http://www.care2.com/greenliving/organic-pet-food.html
Organic Pet Food
By Sarah Schmidt, Plenty magazine
Is organic pet food regulated the same way as organic people food? The answer is yes. The USDA’s National Organic Program handles people food and pet food with the exact same set of regulations. Buying organic for your dog or cat will, of course, reduce the amount of pesticide he ingests. But it will also go a long way to help support organic farming, which in turn will help keep pesticides out of lakes, rivers, oceans, and soil. Yay!
But if you’re concerned about the chemicals your dog might be taking in, you’d do well to look at more than just his diet. Take a look at your dog’s everyday behavior and you’ll likely see him chewing, licking, and trying to eat all manner of things he comes in contact with. This is almost certainly how Fido ingests most of his daily diet of contaminants, according to a recent report from the Environmental Working Group. The report showed that dogs–as well as cats–are polluted with the same industrial chemicals that we are, and at much higher levels. Scientists believe that these exposures may be responsible for the increased rates of cancer and hypothyroidism in pets, and warn that better public health policies regarding chemicals are sorely needed to protect both people and their pets, who may be serving as metaphorical canaries in the coal mine. So sure, go ahead and feed your dog organic food if you can afford it, but don’t forget that protecting him from his surroundings will probably have even more impact. That means keeping him of out of the park if pesticides have been recently applied, replacing plastic toys that may contain BPA or phthalates with safer alternatives, and stopping him from gnawing on furniture that may be treated with stain guards or contain fire retardants. Why not lure him away from these dirty temptations with a nice, organic dog treat?
For more on a natural diet, see How to Cook for Your Pet.
Plenty is an environmental media company dedicated to exploring and giving voice to the green revolution that will define the 21st Century. Click here to subscribe to Plenty.
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9 comments
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Kabin
Konteyner
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Bevvie
Im baking and selling organic dog biscuits at most vets in Mpumalanga, and realy have wonderful feedback on improved health and condition from all the outlets.
Organic is defenitly the way to go.
Bevvie M 0824675276
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PS – Many allergies issues thought to be grain are diet in-balances. Wendy Volhard speaks to this in her book “Holistic Guide to a Healthy Dog”. Also consider the quality of the grains in most pet foods. Pet food quality issue is a much bigger concern, in my opinion. My dog was tested and diagnosed allergic to chicken. Could not eat purchased chicken dog food or treats. When I started feeding raw, I was very hesitant to introduce whole, fresh, healthy chicken (no antibiotics or hormones). The dog loved it and thrived on it – no trouble. Chicken was not the problem. Diet imbalance and poor quality were.
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There is so much to write about this subject. I am a dog-training instructor who studies canine nutrition. First, do not be fooled by labels, key words. For instance, "natural" and "holistic" have NO definitions that any food manufacturing has to stand by. None. Any processed food (dry or canned) has much of the good stuff (anything fresh, amino acids and vitamins and minerals) literally cooked out of it. Ingredient lists are preprocessing. Not indicative of what is put in the dog's bowl. Purina does a great job advertising Benefil. Great commercials. Very costly, you can imagine. Ever read the label? Notice that sugar (white, refined is the 6th ingredient). Oh, whole chicken, pictured big on bag, falls below 26th ingredient, carrots. Carrot illustration is b-i-g on bag. Here are a few sites to start learning about pet food: http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?more=1&p=359 http://volhard.com/pages/support-groups.php
http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/
Patty Vesalo, Akron, OH
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Missy, read the articles here....allergies are mainly from grain in the diet. If you will have more time if you don't have to deal with his allergy, give that time over to feeding him meat. And he will also lose weight!
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Innova has a food line called Evo, based on the evolutionary diet of dogs and cats. They do not contain grains because, in the wild, dogs and cats wouldn't eat grains and can be a cause of food allergies in animals. DO NOT feed him Hills, Science Diet or Iams and, of course, avoid the foods that come in shapes and colors or contain corn as an ingredient. Also, giving him fish oil will really help with the skin problems. Make sure your giving him fresh water DAILY and only use tap if your water isn't treated with chlorine and flouride, otherwise use spring water.
http://www.naturapet.com/brands/evo.asp
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Maybe try Wellness cat food or see if there's one that doesn't have so much grain in it in case he's allergic to that.
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For pet foods only certified organic claims are regulated ad enforced by the USDA. 'Organic' by itself is not regulated and abused a lot by unethical pet food manufacturers. Certified organic pet food products can display the USDA organic seal (and mostly do) and must sidclose the name of the USDA accredited orgaic certifier. Also, each certified organic pet food product has its 'organic certificate' which manufacturers can share if asked to do so. If they dont have an organic certificate their product is not certified organic and the manufactuer's claims are unverified. You can read about pet food standards at:
http://onestaorganics.com/blog/?cat=1
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My older (10) cat has food allergies, and I have tried every food I can to help his hellish facial show of this food allergy along with cystic acne around his neck. Sometimes he scratches very close to his eye, but he bends his neck low and luckily misses the cornea. Lately he got really close; he scratched across his upper eye lid. The only thing that has worked was a shot from the vet that lasted 3 months. I can't afford to get him shots every 3 months, and there's always a chance of him becoming immune to it. I think it was a morphine shot as well. His face, acne, and scabs around his eyes did clear up, and he did start to grow the hair back around his eyes. I just can't think of anything else to do?! When he's miserable, he milks it, he's all over me,he walks across me in the night and lays down and purrs really loud. My bladder can't take vibration and 18 lbs. He howls from the top of the stairs (something he learned from the dogs next door, who I left him inside to go out and give biscuits for "singing"). I have a terribly busy schedule, so it's hard to give him one of those cooked up diets, and I can barely remember what day it is with my memory disability. Does anyone have advice?
Missy M.
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