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Dog Health Food – Is Your Labrador Getting The Best Food Possible?

By Mark Syme

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 17Nov2009 Word count: 519 Viewed: 363 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

If you’ve ever wondered if dog health food might be good for the health of your Labrador, then you’re probably right. These days it is harder and harder to believe in the safety of commercially produced dog food. With so many recalls being made on dog food, who knows when or where the next contaminated batch of dog food is going to land?

Not only is there the possibility of contamination, but what about the actual nutritional value of your dog’s food? With a growing emphasis on increasing profit margins and getting cheaper ingredients, there is less certainty than ever before about where the ingredients for your pet’s food actually comes from.

In 2007 there was a widespread recall from over 100 dog food manufacturers after it was discovered that there was melamine (a type of plastic) in much of their dog food. It was eventually traced back to a factory in China, which manufactured rice protein and wheat gluten (neither of which have any real nutritional value for a dog). So what that means is that it doesn’t matter what standards the US based company may have for their production plants if the ingredients coming into the plant are already contaminated!

And although this was a couple of years ago, recently melamine was discovered in milk powder – produced under standards for human consumption! So based on that I think that it’s safe to say that it’s only a matter of time before another similar incident occurs. I for one don’t want to take the chance that my beloved puppy is going to suffer and possibly die because I didn’t act on this knowledge. After all, our dogs rely on us to feed them a balanced diet with all of the essential nutrients they need and we now need to make sure that food is also safe for them too.

So leaving the accidental toxins aside, what other things are going into your Labrador’s food? A common and sneaky preservative called ethoxyquin makes it’s way into many commercial dog foods unlisted. If your dog food contains fish meal it almost certainly contains ethoxyquin which has been linked to numerous allergic reactions, cancer and liver failure in dogs. Usually the only time you’ll see it mentioned on the ingredients list though, is to say if it isn’t there!

So take a moment and check your dog’s food just to see if there is fish meal listed as an ingredient, often it’s promoted as being a source of omega 3 (which it is) but that isn’t going to offset the long term side effects that your dog is likely to suffer from continued consumption of this preservative.

All this is just scraping the surface and for the sake of your Labrador and it’s long term wellbeing, it’s vital to learn about dog health food. The best way I know to be absolutely sure about what you’re feeding your best friend is to make it yourself, which is easy and can be lots of fun too.

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