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Shocking Pet Food Ingredients - 10 Harmful Ingredients That could Be In Your Pet's Dinner Tonight

By Anita Hamasaki

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Published: 12Mar2009
Word count: 487
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I knew when I began to research the types of ingredients in commercial pet foods that I would probably be shocked, but it really is a lot worse than that. In many cases it is down right disgusting, not to mention harmful and unhealthy to our pets. Many foods that have been declared unfit for human consumption are trucked off to pet food companies.

Here are 10 common ingredients that could very well be in your pets dinner tonight if you are feeding them a commercial pet food product.

1) Euthanized cats and dogs (including collars, I.D. tags and flea collars, the fur is not removed)
2) Diseased animals
3) Hydrolized poultry feathers - pressure treated feathers from slaughtered poultry
4) Hydrolyzed hair - pressure treated hair from cattle, horses, pigs, and other slaughtered animals
5) Animal blood
6) Dried poultry waste
7) Dried swine waste
8) Ground almond and peanut shells
9) Various leftover parts from slaughter houses such as lungs, spleen and brain, just to name a few
10) Stick marks - the chunk of flesh cut from an animal for human consumption that has been injected with hormones, antibiotics and other drugs

The scary thing is there is a lot more that I have not even listed. Even some commonly added vitamins and minerals have been proven harmful. Quite often the ingredient list is misleading. It's hard to know what we should feed our dogs if we can not trust what we read on the label.

Do you know what a rendering plant is? According to Ann N. Martin author of Food Pets Die For, "Renderers accept the waste and leftovers from our society. This includes animals picked up by dead stock removal companies; dead zoo animals, road kill to large to be buried at the side of the road; restaurant and grocery store garbage, including the styrofoam trays and plastic wrap; and hundreds of thousands of euthanized cats and dogs." Rendered product is quite common in pet foods. In fact the rendering facilities are often located near the pet food companies. Did you really ever expect it to be that bad? This is truly, truly disgusting.

But you know what? That's not all. In order to have an almost limitless shelf life, commercial pet food is quite heavily laden with harmful preservatives. Many of these preservatives have been banned from use in human food because they were found to be unhealthy.

A wonderful alternative to commercial pet food is making your own pet food at home. There are hundreds if not thousands of recipes for pet foods and snacks that you can make in your own kitchen. Many of these homemade pet foods can be made in bulk, frozen and stored for ease of use.

Considering all the unconditional love we receive from our pets don't we, at the very least, owe them a healthy dinner? They'll be happier, healthier and live longer. Besides we'll save all kinds of money on vet bills.

About the author: Anita Hamasaki is first and foremost a mother. She has three fabulous children to her credit. In addition to the kids, she also has a blue heeler by the name of Darwin and a beagle who goes by Bartley. Each are happy and healthy. For an outstanding recipe book for homemade pet foods, please visit http://www.HealthyDogFoodHomeMadeRecipes.com

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