Many of us share our lives with dogs and cats who are beloved friends and companions. We want to give them the best possible care so that they live long, happy, healthy lives. Unfortunately, we are losing them in ever increasing numbers to cancer, heart, kidney, and liver failure, dental problems, allergic reactions, failing immune systems, and urinary tract disorders, to mention a but a few of the miseries that plague our pets.

Many of these problems have their roots in nutrition, or rather, the lack of it. By disregarding the basic nature of dogs and cats and feeding them food that they were never intended to eat, pet food conglomerates have set the stage for many health problems. The fact that many animals can live long, healthy lives eating these foods, has less to do with the quality of the food, than the animals’ ability to survive on less than good nutrition.

Dogs and cats have ancestors that date back 70million years. Dogs have been domesticated for 10,000 years, cats for less than 3,000. Up until the mid 1920’s, dogs and cats ate as nature intended. Cats hunted mice and birds, but dogs, being more opportunistic feeders ate whatever presented itself and actively foraged to fill in the empty spots.

Nature designed dogs and cats as carnivores, eaters of raw meat. Their systems were designed to extract the maximum benefits from meat in its raw state. Once meat is processed under very hot temperatures during canning or palletizing, amino acids and enzymes are de-activated. Amino acids are crucial in a diet because they are the organic molecules that compose the building blocks of proteins that make up most of the cells of the body. Active enzymes are also absolutely necessary because they are protein substances produced in living cells that help break down food so that it can be digested and absorbed by the body. Without amino acids and active enzymes, food cannot be digested properly and then, no matter what claims the nutritional statements make, the nutritional values are NOT being adequately delivered to the animals’ body.

Cats are known as Obligate Carnivores, this means that they MUST eat raw meat. Cats are more efficient at extracting protein from raw meat and have a very limited ability to utilize carbohydrates (grains). Cats have a very short intestinal tract, making it more difficult to break down many of the complex carbohydrates and starches contained in grains. Furthermore, they lack sufficient enzymes that are absolutely necessary for these processes to occur.

Dogs are carnivores as well, but have some flexibility in what they are able to consume and digest. In a natural setting they will fill out their diet with the seasonal consumption of wild food stuffs, everything from vegetables to nuts, berries, and even the occasional cricket. These naturally foraged items all have a place in their natural nutrition, but no one has ever spotted a dog or cat dragging down an ear of corn or a head of wheat in the field and eating it. Why then are we feeding our dogs and cats wheat, corn, and cereal products, from which most, if not all nutritional benefit has been removed?

Over the years we have come to accept the word of the giant pet food companies that only they know what is best for our pets to eat, but this is far from the truth. Statistics can be manipulated, half-truths told, substandard materials cloaked with wonderfully evocative names and delightful advertisements made, which to persuade us to buy a specific brand of food. Even cardboard can be coated with enough vitamins, minerals, etc., to meet the daily requirements of dogs and cats. . . but it will still be cardboard. The basic problem still remains, commercial food is dead food with little to offer but convenience.

My mother always said, “You are what you eat.” That always puzzled me as a child, but as I get older it makes a lot more sense.

 

Our overall health and well being is a direct result of what we eat. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the health of our pets.

People can choose to eat wisely, but dogs and cats have no alternative, but to eat what they are given (shoes and other stolen goodies don’t count), so if we truly care about them, we should feed them what they really need.