 | DogTrainer22
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08/24/2008 | The ingredients in Natures Variety are just fine for your dog. In fact, I believe that the company is trying to recreate the variety a dog would get in the wild. As long as the ingredient is descriptive ("chicken meal" vs "meat meal" or "sunflower oil" vs. "animal fat") and if the food has grains (it probably shouldn't according to the latest information out there) the grains should be in their whole form not flours, meals, brans, glutens, etc. As long as your dog is not prone to allergies or hyperactivity I wouldn't worry too muh about corn, wheat, soy, or beef- simply because really good dog foods usually don't have corn, wheat, or soy and actually are less likely to have beef anyway. Honey is a wonderful ingredient in its raw form that boosts the immune system and acts as a natural antibiotic. Eggs are 100% utilized by a dog's body; they are high in protein and have other essiental nutrients. You can even feed a dog the egg shell as it is high in calcium. Organ meat is actually really good for dogs as well. If you study about how to feed your dog on a raw diet, a fairly sizable portion (though not the majority) of many are organ meat. Organ meat differs from "by-products" in that it lists exactly what organs and because the company is buying only livers (for example), they are going to pay much higher price than a company that is buying what ever diseased by-products are left over. This increase in price usually means that the manufacturer is more likely to protect that purchase by making sure it is of the utmost quality- after all, that is what they payed for!
Despite what many people have been saying on this list, dogs are technichally omnivores- their digestive enzymes fall more into the omnivore category. This doesn't mean they can just eat like humans though. They have very different requirements in the percent of animal-based protein. They need much more meat than we do to stay in optimum health. |
