So...what is really in pet food?
http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1&cat=286
THis is from an independent petcare website, not connected to PETA (although this type of frank talk is what you expect from PETA). I am so grossed out!
I know, my dog is a vegan and I know that there are those here who will (and have) flamed me for this. I could be right and I could be wrong to feed Sandee that way, and time will tell. When I look at her V-dog which smells like brown rice when it is cooking, versus this article that talks about that smell when you open a bag of dog food is fats sprayed on crap to get pets to eat it!!! I think she'll stay vegan because I can prove the nutrients in her diet for myself. I am not just sure where the meat is in pet foods at this point.
It is like it is for us. Give me a vegan diet with a lot of variety and color over a meat and potatoes diet any day. This is why I do the same for our pets around here.
Most commercial dogs foods (and cat foods) are nothing more then the scraping off of the slaughter house floors as well as rendered animal parts (including euthanized dogs and cats from shelters). :-\
Here's the best list of what to feed a dog....from my so called "dog guru"..Dr. Martin Goldstein:
http://www.drmarty.com/feeding.htm
His recommendations come from years and years of personal experience in treating pets. He is also widely known as the formost cancer specialist for dogs/cats. I know of no other animal medical professional whose advice that I would trust as much. He too is vegan. His pets are not. Nor are mine, nor will they ever be. I love them with all my heart and they are my family members. Like anyone that is under your care, you try to do the very best for them. Forcing my own personal vegan beliefs on them is just not right, and in the long run...not healthy for them. I base my own facts on years and years of taking care of, and feeding them (as well as hundreds and hundreds of animals I have rescued over a 10+ year period). Experience counts for something. It has to.
Once again to anyone that has a pet (or plans on getting one): Buy his book. Everything you need or want to know about a pet's diet, medical care, and treatments is in it.
"The Nature of Animal Healing".... I have yet to hear one person who has read it disagree with his philosophies.
Most commercial dogs foods (and cat foods) are nothing more then the scraping off of the slaughter house floors as well as rendered animal parts (including euthanized dogs and cats from shelters). :-\
Here's the best list of what to feed a dog....from my so called "dog guru"..Dr. Martin Goldstein:
http://www.drmarty.com/feeding.htm
His recommendations come from years and years of personal experience in treating pets. He is also widely known as the formost cancer specialist for dogs/cats. I know of no other animal medical professional whose advice that I would trust as much. He too is vegan. His pets are not. Nor are mine, nor will they ever be. I love them all with my heart and they are my family members. Like anyone that is under your care, you try to do the very best for them. Forcing my own personal vegan beliefs on them is just not right, and in the long run...not healthy for them. I base my own facts on years and years of taking care of, and feeding them (as well as hundreds and hundreds of animals I have rescued over a 10 year period). Experience counts for something. It has to.
Once again to anyone that has a pet (or plans on getting one): Buy his book. Everything you need or want to know about a pet's diet, medical care, and treatments is in it.
"The Nature of Animal Healing".... I have yet to hear one person who has read it disagree with his philosophies.
where do you get your dog food? Do you cook meat for them? Or do you buy already made food? I have been planning on adopting a pet after I move into my house, I asked my vet about feeding cats and dogs vegan, she said that cats can not be vegan, but that dogs can. I would certainly want my companion animal to be healthy as long as I can find healthy food to feed it, and I would certainly want my pets to be vegan, but if this is true, and it would in return hurt the dog, then I should really think about my stance on things eh.
thanks for posting these links!
where do you get your dog food? Do you cook meat for them? Or do you buy already made food? I have been planning on adopting a pet after I move into my house, I asked my vet about feeding cats and dogs vegan, she said that cats can not be vegan, but that dogs can. I would certainly want my companion animal to be healthy as long as I can find healthy food to feed it, and I would certainly want my pets to be vegan, but if this is true, and it would in return hurt the dog, then I should really think about my stance on things eh.
thanks for posting these links!
First thing I would do is get his book (mentioned above), either purchase it or see if it's available in your local library. I do recommend purchasing it because it does come in handy when something comes up (great alphabetical index in the rear of book). I mostly feed Nature's Variety brand of dog foods (and cat). I use both their raw and some of their kibble: www.naturesvariety.com (use their locater to find a store near you). Dogs and cats like variety. They don't like to eat the samething everyday, nor should they. It's like you or me eating vegan Boca burgers...everyday....forever and ever....boring (nor healthy). I also feed Flint River Ranch foods, Innova, Pinnacle, Avoderm and a few others. I have made food for my dogs, but I have too many and it's way too time consuming (besides...it grosses me out). One of my dogs Kara has been going through a pretty long illness...she was very very close to passing on....but she is very slowly getting better (thanks to Dr. Goldstein and my old vet Deneen who now lives in Florida). I was cooking everything under the sun to try to get her to eat for a long long time. She now has been back on a totally raw diet, (the Nature's Variety Organic raw). and she seems to like that the best. It is probably the best thing for herl for now as we try to boost up her immune system. I'd love for my pets to be vegan as well.....but until I see a vegan food listed by Dr. Goldstein....I'll stick with his advice. Hope you get the book! ;)
-dave
PS: I think it's great that you want to rescue (I saw your other post).....thanks for doing that as well! :)
they use dead dogs and cats in dog/cat food!?!?!?!?!? i never knew that but somehow i'm not surprised by it. that is absolutely sickening!!! thank you so much davedrum for letting me know that. how have you been by the way?
Unfortunately is is sad but true. :-\
There's tons of info on it if you google it. Here's some links for you:
http://www.petcaretips.net/euthanized_pets.html
http://www.dogs-4life.com/does-your-dog-food-include-euthanized-dog-.html
As far as me? I've been good. Kara is slowly getting better....and I'm going to be moving back up to Woodstock, NY and NYC soon. (decided that it was a better place for me over Asheville for the time being). I'm up here now to buy a new home as I type. Thanks for asking. ;) I'm about to head out for a vegan brunch...but I'll find the time to post more later.
I totally agree with Davedrum.
The book he recommended is excellent.
I have home cooked for about 15 years. I had just given up beef, pork and lamb. Was still eating chicken. Gave up fish a couple of years after the red meat. Gave up chicken when I went to buy chicken for the critters food as I went to an outlet that in reality is also the slaughterhouse. A chicken truck pulled up next to my car and I stopped eating chicken that day. That was about 10 years ago.
I still go to the outlet and cry if a truck is there and say a little prayer for the chickens.
I can not put my beliefs on my pets because they do need meat. Dogs are carnivores too so not only cats need it.
I wouldn't put much stock into what the average conventional vet says about feeding as they get next to no time in University on pet nutrition. Like doctors Most often get kick backs from the pet foods they sell and recommend.
Another good book to read about what goes into pet food: http://www.amazon.ca/Food-Pets-Die-Shocking-Facts/dp/0939165465/ref=sr_1_3/702-5932124-9485616?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189354985&sr=1-3
One of my favourite books on natural pet care is Dr. Pitcairn's: http://www.amazon.ca/Pitcairns-Complete-Guide-Natural-Health/dp/157954973X/ref=pd_bowtega_1/702-5932124-9485616?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189355457&sr=1-1
That was the book my holistic vet recommended when I first went to see her 15 years ago. I keep getting the updated versions.
OK nutrition and optimum nutrution are two different things. OK, meaning an animal will do OK or even appear well although not getting what they truly need. May show up years later as we all know we can eat crappy and do OK for quite some time. Or optimally...getting the nutrition that makes us the best we can be.
We mostly all care that we are receiving all the proper nutrients, maybe even more so than meat eaters because we have to cover all bases. Right now, I only eat OK. I am working on making my diet optimal. My pets eat better than I do. I don't mean because they eat meat and I don't. It is that I feed them an optimum diet.
Just my 2 cents worth!
they use dead dogs and cats in dog/cat food!?!?!?!?!? i never knew that but somehow i'm not surprised by it. that is absolutely sickening!!! thank you so much davedrum for letting me know that. how have you been by the way?
Yip. Look for "meat by-products" on the label. That's anything from roadkill to diseased animals farmers want to offload. Sickening. That's why I NEVER buy Friskies, Whiskas, Hill's Science Diet, Purina, etc for my cats. I always try to buy holistic, organic cat food or I'll settle for Iams if I'm short on cash. Now I'm thinking of making my own cat food from home. I don't know how I'll bring myself to prepare meat again since all meat on the supermarket shelves pretty much scares me when I think about how they got there. :'(
they use dead dogs and cats in dog/cat food!?!?!?!?!? i never knew that but somehow i'm not surprised by it. that is absolutely sickening!!! thank you so much davedrum for letting me know that. how have you been by the way?
Yip. Look for "meat by-products" on the label. That's anything from roadkill to diseased animals farmers want to offload. Sickening. That's why I NEVER buy Friskies, Whiskas, Hill's Science Diet, Purina, etc for my cats. I always try to buy holistic, organic cat food or I'll settle for Iams if I'm short on cash. Now I'm thinking of making my own cat food from home. I don't know how I'll bring myself to prepare meat again since all meat on the supermarket shelves pretty much scares me when I think about how they got there. :'(
Sadly, the meat in pet food got there the same way. It just makes people feel better that they didn't have to cook it themselves.
Today, beef roasts were on sale. I rarely give the critters beef except for organic beef liver and they eat that either raw or nearly raw. Cali needs it raw during her illness and recovery. My vet told me she should get it raw but only if it is organic. Actually, only organic even if cooked as the liver is a filter organ. No point feeding it to them filled with antibiotics etc.
There were many roasts in the store and people were grabbing them and saying things like won't this be good tonight! All I could think of was only if you are a carnivore (cat or dog). I was nearly sick going through it trying to find a smaller size to fit in my crock pot for their dinner tonight. I felt physically ill.
I bought two roasts. One is in the crock pot now (will add potatoes and veggies in a couple of hours) and I bought one to freeze.
I worked for a vet years ago and for people who didn't pay to have their pet cremated (with other pets) or ashes back, single pet cremation(costs more), the renderer picked them up.
Nothing was more disgusting to me as I had to help the old man that drove the truck put the animals in the truck. We always put the deceased animal in bags in the freezer. He picked up once a week. He would back his truck up to the railing at our porch and I had to help him toss the bags into the truck. The old guy had lung issues and couldn't pick up anything heavy. What made me the most ill was that most of the pets in the truck had not been bagged so I could see all of their bodies and faces. People's pets!
For the animals that I couldn't bury, I have always gotten ashes back (single cremation). They sit in little urns on my bedroom bureau. Isabela's is beside her paw print that the crematorium did before they cremated her. They put it in clay and framed it beautifully. The clinic I went to asked them to do that and the clinic paid for it. It is a treasured keepsake as Isabela had deformed feet from her hard life on the streets of Mexico. When I look at that deformed foot, I remember how once she got healthy from heartworm etc., how she loved to run on grass.
The thought that any one of my pets could have been someone else's meal is sickening. Worse, she had cancer. How horrendous to think that something with cancer would or could end up in my pet's food. No way!
A few years ago in the paper in Montreal, Quebec, it was discovered that dead pets often end up in pet food.
Yes, it takes more time to home cook and I do have to touch meat and smell it cooking but it is 100% better than the alternative...pet food.
Now I'm thinking of making my own cat food from home. I don't know how I'll bring myself to prepare meat again since all meat on the supermarket shelves pretty much scares me when I think about how they got there. :'(
At first, I too wanted to cook for my cats because I thought that would be healthiest (and I could guarantee what was in it). But then I realized that cooking for them is not realistic time-wise for me right now and I don't know if I can ever prepare meat again (the smell, touching the flesh, etc. is just something I don't want to experience again), so per Dave's suggestion of the Nature's Variety brand, we bought the rabbit medallions yesterday (raw, ground rabbit w/ fruits and veggies added). The guy at the store (a cool little place called Wag 'N Wash that has locations in both Phoenix and different parts of Colorado) recommended the rabbit for cats because it's a rodent and something cats would likely catch for themselves for dinner. His other recommendation was the organic chicken kind and said to try it next time for variety (like Dave mentioned earlier--it's boring and unhealthy for them to eat the same thing every day for their whole life).
So far, they want nothing to do with it; however, I just need to be more patient and transition them slowly so the texture doesn't turn them off. I found this great site for those interested in transitioning cats from dry kibble to either a canned or raw diet (and it reassured me that, yes, my cats will eat their new raw food given some time):
http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dry_Food_Addicts_to_Canned_Food_
Yea, commercial pet foods are really bad. I would not feed my pets a commercial pet food any more than I would a vegan diet.
There are a few exceptions in terms of pet food, but they're usually found only online or in small, specialty stores, i.e. not chain stores. And they're very expensive. You can even find organic ones, but as I said - pricey.
We've always fed the BARF diet with all our carnivorous animals. I still do so with my cat, and will with any future dogs I have.
And I agree with whomever said that they wouldn't put much stock in conventional vets. Frankly, their knowledge about optimum diets for animals is VERY lacking. And, really, only extends to which pet food they promote in their own office.