There's so much confusion when it comes to what to feed your pet. Your vet tells you one thing, social media tells you another, and your neighbor swears by the brand she feeds. Hopefully, we can clear up some pet nutrition basics here. 

Why should you care so much about what you feed your pet? Nutrition can be the best remedy for a variety of ailments. Plus, your pet will have smaller poops, improved skin and coat, and a better quality of life! Investing in good food for your pets will keep you out of the vet's office and extend their lives naturally. Plus, sketchy food manufacturers that use substandard ingredients can cause harm or death. For example, the FDA has approved and openly allows diseased animals and animals that have died other than by slaughter to be processed into pet food (with no disclosure to the consumer). The FDA also approved poop, dust, plastic, breakfast cereal, candy, hair & feathers in "feed" grade foods. The exception would be any Human Grade pet food. Why do some pet food companies include these ingredients in their foods? Because it's cheap and the FDA and AAFCO let them do it. 

Co-Packing 

Let's back up to 2007 when the now infamous pet food recall happened that caused thousands of animals to die because of tainted wheat gluten. A large manufacturer called Menu foods produced over 100 different brands of pet food.....everything from Ol' Roy to Science Diet. This is called co-packing. These large manufacturing plants will typically take the recipe given to them and source the cheapest ingredients possible, then use those ingredients across all the brands. They happened to source some melamine contaminated wheat gluten from China and used it in all the recipes they were producing which caused thousands of cats and dogs to die. This is why we at Odyssey Pets research which brands have their own manufacturing plants and where they source their ingredients. If a brand is co-packed, it's not necessarily a deal breaker but we prefer for the food to be produced at a smaller plant where they may produce 4 brands instead of 100 and we make sure they are sourcing their own ingredients instead of leaving it up to the packer. 

How to read a label 

Ingredients are listed by weight so if a named meat is not the first ingredient, that's not a good sign. If you see corn as the 1st or 2nd ingredient, that is also a sign of a sub-standard food and you're pretty much buying a bag of corn. Sidenote: Corn is just a cheap filler that can artifically add to the protein % listed on the bag. Plus, if it says "corn" instead of "corn kernels" it's usually just empty corn cobs. You want to get your protein from meat sources, not grain or vegetable sources. Also, stay away from anything that says by-product. By-products can be beaks, feet, feathers.....ingredients that are nothing more than an inedible waste of inferior nutritional value. Also, if the package just says "meat" without naming what kind of meat like beef or chicken, it could be roadkill, horsemeat, or dead pets. So, concentrate on looking at the first 5 ingredients as those are what will comprise most of the bag. 

Grain-in vs. Grain-free 

A dry food (kibble) has to have a binder whether that be potato, rice, millett, tapioca, etc. These binder ingredients are unneccessary in a dog or cat's diet. They only exist in order to make the kibble hold together.  Some people believe grain helps with digestion or it's better for working dogs because of the carbs or that it's necessary for heart function. We disagree with all these statements. Most grains are very difficult for dogs and cats to digest. A dog (or cat) performs best on a meat-based diet with no more than 20% vegetables. The more veggies added will produce gas. So, if you want to feed a kibble, which binder is best? We prefer low glycemic binders like sweet potato or peas. A high glycemic binder like white potato will just turn into sugar.....sugar feeds yeast....and if you have a dog with allergies or yeast problems, it's best to stay away. 

Carbs and Fat 

Dogs process fat and carbs differently than humans. We can process carbs and turn it into energy but too much fat will make us fat. Dogs process fat and turn it into energy but too much carbs will make them fat. So if your dog is overweight and you're looking for a low fat food, you're barking up the wrong tree. You instead need to look for the highest meat content food with the lowest carbs possible. Of course if your dog has a condition like pancreatitis, you will need to feed a diet with under 10% fat. 

The Food Pyramid 

In order of best to least desirable, here's our lineup of pet food choices: Raw, Gently Cooked, Freeze-dried, Air-dried, Wet food, then Kibble. Raw is the most species appropriate diet for dogs and cats. It is the least processed choice, contains the most bio-available nutrients, and helps prevent plaque and tartar buildup. Note: Anytime heat is applied to food, it degrades the nutrient value. Gently cooked foods are gaining in popularity because it's like home-cooking for your pet without you having to do it! This category is great for older dogs that may not be able to handle eating raw like they used to. Gently cooked is also a good option for finicky dogs that may not like raw. Freeze-dried foods are usually the same formulas as their raw counterparts but it has gone through the freeze-drying process. This process does destroy some of the good enzymes in the meat but it's still a high quality, meat centric choice. Air-dried foods are nutrient dense like raw but have had a low and slow heat applied. These foods are great as a full diet, treat, or topper. But, the cost is prohibitive for larger breeds or multi-dog households. Wet food is next on the list because it is still less processed than kibble, it's great for picky eaters, and it's high in moisture. Note: If you feed a dry kibble diet alone, your pet is in a constant state of dehydration. We highly recommend adding bone broth, goat milk, wet food, or even just plain water to your pet's kibble. And last on the list is kibble. Kibble was created out of convenience for humans to feed to pets. It is the most processed choice and the least desirable. That being said, there are better choices and not so good choices when it comes to dry food.  

So what should you feed? 

The goal is to find the highest meat content and lowest carb food you can afford. If you choose to continue feeding kibble, we recommend adding as much "fresh" to the bowl as you can. We also recommend rotating proteins! Each protein has a different amino acid profile so you want to get your nutrition from different sources to cover all your amino acid bases. Rotation also helps keep finicky pets interested in their food. Plus, feeding the same thing over long periods of time could actually develop allergies.

Resources 

There's several resources we love! You may notice that your local veterinarian is not listed as a good nutritional resource. That's because most vets do not get proper pet nutrition training in school. We love and respect our vets and they are the experts in biology for canines and felines but their typical nutrition training in school is distorted by manufacturers like Mars and Science Diet. Reps from these companies often "teach" the classes. To top that off, many veterinarian chains are owned by the big pet food manufacturing companies. Mars owns the vet chain VCA. Mars also owns Royal Canin. You can connect the dots.....Unless you find a holistic veterinarian, a typical vet doesn't have all the answers. Instead, here's some educational resources that we find valuable: 

  • We love Dr. Karen Becker. She's a renowned holistic veterinarian that has hundreds of articles online and has written several books. 
  • Thetruthaboutpetfood.com is an amazing website that advocates for transparency in the pet food industry. She also announces recalls before it hits mainstream news.
  • Dr. Lew Olson. She is a doctor of nutrition, has been feeding raw since the 70s, and wrote Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs which is a great resource if you want to make your own raw diets at home.
  • Dogfoodadvisor.com is a website that does a decent job of ranking foods and ingredients.
  • Pet Fooled is a Netflix documentary that sums up the sketchy practices in the pet food industry.
  • Come talk to us at Odyssey! We are passionate about nutrition and helping people care for their pets in the best ways possible.