat.
• PREBIOTICS: Special oligosaccharides encourage probiotics.
• VITAMINS AND MINERALS: In their most bioavailable forms, with pepper extract to increase absorption by as much as 250%. Since heat destroys and alters nutrients to a degree, a vitamin/mineral premix (synthetics that mimic natural nutrients are better than none) is essential.
• PHYTONUTRIENTS: An array of immune stimulants and metabolic enhancers from plant sources.
• FRUIT EXTRACTS: Certain fruits are powerful natural antioxidants and antimicrobials.
• AGE, BREED, AND SIZE NONSPECIFIC: Appropriate for carnivores at all life stages.
• ADDITIVE-FREE: Freedom from non-nutritional ingredients.
• COLD PROCESSING: True non thermal processing.
• NATURAL INSECT CONTROL: Stored ingredients enrobed with a special, natural, nontoxic insecticide, which not only suppresses insect infestation, but adds nutrients to the food as well.
• MYCOTOXIN TESTED: Ingredients and final products are tested.
• MYCOTOXIN ADSORPTION: Using natural mineral complexes.
• PATHOGEN TESTING: Products tested and cleared before release.
• BEST MANUFACTURING PRACTICES: Compliance with USDA, FDA, State regulatory agencies, and matching other certified best manufacturing practices.
• ANTIOXIDANTS: Natural antioxidants protect fatty acids.
• OXIDATION TESTING: Insuring antioxidant effectiveness.
• EXTRUSION: Dry, wet, and steam injected single and twin screw extrusion to maximize nutritional value. Fresh meat and vegetable injection into the extruder preconditioner.
• MICROBUBBLING: Fats and oils protected from degradation by being micro-bubbled™ with nitrogen to purge oxygen.
• SPROUTING: The most nutritious stage of seeds.
• STORAGE: Fragile ingredients are refrigerated or deep frozen.
• DRYING: At the best temperature to preserve nutritional value.
• VACUUM ENROBING: Fragile, heat-sensitive ingredients such as enzymes, essential fatty acids, probiotics, and certain vitamins are pulled into the product after the completion of heat processing.
• FRESH BATCHING: Made fresh to order as much as possible.
• SPECIAL PACKAGING: Nitrogen flushed and oxygen and light barrier portion packs.

Not All of these features need be present in every meal to achieve the best pet food. Where perfection is not possible - including in nutrition - rotation and variety will cover a multitude of dietary sins. These ideas are, however, examples of tools you can use in measuring the health potential of products.

Video: Petey the Basketball Dog

Petey the dog can probably beat you in one-on-one basketball...

Thought for the day: Unfortunately, most beliefs are not the result of honest investigation but rather from stifling doubts.

Word of the day: glutens - noun: proteins found in grains such as wheat, rye, spelt and barley. They've become known as causes of digestive disturbance and allergies in some animals, as well as celiac disease and other maladies in humans. Are glutens in and of themselves, inherently and necessarily problematic? No. In fact, gluten is an excellent source of dietary protein. The rare instances of intolerance certainly do not justify the misleading "grain-free" fad that is now present in the market. As with everything, degree and dose is in large part the issue here (this is not to say that genetics doesn't also play a role). Glutens are just one more thing on a near-unlimited list of ingredients that creatures can become allergic to given over-exposure, as in the relentless feeding of only one pet food, meal after meal, day after day...