Heath Tips & Tricks
Look for a food that has all natural ingredients. The first three ingredients should be protein sources.
If it is a single protein food, the first ingredient should be the protein, followed by a grain and
carbohydrate.
Avoid foods that have corn, wheat and by-products in them. Here is an actual example of ingredients
in a popular pet food sold by most veterinarians. Ground whole grain corn, Chicken By-Product meal,
animal fat....... This is typical of what you want to avoid; the first ingredient listed is Ground whole corn,
the second is Chicken By-Product Meal.
These are actual examples of ingredients from all-natural foods
Merrick Puppy Plate: Organic chicken, Turkey meal, Oatmeal, Duck, Chicken meal, Whole Barley,
Whole Brown Rice......
Orijen Puppy: Chicken, Chicken meal, Turkey meal, Russet potato, Lake whitefish, sweet potato,
whole eggs, turkey, salmon meal....Solid Gold: Lamb, Lamb meal, Brown Rice, Cracked Pearled
Barley, Millet.......
Innova: Turkey, Chicken, Chicken meal, Barley, Brown Rice potato....
Dogswell: Chicken, Chicken meal, oats, barley rye, brown rice......
You will also notice that aside form the protein sources being either the first or first few ingredients,
the rice that is used in most all-natural foods is brown rice as opposed to white rice.
For dogs who have a food allergy:
First you need to figure out if the pet is allergic to a protein or a grain. the problem with grains such
as corn, wheat and so on is that the animals do not process this. If they are not processing it and
not excreting it, their bodies are storing it somewhere and it will make an appearance through the
skin. The animal will start to scratch or chew at its paws, etc. the same can happen if they are
allergic to a protein. Chicken and beef, the two most commonly used proteins in pet foods can
cause allergic reactions even over years of eating the same food.
Foods that have Duck, Venison and Rabbit are more easily digestible for the animals and very rarely
show signs of an allergy. If they do, then a fish-based formula is the way to go. In addition, changing
a dogs food is not a bad thing to do. if your dog was in the wild, it would not be eating only chickens.
it would be eating beef, fish, venison and so on. Once your pet is on a food that is all-natural, you
can certainly change their protein source, unless of course they are allergic to that protein. It is
important for a pet to get nourishment from these different proteins and fish oils.
