Dangers of grain-filled diets for carnivorous animals

Carnivorous animals like dogs and cats are grain-sensitive on some level. Meat eaters do not have a good ability to digest or utilize gluten and other plant proteins. Therefore the sensitivity to gluten is caused by immune system’s reaction to a foreign substance. 

 

Such sensitivity is basically an allergy that results in inflammation of bowels. Condition then interferes with nutrient absorption, and the symptoms of gluten intolerance include diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, slow growth in young animals, skin conditions like hot spots, rash, dry and flaky skin, shedding, itching, scratching; ear infections, weight gain, pancreatitis and hepatitis, as well as an increased susceptibility to infection, Cushing’s, thyroid problems and many others.

 

A diet containing excessive grains promotes excessive insulin and inflammatory chemicals production. These make it hard for the body to maintain its correct weight, and can lead to diabetes and other problems. Inflammatory chemicals cause more aches and pains. 

Improving your dog’s diet by reducing grain, may lead to dose reduction in dangerous non-steroidal and steroid drugs so commonly prescribed for dogs. 

 “Of course, not all these conditions are directly related to grain consumption, but the overload of grain in most modern commercial pet diets is thought to deplete the animal’s natural state of good health over time, leaving him more susceptible to these problems occurring. Some animal health experts have even speculated that long-term undetected dietary intolerance may be the underlying cause of degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart conditions and kidney failure.”

When fed a 100% grain-free diet, many pets improve within just a couple of weeks, not because of anything magic, just through the relief of no longer consuming aggravating gluten!

A word of caution: Diabetic animals or any other medical condition making a switch to a more protein-based diet should be under the close supervision of a trained professional.  

Natalia Foster


Healthy Products Colorado, LLC
108 E.Cheyenne Rd., #100
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Ph. 719-650-8481
www.healthyproductscolorado.com

Read the Label

When you are at a store looking at colorful packages and debating what bag of food to buy for your pet, don't be fooled by the front page advertising. Words like "Natural", "Holistic", etc. are just words till you match their meaning to the actual content of the bag.

Every bag of pet food must have an ingredient list and nutrition analysis. This information is also available at a manufacturer's website. In order to make the package attractive and sellable, manufacturers often put only a fraction of the truth on the front of the bag. Say, majority of supplements (like vitamins and minerals) are chemically synthesized and added to the pet foods, but “all natural” statement is allowed to be put on the front.

Read the ingredient panel, not the front to get an idea how natural the ingredients are.

Another issue is what is called natural food for a particular animal.

Corn is natural. No one will argue with the statement. It has roots, grow from soil as any other plant. Yet, it is inappropriate to feed it to a cow, much less to a dog. Corn has never been a part of natural diet for these mammals, and probably will never be. Cows are herbivores; their natural diet is grass, not grains. Dogs are carnivores, meat eaters.

Corn and wheat also contain gluten that often is linked to severe allergies on pets with symptoms like excessive shedding, itching, scratching, ear infections, hot spots, fatty cystic deposits under the skin, and obesity.

Rice is natural, soy, potatoes and peas are too. Yet these plants are on higher glycemic scale. Meaning carbohydrates in these plants break down to sugars fast, and cause surges of high glucose in the blood stream. Pancreas releases insulin to offset these spikes, and in prolonged period of time such unstable glucose levels in the system eventually cause diabetes.

Diabetes and other diet related conditions are unknown in wild carnivorous animals - they do not eat potatoes, rice or peas. Plants and roots are not a part of their natural diet.

Natural foods still can contain chemicals, dyes, flavor enhancers and other unnatural ingredients. Including toxic fish meal preservatives like ethoxyquin. It does not have to be listed on a label as many manufacturers buy fish meal preserved with ethoxyquin from someone else. Since the final product ingredient list does not require full list of sub-ingredients, such toxic ingredients make their sneaky way into the final product.

Will you take a moment and read your pet's food ingredient list?

Monthly drawing! Leave a comment and win some goodies!

Every month we will announce a drawing for a pet related product. To be entered into the drawing all you need to do is to leave a comment, that's all! Either on our Facebook page or here - leave a comment, we just want you to come back to one of our pages every month, check the news, and stay in touch!

Leave a comment here to be entered into a drawing and win a free* 13oz can of dog food, or 5 oz can of cat food! All you need to do is to post a comment - what do you have to loose? Winner will be announced on May 31 and contacted via email. 

*shipping and taxes are not included

Enjoy!

What pet foods Procter and Gamble own?

Do you know who owns a popular commercial brand of pet food? Here's the list as of today.

Nutro, Royal Canin, Cesar, Goodlife Recipe, Pedigree are owned by Mars.

Iams, Eukanuba, Innova, Innova EVO, California Natural, Karma and Healthwise are owned by Procter and Gamble.

Hill’s Science Diet and Hill’s Prescription Diet - by Colgate Palmolive.

Purina, Purina ONE, ProPlan, Friskies, Beneful, Alpo are owned by Nestle.

Nature’s Recipe is owned by Heinz.

If you feed your pet any of these brands, after you read the post, will you continue feed them?

 

Lost pets and ways to find them

An article How to Find a Lost Pet gives us steps to follow if a pet is lost.

If you have trouble finding a pet try a new innovative service (link below). They will call all your neighbors with the description of a pet and a phone # to contact if somebody sees your pet roaming the streets. They claim to successfully recover many animals.

Pet Insurance Reviews

This pet insurance company (Embrace, banner below) has great reviews and rated 9.2 out of 10, good sign. I think these guys are worth checking out.

If you want to find out how other companies and plans compare, check Pet Insurance Review website  

When on their site, click "Dog Insurance" or "Cat Insurance" on the left to see the complete list of what's available for your pet.