Food

This is absolutely not an excuse, but do us a favor and look at the incredible accumulation of minute facts about dog foods that appeared in the February issue and in this one; it may have been inevitable that we made a few small mistakes. We apologize for any inconvenience we have caused through the following errors and/or oversights.

Last month's issue contained our annual review of dry dog foods, but with an exception from our usual format: This year, we decided to break out grain-free dry dog foods from the increasingly populated and competitive pack of terrific kibbled products on the market. We did not review them in the February issue, but will discuss grain-free foods at length here. In 2005, Natura Pet Products was the first pet food company to manufacture and market a grain-free kibble, which was initially called Innova Evo (and is now called simply Evo). The success of the product, in the market and with many of the dogs fed the diet, sparked a proliferation of grain-free foods. We were able to find more than a dozen companies that currently offer one or more grain-free foods that meet our selection criteria.

the consumer wins. I've long appreciated companies that have educated personnel readily available and willing to communicate with consumers about their products. It's even better when the company has a veterinarian available who can discuss the company's products and a consumer's dog's digestion or other health problems in detail.

Of course

While a dog treat should be something special for the dog, it shouldn't undermine his health, or counter the positive effects of a healthy diet. Artificial preservatives and colors can cause cancer. Too many sweets can contribute to the development of diabetes; fatty treats can trigger an attack of pancreatitis. And an excess of treats can pose serious problems. It can spoil the dog's appetite for healthier, nutritionally complete and balanced foods. If the treats contain ingredients to which the dog is allergic or intolerant, an excessive allotment can trigger a dramatic reaction. And, of course, a chronic excess of treats can cause obesity, which contributes to many other disease processes.

As more and more owners make the decision to switch their dogs to homemade diets, we grew increasingly aware of the importance and urgency to supply appropriate guidelines that could help people create homemade diets that would meet their dogs' nutritional needs. Over the past five months, we've presented information on homemade diets, cooked and raw, with whole bones, ground bones, or boneless. During that time, we've learned about some new products, read a great new book, tried out some sample pre-mixes and freeze-dried foods, and responded to questions from people about issues raised in our past five articles and points that would benefit from clarification. We'll discuss these topics in this final installment of our series.

There have been pet food recalls before, and there will be recalls in the future, but the event of early 2007 will probably be recorded as the costliest pet food recall in history. However, it’s our hope, and the opinion of many, that the lessons learned from this infamous event should prevent any similar large-scale pet food disaster from happening ever again. Below, seven pet food company executives explain how the operations of their companies have changed since the recall, and what dog owners can do to protect their companions, should disaster ever strike again.

Feeding a raw dog food diet to your dog is quite simple, especially once you have a system in place. Though like anything else new, it can seem very complicated when first starting out. These sample dog food diets should be helpful to dog caretakers who are considering feeding a raw diet. Even those who have been doing it for a while may learn some new tricks to make the process of finding, preparing, and storing home prepared dog food simpler.

Over the past three months, we’ve provided rules and guidelines for feeding a homemade dog food diet, but getting started can still seem overwhelming. This month, we’ll hear from owners who feed their dogs a homemade diet, and learn from them how they go about it, including tips and tricks for finding, preparing, and storing the dog food.

Those of us who feed our dogs a raw diet that includes bones believe that this is the healthiest, most natural diet dogs can eat. But not everyone is comfortable feeding such a diet to their dogs. Here are directions for feeding your dog a cooked diet, or a diet that includes raw meat but no bones. Your dog will still benefit from a variety of fresh foods in proper proportions, regardless of how theyfre prepared. It takes a little more work to ensure that a cooked diet that does not include bone meets all of your dogfs nutritional needs. Wefll explain how much calcium, and in which form, youfll need to add to his diet.

The latest twist in the pet food recall involves foods that contain contaminated ingredients – ingredients that don’t appear on the list of ingredients that are listed by law on the product label. We’re frustrated, given that we’ve spent 10 years telling our subscribers to read product labels – and make purchasing decisions based on the ingredients that are on the labels. Now, it seems to be developing that “what’s in the bag” (or can or pouch) is accurately described by the product labels only sometimes. The industry owes consumers some solutions; how can we ever trust that what’s in the package is what the label says it is?

As a new subscriber to Whole Dog Journal, this is the first time I have received the issue that contains your recommended top quality dry food for dogs (February 2007). I was surprised that Solid Gold dog food was not part of your list. I recently lost a 14-month-old Golden Retriever to cancer. Since that experience, food quality is my top priority for my dogs

not in China or elsewhere?

Do you intend to do an investigation on the origin of ingredients in foods? It would be a good idea to list all the brands that are manufactured in the U.S.