Your dog or cat is DYING for something GOOD to eat! Sadly the pet manufacturers have little to no restrictions regarding what ingredients comprise your pet’s food. It is exceedingly important that you educate yourself on what to look for when reading a pet food label so you don’t have to worry about what you are feeding your dog or cat. Here are some things to look for and some things to look OUT for.

Healthy pet food should NEVER contain meat by-products or “meat and bone” meal. By-product meal is comprised of the dry, ground, rendered parts of the carcass that are deemed unfit for human consumption. By-product chicken meal consists of slaughtered chicken parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs as well as entrails. Meat and bone meal are “the rendered cooked down product from mammal tissues, including bone, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.” Keep away from preservatives such as BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin and propylene glycol. Avoid BHA and BHT they are known carcinogens. Ethoxyquin has been deemed a pesticide by the FDA and is banned in human food, but can be found in many pet foods.

What can you do? Examine the ingredients of your pet food with great diligence to ensure that your companion animal is truly receiving the best possible food on the market. The first five ingredients are the most important and should include two protein meals. Avoid grain fragments or hulls and stay AWAY from food with animal fat in it rather than chicken fat. Animal fat could come from ANYWHERE.

Some beneficial ingredients to look for include: Chicken meal, which is chicken that has had the water removed, provides eleven times the protein content of “chicken.” Chicken meal, rich with omega-6 fatty acids, is regarded as the single richest source of protein in commercial pet food. ALL of Petlane's chicken comes from USDA approved plants and is free range, hormone and antibiotic free! High quality food should contain vitamin and mineral rich grains, herbs and legumes that aid in digestion, promote the healthy functioning of vital organs and improve circulation. Holistic dog foods are a little more expensive but will add years to your best friend’s life. Your pet is depending on you to make the choices he or she cannot make for themselves!