Dog Food Information

Antioxidants are all the rage nowadays, seemingly good for anything that ails you or your dog. Antioxidants, natural and otherwise, are also widely used as preservatives in processed foods for pets and their people. Antioxidants are, however, another of those things that the more the scientists learn about them, the more they learn they don't know. This paradigm seems to repeat itself in the realm of holistic health!

Every two weeks I faithfully fill the pill organizers for my Boxer, Tyler. He receives a number of supplements, some for general nutrition and well-being, and some specific to his particular health challenges, including Addison’s disease. I’m not the only one performing this ritual. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, about nine percent of all dogs receive vitamins regularly; perhaps an even greater percentage of WDJ readers give supplements to their canine companions.

No one is in a better position than you are to decide which food you should feed your dog. That may not be what you wanted to hear. You may have been hoping that someone would reveal to you the name of the world's healthiest food, so you could just buy that and have it done with.

You may think of it simply as a convenient vessel, useful for keeping your dog's food gathered in one place, off the floor. Your dog probably has a very different perspective. For him, the bowl is likely to be a high value object of great import, especially if he's a hearty eater. In this magical dish, one or more times a day FOOD appears.

Thank you for alerting owners to facts regarding veterinary drug safety in “The FDA, Drugs, and Your Dog,” (WDJ February 2005). Because of numerous documented canine deaths and serious illnesses secondary to administration of certain drugs, efforts are under way to promote stronger regulatory programs for veterinary drug evaluation, approval, and monitoring. For these reasons, it is vital that any and all suspected adverse reactions to veterinary drugs be reported to the FDA. Cumulative data over many months may substantiate earlier reports and may also identify formerly undetected problems such as the recently identified link between NSAIDs and heart problems in humans. Reports should be made to FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine at (888) FDA-VETS, and can be filed by owners as well as veterinarians.

There are all sorts of other laboratory research studies conducted by the larger pet food manufacturers that push the envelope of humaneness." Some companies perform (or order a "contract lab" to perform) studies that call for a disease or health problem to be induced in a population of test dogs

Few topics excite the passions of dog lovers as much as food. Should dogs eat meat? Bones? Fruits? Vegetables? Grains? Dairy? Should their food be commercially prepared? Home-prepared? Raw? Cooked? Fresh? Frozen? Should dogs eat what people eat? What dogs in the wild eat? Whatever the choice, is it safe? Is it dangerous? For thousands of years, domesticated dogs ate whatever their humans fed them plus whatever they could find on their own. No one worried about fat/protein ratios, the role of carbohydrates, or how much calcium is too much.

Without a doubt, the most common question I am asked is What kind of food should I feed my dog?" Unfortunately

Dogs are not susceptible to the agent that causes “mad cow disease” in cattle – but cats and kibble-crunching kids could be.

Recently, we published promotional materials for WDJ (a pamphlet titled "Top Dog Foods for Total Wellness") that contained information from an article published in...

The foundation of nearly every home-prepared diet for dogs is animal-source protein, such as beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, dairy products, or eggs. These foods are so abundant in our supermarkets that we take them for granted and assume they are nutritious. After all, our scientists, public health officials, and medical experts make no distinction between food produced by animals raised outdoors on open pasture and that of animals raised in confinement on factory farms.

There is no evidence that dogs can contract “mad cow disease” from eating food that was made from the rendered remains of an infected cow, say authorities from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Nor is there any evidence that people could contract the disease from a dog who ate dry dog food made from infected meat.