The Importance of High-Quality Pet Food

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

Months ago, we discussed the importance of high-quality food for overall health as well as the importance of food and supplements for your pets' allergies. We want to touch on this subject again, along with a few other essential health tips.

The importance of high-quality food, health, and allergies all go hand in hand. Everyone should be aware and cautious when buying food for their pet, cautious with certain brands, cautious with specific ingredients, and trying to make conscious decisions when purchasing pet food.

When trying to find a remedy for your pets' health problems, always start with their food. Most of the time, food is the main culprit of any health problem but can also be the primary CURE of that health problem.

A very common ingredient found in pet food is grains. These should be avoided as much as possible, including treats with grains. Grains come in all ways in pet food; corn, corn starch, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, soybean, soy flour, oats, barley, rice, brown rice, brewers rice, sorghum, etc. Dogs (and cats!) are not meant to consume grains, which is why grains are the number one cause of a wide variety of health issues and a huge reason why they can have allergies. When buying any food for your pet, make sure it is grain-free and (if possible) a high-quality grain-free food with minimal fillers.

Another common ingredient to look out for in pet food is by-products. By-products are in so many pet foods and have no nutritional value. Not only that, but we have no idea of knowing what exactly it contains. By-products are anything that cannot be used in the meat industry for human consumption; feet, hooves, beaks, feathers (yes, feathers), teeth, etc. – there is no meat added. In the ingredients, by-products will be listed as; beef by-products, chicken by-products, or meat by-products, etc. Just because you see specific meat listed doesn't necessarily mean it's meat, for example, chicken flavor, chicken fat, chicken by-product, chicken digest, chicken meal, etc.

Pet food companies have no regulations and unfortunately, try to get away with more than they should. The ingredients listed above are what you should be looking out for the most. Typically, high-quality foods won't have other hidden ingredients that are dangerous for your pets' like so many other brands on the market. By removing just a few ingredients and changing to a better brand of food, this will improve your pets' overall health tremendously. We have listed brands we have recommended in the past, but here they are again:

• Nature's Logic;

• Zignature;

• Pure Vita;

• Wellness;

• Open Farm;

• Acana,

• Fromm;

• NOW;

• Orijen, and many more.

The brands we do NOT recommend are:

• Purina;

• Iams;

• Eukanuba;

• Hills Science Diet;

• Pedigree;

• Royal Canine;

• Hills Prescription Diet and many more.

There are many signs that a particular food is not working well with your pet. 

• hot spots/rashes;

• hair loss;

• scratching;

• dry/itchy skin;

• hair discoloration around mouth, eyes, or paws;

• weight gain/loss;

• raw or yeasty paws;

• biting/licking of the paws;

• ear infections;

• yeasty ears;

• smelly ears/paws;

• bad breath;

• plaque buildup;

• loose stool;

• diarrhea;

• full anal glands;

• UTI's;

• leaking, etc.

Believe it or not, most of the listed health issues are known as allergies, but a lot of times overlooked. Allergies can be as simple as changing the food or has difficult as having a variety of supplements to help. If all else fails and trying different types or brands of food hasn't helped, here are a few supplements that can decrease allergies: 

• local raw honey;

• apple cider vinegar (decreases yeast in the body);

• colloidal silver (boost immune system);

• probiotics;

• turmeric paste (decreases inflammation);

• bromelain and papain (suppress histamine production);

• omegas (stay away from fish oil);

• coconut oil, etc.

Keep in mind that supplements are just that, a supplement. Supplements can help improve your pets' health, but if they are having real health problems, other steps should be taken first.

* Always to use oatmeal FREE shampoo when bathing your dog. *

With every health problem can come a different protocol for each individual pet. Sometimes it's as simple as switching the food, but other times it can be an array of different areas that need to be addressed. What works for one may not work for another, but there are many brands and types of food that eventually will be a match. We are happy to guide you in the right direction if we can or recommend a veterinarian that holds this knowledge and belief that food is the cure!

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In the end, we all want our pets to be the healthiest possible and live the longest life possible, and we want to help everyone's pet stay healthy and happy! The more we study and learn of better avenues, the better their diet, their health, and their overall life will become. Have a topic you'd like us to discuss? Send an email to info@itsallaboutthepaws.org.

Most of this information is researched, read, or learned from; Dr. Karen Becker, Dr. Vivian Grant, Dogs Naturally Magazine, NCBI, and other research articles.