THE BEST PET FOOD IS NOT A "SPECIAL" DIET

There are life-stage pet foods, large breed foods, breed specific foods and a host of foods targeting specific diseases. Promoters embellish advertisements with just enough technical flare to create the illusion that such foods spring from hard research and science.

Here are some of the buzzwords to snare the uninformed and trusting public: "science," "research," "clinical," "doctor," "university," "trials," "studies." Lace this argot with a little pie chart here, a bar graph there, a scientific reference or two, and it all becomes very impressive.

In actual fact, you would be hard pressed to find any controlled study published in a peer-reviewed journal that has ever proven the value of any such diet over just quality, varied, home prepared meals and table scraps.

Consider what the best nutritional teacher of all, nature, has to say about what the best pet food is. She would ask: Do puppies in the wild eat differently than adults, or seniors? Do different kinds of canines or felines eat different foods? Is the shape of their food different - as one pet food producer suggests is necessary? Do big dogs or cats eat anything fundamentally dif­ferent from what kittens or puppies eat after weaning? Are carnivores in the wild that get sick doomed if they can't find a diet to match their condition? Nature answers an emphatic "no" to all of these questions.

Creatures in the wild eat what they were designed to eat: raw, natu­ral, whole foods exactly as found in nature. No fancy, fabricated, forti­fied, "complete and balanced" processed foods. Just the best science of all - nature.

Some special diets may help some animals for a brief time in special situations. But consumers need to be discerning and sort out substance from marketing. For example, it should be hard for anyone to believe that special diets featuring starches and sugar (yes, these are out there) could benefit any carnivore.

This best pet food for any special health situation to use cat foods and dog foods with concentrated natural nutrition, and then augment with fresh foods and natural supplements.

This will permit the only thing that ever brings healing, nature, the best opportunity to work its magic.

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Winston takes out his frustration on the front bumper of a Police cruiser...

Thought for the day: "Animals have these advantages over man: They have no theologians to instruct them, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills." – Voltaire

Word for the day: freezedrying - verb: the process by which a food is taken from its frozen, hydrated form, to a dried, low moisture state. By eliminating moisture, freezedrying allows raw foods and meats to be shelf stable. This is accomplished by use of vacuum and varying amounts of heat. Ideally the food does not exceed 118 degrees, the critical point at which enzymes are destroyed. Unfortunately, most freeze-dried foods are heated well above that thus negating the benefits of raw foods.