THE BEST PET FOOD IS NOT PRETTY PACKAGING

Quality foods made of natural ingredients are fragile. Heat, light, air, and time degrade nutrients or convert them to toxins. The best pet food is not recognized by how pretty the packaging is, but rather what the packaging does and how the food is processed.

Keeping foods safe is the main challenge of food processors that need to distribute foods worldwide. Somehow they must arrest the spoiling that normally occurs to natural foods to allow for packaging, shipping, and sitting on shelves until sold.

The easy way to take care of this problem is to cook the food so that the enzymes and microorganisms that break the food down are destroyed. The problem with this is that processing also destroys many valuable nutrients.

The alternative for producers concerned about achieving the best pet food is to minimize processing and incorporate fresh elements that are not heated at all. The next step is to protect these fresh elements with oxygen and light barrier packaging. Smaller portion packaging is also preferable to the large paper bags in pet supermarkets that do not protect foods from light or air and may take weeks to be eaten after the bag is opened and exposed to the elements.

Before sealing, the bags should also be flushed with a modified atmosphere such as nitrogen to remove oxygen before the bag is sealed. These measures help prevent oxidation of important and fragile nutrients such as essential fatty acids.

Keep the delicate nature of nutritious food in mind, no matter what the claim of shelf life. A good principle to keep in mind is: the faster a food spoils, the more nutritious it is.

Once a package is opened it should be tightly resealed and either stored in a cool, dry, dark environment, or, preferably, refrigerated or frozen. This will further prolong nutritional integrity, and with that also preserve and enhance your pet's health.

Video: Malay Eagle Owl

This strange bird looks exactly like a blending of an eagle and an owl. The Spot-bellied eagle owl is native to Southeast Asia. This one is a pet named "Kitty." She loves being scratched behind the ears, and her caretakers love doing it. Just another example of how there is the desire to connect and love throughout nature.

Thought for the day: "We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty." – Julia Allen Field

Phrase for the day: 'unsaturated fats' - - fats in which not all carbons are saturated with hydrogens and which contain reactive double bonds. These are found in both plants and animals and are quite vulnerable to oxidation by heat, light, oxygen, and certain metals. Some of these are essential dietary components important for cellular structure, metabolism, and communication. Omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids are unsaturated to various degrees. Unlike saturated fats, unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature.