BagelDog said:
Ok, you've told me its bad food, but again GIVE ME PROOF!
Okay, I just had to get in on this debate because it's being debated at my KeesTalk forum where everyone *IS* giving the proof. So, I'll share it with you.
I won't feed anything but a holitic food to my dogs (and cats). If it's not Back to Basics, Blue Buffalo, California Natural, Canidae, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Eagle Pack, Flint River Ranch, Fromm Family Foods, Innova, Natural, Pinnacle, Royal Canin, Solid Gold, Ultra Holistic, Wellness, or Wysong it's certainly
not going into any of my pets.
I know folks who feed Pedigree among Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet and other similar store bought foods. they're all packed with corn, by-products, and other fillers. This, to me, is considered "junk".
Regardless of the tireless marketing Pedigree do, it really is one of the poorest choices out there on the market today next to Eukanuba which is chalked full of chemicals.
The problem with pedigree is that it's a grain heavy food with too much wheat and wheat is often not tolerated well by dogs. In addition, ground yellow corn is the first ingediant of Pedigree and I have a problem with the ingrediants that follow - chicken by-product meal and meat and bone meal. Rice, corn, and gluten meal all kind of round that out and I can now see why it's a grain heavy food with no meat whatsoever.
The sheer fact that it contains corn should telly ou something because it's a well-known fact that dogs don't digest corn very well. The other problem I have with Pedigree is terrible stools and the fact that some dogs can have bad gas problems on it.
With Science Diet, the corn and soybean meal are major contributors to allergy problems in a lot of dogs. Plus, Science Diet is well-known for causing diahrrea.
In addition, Pedigree among the others I mentioned also use BHT and BHA in it to help preserve it.
BHT and BHA are preservatives that are banned from human consumption in many countries because they've been shown to be a possible human carcinogen. BHA was actually proven to be carcinogenic in animal experiments and should be noted that the oxidative characteristics and/or metabolites of BHA and BHT may contribute to carcinogenicity or tumorigenicity. So why on Earth would anyone want to pump their dogs full of a dog food that could turn around and cause cancer due to the preservatives used?
Foods that are human grade like Back to Basics, Blue Buffalo, California Natural, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Eagle Pack, Flint River Ranch, Fromm Family Foods, Innova, Natural, Pinnacle, Royal Canin, Solid Gold, Ultra Holistic, Wellness, and Wysong have no corn or by-products in them. In addition, you want a food that is preserved naturally and not with a chemical like BHA or BHT and a food with meat as the first ingrediant is
always the best choice.
BagelDog said:
You say the ingerdients are crap, but my dogs are thriving on it, so they are oviously ok for dogs to eat, otherwise, youd think they would be sick, or have dull coats, or SOMTHING.
Yes, dogs can thrive on that food, but that
still doesn't mean it's healthy for them. A child can thrive on junk food, but that doesn't mean that junk food is nutritionally best for the child, now does it? I know you know I'm speaking common sense truth. So why not agree?
Just because they don't show signs of being sick doesn't mean that it's NOT doing damage to the insides - to their kidneys and to their liver in particular.
I have a 15-year-old Siamese Mix whow as getting nothing but junk food his entire life, mainly Science Diet with some other stuff thrown in there from time-to-time like Deli Cat and Fancy Feast. He never showed any open signs of being sick, but obviously the junk food, over time, did a number on his kidneys and the problems are just now showing at the age of 15. (Granted, cats hide signs of illness better than dogs, but still just because they're sick doesn't mean, as I said, internal damage isn't occurring.) Now, his kidneys are in poor condition and it leaves me wondering how much longer I'm going to have him. Yes, he's on Solid Gold now, but I'm not sure nor is the vet as to how much damage was done on the inside.
I know someone who lost their lab at age 13 and fed Science Diet to him for the first 10 years of his life. Eventually, even after switching over to a better food, the dog died of abdominal/liver cancer. The owner, like another owner who fed their lab-mix Science Diet for several years and lost theirs to cancer too, now wonders along with the other owner if it was the food that did their dogs in. While they may never really know for certain, they've learned from their mistakes of feeding junk food and now have the current dogs they own on holistic foods.
BagelDog said:
And your right, I have no say in what my dogs are fed.
Actually, you do. Otherwise, you wouldn't have used the word 'my'.
BagelDog said:
And your right, I have no say in what my dogs are fed. I just know there healthy and happy, and that IAMS isnt crap oviously, or my dogs would have had a lot more food related problems.
Do you really know this? Are you 100% sure?
As I said, my cat was having internal damage done to his kidneys for 15 years before blood tests finally showed the problems.
BagelDog said:
And your right, I have no say in what my dogs are fed. I tried to tell my mom that, even showed her the IAMS cruelty site, but she doesnt believe it, and doesnt see the need to change food if our dogs are doing as good as they are, and I agree. Why fix what isnt broken?
My mom didn't want to believe it either (my dogs just came off Iams and onto Solid Gold). But, I kept trying to educate her and
still do. After all, knowledge is power.
My mom never saw a need to change foods too, but I just did it and said, "They're my pets and I want what's best for my pets nutrionally" and simply left it at that. Then again, I'm a grown child, working, and can bring in the money necessary to do a food change. You, unfortuantely, don't sound like you are and are still a minor, which just makes it all the more difficult. But, as I said, knowledge is power. The more you're willing to open yourself to learning about junk pet food and why it's not good liek many of us have over the eyars then perhaps you can build up a good coversation one day about it and be able to defend yourself enough to make her think differently and thus change the food.
True, you shouldn't fix it if it's not broken. But, do you eventually want it to become broken? By changing foods now to something better (i.e. a holistic brand) then you can significantly reduce the chances of it becoming broken later on down the road.
Anyhow, this is my take on the matter. Jusding by your comment of, "Why fix what isnt and say to someone that it's okay simply because they're thriving. Clearly better nutrition isn't important to you as long as the child or pet is thriving on the junk food.