There are many contributors that lower the quality of dog food, such as by-products, fillers, non-specific meat sources and preservatives, but what are they?  Many people know that these ingredients are bad for your dog, but we’ll explain what they are, and why they’re bad for your dog’s health.  Follow these simple dog care tips, and your dog will easily live a longer happier life.

Fillers

Fillers are simply cheap tasteless ingredients that are put into most commercial dog foods as a replacement of actual nutrition and quality.  Fillers can be many things, such as crushed peanut shells, straw, corn, crushed corn cobs, weeds, or even feathers. Fillers do not ‘fill’ in for anything but size.  Not only do they have no real purpose besides making the quantity of food larger, but they can additionally harm your dog.  Fillers can cause issues with a dogs digestive process, allergies, and even cause severe medical problems in puppies and older dogs.

By-Products

By-products are (in summary) animal parts that should not be eaten.  Meat by-products despite their name, do not contain actual meat, but rather animal parts such as leftover animals heads, feet, internal organs, intestines and other carcass parts that are not healthy for dogs.  There are four D’s in the manufacturing business, which are Dead, diseased, disabled and dying, which are all okay by them to put into our dogs food, and it’s gross.

Un-Specified Meat

Whenever you look at the nutrition ingredients and it has ‘meat’ listed as protein, stay away from that food.  When there is no specification to the type of meat being put into the food,it means that there are many things that could be considered as meat to the manufacturers and they don’t want to tell you what types of ‘meat’ there is because it’s unhealthy.  This ‘meat’ can include feet, skin, hair, joints, and even animals that have died from diseases.  All of these materials are ground together and labeled as ‘meat’ on their products, because they aren’t proud enough of their food to tell you whats really in it.

Preservatives

Preservatives are simply a substance that extend the shelf life of a product.  This means that it keeps the food from spoiling for a longer time than usual in order to keep to food fresh.  There is a downside to the preservatives used in all food, but specifically in dog food, the ingredients can cause cancer.

Dog care is important to us at our Florida dog training center, so if you want to learn more, give us a call or ask a few of your local dog trainers.  Love your dog!