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Natural Feeding
By Tamara Sevigny
Pet nutrition is becoming a big concern among pet owners. Large pet food companies are capitalizing on this awareness and advertising that their foods are natural and healthy, showing pictures of lean meats and fresh vegetables on their food bags and cans.
Upon closer inspection of the bags and cans, the ingredients tell a different story. Many popular brands include questionable ingredients: animal bi-products, artificial colors and flavors and chemical preservations like BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin and other chemical additives such as Prophylene Glycol. These are the potentially harmful products that many veterinarians believe lead to various illnesses and chronic problems in pets.
Obesity in pets is one of the leading nutritional diseases. While it may simply be due to over-eating, it can also be caused by the lack of proper nutrition and eating of filler foods and improper diet.
Many people are leaning towards natural pet foods. But what makes a pet food natural? Does it mean absolutely nothing can be done to the food? Should it be strictly organic? Can a natural pet food contain other natural substances, such as flavor enhancers?
According to the dictionary the definition of natural is: Present and produced by nature. Conforming to the usual course of nature, etc. So even the dictionary has multiple connotations. In 2001, the Pet Food Committee of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) got approval for suggested guidelines for manufacturers of pet foods to follow when calling their food "natural." According to AAFCO when it comes to labeling commercial feeds, pet foods, and specialty pet foods the use of the term "natural" is only acceptable in reference to the product as a whole when all of the ingredients and components of ingredients meet the definition. The use of the term "natural" on the label is false and misleading if any chemically synthesized ingredients are present in the product
Here is the official AAFCO definition for "natural" as the term relates to pet food: "NATURAL... A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices." If you can understand this, great! If not, well, using your best judgment will get you pretty far.
But once you have your pet on a good quality natural food, is that enough? According to some experts, processed foods are still lacking in all the nutrients needed for a balanced diet. Supplementing with vitamins and enzymes as well as some meat and even fresh vegetables will ensure a well-balanced, nutritional diet. Each pet, however, has different needs. In order to meet the needs of your pets you will want to speak with an expert. Holistic pet food stores and books are excellent sources of information.
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