Commercial pet foods – a slow poison

Here\’s a take-home message!

A study published in 2003 looked at a sample size of 552 dogs over a 5-year period. This study showed an incredible difference between dogs fed commercial processed diets as compared to dogs fed table scraps or fresh foods. The dogs in the second group (fed table scraps or fresh food lived longer on average by nearly 3 years).

(Please note – there are a very few commercial pet foods that are good- more about that at the end of this post.)

Here are the top 6 reasons that commercial pet foods harm your furry friends.

Number 1: Commercial pet foods are high in carbohydrates.

Dogs and cats are carnivores (see my article on why a complete raw diet is best here). Carnivores have evolved over millennia to eat meat and fat and bone. Their digestive system is optimised for this sort of food. However, high-quality meat, fat and bone is expensive. Carbohydrates are cheap calories, much, much cheaper than meat and fat. Pet food is a HUGE business, worth billions of dollars, and profit is king. The carbs in pet foods come from industrially farmed grains (or industrially farmed peas, potato, pulses, soy etc if the food is \’grain free\’ – and these \’grain free\’ pet foods are just as bad for your pets as the others, as they are still high in carbs. High carb food means your pets are running on a sugar metabolism. This is a chronic stress on their metabolism, and leads to all sorts of health problems over time. I nearly always see mostly high carb ingredients dominating the first ten ingredients on the label.

Number 2: The proteins in commercial foods are nearly always processed at very high temperatures.

Meat and bone \’meals\’ are a very common ingredient in commercial pet foods. Basically, this is all the leftover bits, deep fried in their own fat, drains and ground up into a powder. This process denatures the proteins, making them less digestible and more likely to damage the immune system.

Number 3: Unhealthy additives.

Commercial pet foods are designed to be addictive. They are made highly palatable by adding salt (bad for the kidneys, dehydrates the body, very harmful), and flavourings. These additives mask the fact that the food itself is really pretty awful. Most dogs wouldn\’t touch it without these addictive and harmful additives.

Number 4: Commercial pet foods are dead food.

Anything that has been so highly processed has no life force left in it. Every fresh food has a \’biophotonic charge\’ – it\’s like a battery that holds the energy of the sunlight that fed the plants (if a vegetable ingredient) or the energy of the animal that harvested this plant energy to grow muscle. Dead food is a drag on the body – it\’s empty calories that even though they seem to feed your dog, will never lead to healthy vitality. Imagine how sick you\’d get if you only ate packet foods!

Number 5: Your vets have a financial interest in selling you commercial foods (and have been brainwashed by the big companies to boot).

Yep, it\’s a profit line. Employees are expected to shift a certain amount. And the big companies that makes these foods (especially the \’prescription\’ diets) influence the curriculum at universities. We were lectured on nutrition by these companies, and they own all the research dollars too.

Number 6: It\’s simply crap, let\’s leave it at that…

Yep – I could go on for months here. Misleading marketing. Ingredients like herbs and so on present in only trace amounts that couldn\’t possibly have any benefits yet being prominently featured on the packaging. Prescription diets that are much more expensive yet actually have poorer quality ingredients. Sick and euthanased animals being used as ingredients. Heavy metal and plastic contaminants. Restaurant grease thrown into the mix. Fungal overgrowth and subsequent toxicity. Many pets being killed by dodgy pet foods, with huge recalls. All packaged in plastics that disrupt the endocrine system. Made by an industry with no oversight, that essentially regulates itself, and is way more interested in making a fat profit that the health of your pet.

Commercial pet food is awful, dead, unhealthy, addictive rubbish that takes years off the life of your pets. The single most important thing you can do for your pets\’ health is to get them onto a complete raw (BARF) diet, or feed them home cooked low carb, high meat food along with your tables scraps (remember, no onion!).

There are a few commercial pet foods that are good ones. Ziwi Peak is my favourite one of these – its 90% meat and bone, air dried, and very high quality. There are a few other brands with a similar method of preparation and proportions of ingredients. Their tinned food is the next best thing for cats who won\’t eat raw food or BARF. Check out their ingredient labels if you can\’t get it where you are, and compare carefully.

If you\’re not sure about a food, paste the brand and ingredient list into the comments below and I\’ll critique it for you for free.

Change to a complete raw diet for your pets, and be prepared to see your dog lose weight, their coat get shinere, chonic health conditions improve, the poos get smaller and firmer, less stinky dog farts, and they\’ll live longer too!

 

 

12 thoughts on “Commercial pet foods – a slow poison”

  1. Hi Dr Edward, Thanks for this great website. I was wondering what you thought of Go solutions Duck Skin & Coat Care by Petcurean…a Canadian product. I give my 85 lb Bernese Mtn Dog 1 cup twice a day along with chicken or turkey or duck breast cooked with broccoli, carrots and zucchini in a slow-cooker or crockpot (about 1 cup per meal). I also add some Apple Cider Vinegar and Glucosamine and Turmeric daily. Although she has recurring ear infections, her coat is absolutely lovely! It’s summertime here in Canada so now she seems to have itchy paws, too! The 5Strands allergy test I had done on her revealed many food allergens or intolerances as well as environmental such as poplar trees and pine needles…and we live in a wooded community:-). Thanks in advance and keep up the great work! Lydia, Montreal, Quebec.

  2. Hello,
    I’ve been feeding my dog Vetalogica and Scratch. Have you heard of them? They are supposed to be good quality but I’d be interested to hear your opinion. Thank you,
    Jody

  3. I checked the brand and they use grains, but foremost, why don’t you make your own dog food? It’s easy and you make it in advance and freeze it. There are plenty of recipes online. Commercial pet foods are the worst, and they include euthanized cats and dogs, passing the drugs on to your pet. That’s just one of the problems, even in expensive brands.

  4. It’s true. I never once fed my cat commercial pet food – only fresh raw meat (never cooked), raw chicken bones (because cooked bones can lead to very painful impacted bowels for both cats and dogs) and grasses. He never had ‘cat breath’, never once got sick, was always a happy chappy and died at a ripe old age in his sleep.

  5. Thank you so much for this post! Our dog had chronic ear infections, stomach problems and was always licking his paws. The vet said he was probably allergic to chicken and/or beef and recommended a novel protein prescription diet and twice a day zyrtec. We noticed he seemed to react well to chicken and white rice when he had stomach problems so we started wondering if he was allergic to dog food. I now make his food. Each meal consists of of 1/4 cup chicken thighs, 1/4 cup chicken organ meet, 1/8 cup ground brown rice, 1/8 cup white rice, a tablespoon of cooked carrots, and 2?tabkespoons homemade bone broth and 1 tsp chicken fat. He’s responded very well but I have three questions: 1) does he need a multi-vitamin? 2) should i replace the chicken fat with a fat rich in omega 3s and 6s and if so would god liver oil do or should it be salmon oil? 3) Does he need more veggies or more variety of vegetables or are the carrots enough? Thank you again for the post. With all the research being funded by the pet food industry it’s no wonder most vets buy into what they’re selling but it’s also very unfortunate…

  6. And by the way, we only did the zyrtec for a few days before deciding it was completely insane to medicate him to tolerate the food that was causing the problem!!!! Now that he has a different diet, the itching has completely disappeared.

  7. Hi Dr,
    Thanks for your amazing blog.

    Looking for some food advice for my two oodle babies Honey (Cavoodle, 8 y/o) and Maple (Groodle, 2 y/o)

    I’m always so unsure as to what to feed my girls. I’ve always under the impression that raw is best & have always fed them raw turkey, sardines, green yoghurt and raw/freeze dried dog food Balanced Life (do you have any feedback on Balanced Life)?

    (https://www.budgetpetproducts.com.au/product/balanced-life-grain-free-salmon-recipe-all-life-stages-rehydratable-dog-food-35kg/9094?refs=9)

    It’s VERY expensive but I’m happy to pay premium to Ensure my girls are getting the best diet.

    I started feeding my Groodle raw beef mince instead of turkey as she was a little underweight and needed more fat in her diet.

    Can you please shine light on the raw meat and if I’m ok continuing them on turkey/beef raw?

    Thank you

  8. I saw this news item about ZiwiPeak, and it concerns me:
    “In 2021, China-based private equity firm FountainVest Partners acquired pet food company Ziwi Ltd., maker of ZiwiPeak brand, reported Radio New Zealand. ZIWI has agreed to purchase Hastings, New Zealand-based Freeze Dried Foods NZ LTD (FDF) and its subsidiary Kiwigarden LTD for an undisclosed amount.”

    Anytime China is involved in pet food, my alarm bells go off. Has this affected ZiwiPeak food quality?

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