Dog Treats can be Bad For Your Dog In Many Ways
Because we owners - and not the dogs themselves - are the ones choosing what our dogs eat and what kind of nutrition they get, it’s up to us to know exactly what we’re feeding them, and how it affects their health and well-being.
So what exactly is the stuff that comes in cans and plastic bags made of? What are we feeding our pets in their dog food and dog treats. To be a conscientious owner, you have to know how to read those ingredient labels. These labels list the ingredients by weight: from heaviest (which is what the food is mostly made of), to the lightest.
If some of the first ingredients listed are meat by-products or grain by-products, avoid it if you can. Grain by-products in pet foods and dog treats will introduce a lot of carbohydrates in your dog’s diet- as much as 70 percent of your dog food can be composed of carbohydrates, when a dog’s natural diet should have less than 30 percent. Many cheap pet food manufacturers like to use wheat by products like corn and wheat because they act as extenders- letting them make more food from inexpensive ingredients. Excessive carbohydrate intake, though, may cause health problems for your dog: maldigestion, and obesity, along with all the health problems that being overweight brings.
Animal by-products can be even worse. These are the parts of many animals that no one wants, so somehow they end up in your dog’s food: lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, and stomach and intestines. And these animal sources can be pretty horrifying as well- some industry watchers have discovered that byproducts can come from roadkill, or farm animals that have been deemed 4-D (dead, diseased, disabled, dying).
So read those labels carefully, and get to know what your dog is really eating. There are many premium dog food brands out there that primarily whole foods like meat from chicken or lamb, which are the best sources of nutrition for your dog. Wellness dog food and dog treats are a good example of brands whose ingredients will help your companion along for a healthy, happy life.
Buying premium dog food can help you avoid harmful ingredients that can be found in many dog food and dog treats brands today. Those cheap brands have animal and grain byproducts which come from questionable sources and can lead to problems like digestive diseases and obesity. Manufacturers like Wellness dog food is one of the brands out there that contain only the freshest, most nutritious ingredients, so that you dog is happy and disease-free.
- Melinda Smith