You have a huge array of Dog Foods to choose from. You may favour certain Dog Foods simply because your pooch loves them or because they suit your budget. You probably also think about the quality of the foods you are investing in because you want to provide your dog with the best meals that you can afford.
The Problem with Premium
If you have investigated your options then you may well be becoming quite confused! Pet foods feature a variety of enticing descriptions which often include words like "premium" and "natural". But what do these terms really mean? Premium implies high quality ingredients which is all very well as long as they are healthy or necessary ingredients which they may not be. Foods can be extremely tasty without being any good for your pet! My cats like doughnuts but I am sure that they should play no part in a cat's diet!
Going Natural
Natural ingredients sound like a great idea but then grains are natural and yet appear to disagree with some dog's digestive systems. To make matter worse, beyond the marketing lingo, there are more potential issues with dog foods.
Weed Killer in Dog food
A recent study found that the herbicide glyphosate featured in many pet foods. If you are not familiar with this chemical then it is the primary ingredient in Roundup which you may have used in your garden as a weed killer. This chemical has not been deliberately added to the foods, it has found its way into them because it is used in agriculture. The crops are tainted even before they are processed. They may well end up being described as natural but they have been grown using manmade weed killers.
Weed Killer in Human Food
The problem is not confined to pet foods as you can imagine. Glyphosate, a potentially carcinogenic compound, has also reared its ugly head in human breakfast foods including oatmeal, cereals and bagels.
The Conundrum
Clearly most pets manage to survive quite happily eating almost any pet food but we just don't know how well they would have fared without the chemical contamination. The same goes for ourselves. How can you possibly tell how much better you would feel if you hadn't eaten something? If you or your animal fall victim to cancer, how can you isolate the cause?
Choices
In recent years new ranges of pet foods have come to market which are grain free and/or organic. These certainly present the opportunity to feed your dog a healthy, balanced diet. One which features produce grown without the use of chemicals or which contains no grain that could have been grown using herbicides. These foods could prove to be a sensible choice.
Don't Panic
There is no need to panic about pet foods. Pets have been living long and healthy lives with or without the presence of ingredients which really shouldn't be there. Mass production of both animal and human food has produced a variety of issues. More research is required to identify whether or not the foods that we are all eating really do represent a health hazard. Just as pet foods which are described as premium may not be quite as wonderful as they sound, so the presence of herbicides might be less harmful than we imagine.