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What you feed your Doxie will determine his/her health and well being. We at HARMONY are always striving to gain knowledge about the health of our little Hounds. If you don't know what to feed your Doxie we would be happy to recommend products that will be helpful in the well being of your furry friend. We at HARMONY use premium holistic dry food along with the RMB diet and have been very happy with the results.
Food for thought...
*If you buy commercial pet food at the super market- likely your dogs nutrition is not where it should be.
*If you are giving your dog table scraps as a staple diet- likely your Hound is over weight, or has gastrointestinal problems.
*Is your Hound's coat dry, skin flaky? What do you feed him? You may answer your own question.
* Did you know chocolate, onions, some nuts and dairy products can harm you dog?
A MUST READ!
What is in "popular" pet foods today?
It’s a question many of us don’t think about. We see nice pictures of whole grains, prime cuts of meat and human grade vegetables on our pets food bag and assume there is some chef in a pet food kitchen cooking up the best food for our beloved pets.
Unfortunately this is far from the truth, More than 95% of pets derive their nutritional needs from a single source, processed pet foods. When people think of pet food many envision whole chicken meat, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains and all the nutrition that their dog or cat would ever need, images that pet food manufacturers promote in their advertisements and print on their food bags. What these companies do not reveal is that instead of wholesome chicken meat, they have substituted chicken heads, feet, feathers and intestines. Those choice cuts of beef are really cow brains, tongues, esophagi, fetal tissue dangerously high in hormones and even diseased and cancerous meat. Those whole grains have had the starch removed for corn starch powder and the oil extracted for corn oil or they are just hulls and other remnants from the milling process. Grains used that are truly whole have usually been deemed unfit for human consumption because of mold, contaminants, poor quality or poor handling practices, which is obvious by the fact that most pet food recalls are the result of toxic grain products such as Corn or Wheat. Pet food is one of worlds most synthetic edible products, containing virtually no whole ingredients.
The pet food industry is an 11 billion dollar a year, unregulated operation that feeds on the garbage that otherwise would and should end up in a landfill. Pet food manufacturers have become masters at getting pets to eat things they would normally turn their nose up at.
Pet food scientists have learned that it’s possible to take a mixture of inedible garbage, fortify it with artificial vitamins and minerals, preserve it so it can sit on the grocery shelf for more than a year, add dyes to make it attractive and then extrude it into whimsical shapes, making it appealing to us humans so we will purchase it. Unfortunately what makes up most of dog and cat food today (those not qualified as "human-grade) comes from the rendering plant. To render, as defined in Webster’s Dictionary, is “to process as for industrial use; to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting.” Some things that go into rendering are:
* Spoiled rotten meat from the supermarket, styrofoam wrap and all.
* Road kill that can’t be buried on the roadside.
* The “4-D’s” of cattle; dead, dying, diseased and disabled
* Rancid restaurant grease
* Euthanized pets, this is NO joke! (more about this below)
When chickens, lambs, cattle, pigs and other animals are slaughtered for food, usually only the lean muscle is cut off for human consumption. This leaves about 50% of a carcass left over. These leftovers are what become what we so commonly find on pet food labels such as “meat and bone meal” or “by-products”. So basically what pets are eating are lungs, ligaments, bones, blood and intestines.
When dead animals from pastures are picked up, they many not be rendered for up to a week after they have died. Because of this it is estimated that E. coli bacteria contaminates more than 50% of meat materials. The rendering process destroys the E. coli bacteria, but it does not eliminate the endotoxins bacteria that is released when they die. These endotoxins, which can cause sickness and disease, are not tested for by pet food manufacturers.
Slaughterhouses where cattle, pigs, lambs and other animals meet their fate provide more fuel for rendering. After slaughter, heads, feet, skin, hair, feathers, carpel and tarsal joints and mammary (milking) glands are removed. This material is sent to rendering. Animals that have died on their way to slaughter are also rendered. Cancerous tissue, tumors and worm infested organs are rendered. Injection sites, blood clots and any other inessential parts are rendered. Stomach and bowels are rendered. Contaminated material including blood is rendered. Carcasses with high levels of drugs or pesticides in excess of limits prescribed under the FDA (not fit for human consumption) are rendered.
At the rendering plant, slaughterhouse material, supermarket refuse, rancid restaurant grease, dead livestock, road kill and euthanized pets are dumped into huge containers. A machine slowly grinds the entire mess. After it is chipped or shredded, it is cooked at 220 - 270 degrees F. for approximately 20 minutes to one hour. The grease or tallow rises to the top where it is removed from the mixture. This is the source of animal fat in most pet foods on the market today. The remaining material, the raw, is then put into a press where the moisture is squeezed out, we now have the meat and bone meal that is added to most pet foods today.
Animals wouldn’t normally eat this stuff in the wild, so why will they eat it out of their bowls? Their noses are tricked by the smell of it. Pet food manufacturers are masters at getting a pet to eat something they would normally turn their nose up at.
These flavors usually come from rancid restaurant grease, you know from those big dumpsters you see in the back parking lot. This grease is often outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. The rancid grease is then picked up by fat blenders who mix the animal and vegetable fats together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to prevent further spoilage, then they sell it to pet food manufacturers. Rancid, heavily preserved fats are extremely difficult to for animals to digest and can lead to a host of pet health problems including digestive upsets, diarrhea, gas and bad breath. These fats are sprayed directly onto the kibble or nuggets to make an otherwise distasteful product palatable.
Two thirds of the pet food manufactured today contain synthetic preservatives, of the remaining one third, 90% includes ingredients already stabilized by synthetic preservatives. Be wary of pet foods that advertise as preservative free, if they using animal by-products or ingredients that have been rendered they will mostly like contain preservatives. Natural preservatives such as Rosemary and Vitamin E are used by quality manufacturers of natural pet foods not containing artificial/chemical preservatives. However, Pet food manufacturers are not required to list preservatives they themselves have not added. Here are some of the chemical preservatives that are used in mass-produced pet food today:
* BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) - know to cause kidney and liver dysfunction
* BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene) - know to cause kidney and liver dysfunction
* Ethoxyquin - suspected of causing cancer
* Propylene glycol (also used as automotive antifreeze) causes destruction of red blood cells-and is also commonly found in many treats such as Pedigree Dentabone/DentaStix etc
Other cheap fillers
Once considered a filler by the pet food industry, the amount of grain products, especially corn, used in pet food has risen sharply over the last decade to where it is usually one or two of the top three ingredients. For instance one Purina brand lists ground yellow corn, poultry by-products and corn gluten meal as its top three ingredients. Notice that two of the three ingredients are corn based products from the same source. This is an industry practice know as splitting. When components of the same ingredient are listed separately (ground yellow corn and corn gluten meal) it appears that there is less corn then poultry-by products, when it truth the corn ingredients when added together may weigh more then the chicken by-products.
Are there really pets in pet food?
Unfortunately when a vet tells a grieving pet owner they will “take care” of their dead loved one, they usually mean sending it off with a disposal company for rendering. This is all perfectly legal. Many veterinarians and especially shelters don’t bury or cremate animals.
Reporter John Eckhouse was one of the first people to discover the practice of sending euthanized pets to the rendering plants. A rendering plant employee was quoted as saying “thousands and thousands of pounds of dogs and cats are picked up and brought here everyday”. Although many in the pet food industry deny they use euthanized animals, proof that the practice goes on continues to surface. Research done on rendering plants that sell meat to pet food companies found that the rendering plants accept everything from road kill, dead zoo animals and euthanized pets from both shelters and veterinary clinics. One such plant was found to have rendered 11 tons of dogs and cats in one week! Another plant in California reported processing an average of 200 ton of dogs and cats per month.
In the 1990’s veterinarians began reporting to the FDA/CVM that the drug they used for anesthetizing and euthanizing pets, sodium pentobarital, seemed to be losing its effectiveness. This prompted the CVM to research the cause. In 1998 they went about testing dry dog food containing the ingredients meat and bone meal, animal digest and animal fat. They found the drug sodium pentobarital in 31 of the 37 pet foods tested. They concluded that animals were becoming immune to the drug from eating food laced with sodium pentobarbital, and the likely source of the chemical was euthanized animals.
They went on to conduct a study to find the levels of the drug in parts per billion for each food. Some actual examples in these results were:
32 ppb: Old Roy—Puppy Formula, chicken and beef
25.1 ppb: Heinz—Kibbles ‘n Bits Beefy Bits
16.4 ppb: Super G—Chunk Style Dog Food
15 ppb: Weis—Total High Energy Chicken and Rice
11.6 ppb: Pet Gold—Master Diet Puppy Formulation
10 ppb: Old Roy—Puppy Formula, beef flavor
Note that these products may be free of this drug now, as these are the findings in 2000.
The unfortunate reality is
Huge food manufacturers use pet food companies as a cheap and profitable way of disposing of the waste from their human food manufacturing plants. Here is a list of some of these companies and the pet foods they manufacture:
* Nestle: Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, Purina
* Heinz: 9 lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe
* Colgate-Palmolive: Hill’s Science Diet
* Proctor & Gamble: Iams, Eukanuba
* Mars: Kal Kan, Mealtime, Sheba, Waltman’s
* Menufoods:
Below are ingredient comparison charts that I complied of some well know pet foods on the market today. I think you will be surprised at the lack of nutrition these foods actually have.
Pet Food Comparison Charts How to Rate your Pet Food
Here is a dog and cat food comparison chart listing some of the more popular pet food brands on the market today and listed the “less” desirable ingredients in red.
This information was taken directly off each brands website where the information is readily available. Keep in mind that ingredients are listed in descending order by weight just as human food, meaning the ingredient listed first is the ingredient that is used the most or makes up most of the food and so forth. For example if corn is listed once (or twice with some brands) as one of the first three ingredients that is much less desirable then if it was listed as the eighth ingredient.
I’ve included a glossary following the charts that explains each of the undesirable ingredients.
The best way to determine the quality of your pets food is to carefully read and understand the labels. While reading the label ask yourself the following questions, does the food use high quality ingredients? Is there a quality meat source as one of the first two ingredients instead of a by-product? Better yet are the ingredients human grade.
If you love your pet and value their heath I hope you will take this information to heart or better yet take some time to do a little research of your own so you can see the truth for yourself. We were shocked at how much information there was on this subject and how easy it was to find. We only wish pet owners would spend more time reading labels instead of watching commercials to determine what is best for their pet's health.
Dog Food
Brand
First Eight Ingredients
Eukanuba Adult
Chicken, chicken-by product meal, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain barley, chicken fat, fish meal, brewers rice
Iams Chunks
Chicken, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum, chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, dried beet pulp, natural chicken flavor
Kibbles N Bits Original
Corn, soybean meal, ground wheat flour, beef and bone meal, animal fat, BHA used as preservatives, corn syrup, wheat middlings, water sufficient for processing, animal digest
Pedigree Complete Nutrition
Ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, animal fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), wheat mill run, natural poultry flavor, rice, wheat flour
Pro-Pak Adult Chunk
Chicken meal, ground yellow corn, chicken fat, rice flour, dried beet pulp, natural flavoring(unspecified), flaxseed, salt
Purina One Natural Blend
Chicken, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, brown rice, oat meal, animal fat, beet pulp, calcium phosphate
Purina Beneful Original
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow, rice flour, beef soy flour, sugar
Purina Dog Chow Complete Formula
Ground yellow corn, poultry by-product meal, animal fat, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal digest
Science Diet Adult
Ground whole grain corn, ground whole grain sorghum, ground whole grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, animal fat, corn gluten meal, brewers rice
Want a list of better foods for your dog?
Here are some healthier options
This Is The 2006 list from the Whole Dog Journal. The list is alphabetized so don't think the ones at the top are the best. These are highest quality foods. If a manufacturer's line is listed, as a rule, from the magazines comments, it is implied that all the food lines/foods they have would make the approved list.
Artemis Pet Food
Azmira Pet Food
Back to Basics
Bench & Field Holistic Natural Canine
Blue Buffalo Pet Food
Burns Pet Food
California Natural
Canidae
Canine Caviar Pet Food
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Pet Food
Cloud Star Kibble
Drs. Foster & Smith
Eagle Pack Holistic Select
Evolve
Firstmate Dog Food
Flint River Ranch
Foundations
Fromm Four Star Nutritionals
Go! Natural
Hund-N-Flocken
Innova
Innova Evo
Karma Organic
Lick Your Chops
Lifespan
Limited Diets
Merrick Pet Foods
Millennia: Solid Gold Health
Natural Balance Ultra Premium
Natural Choice Ultra
Newman's Own Organics
NutriSource
Organix
Performatrin Ultra
PHD Viand
Pinnacle - Breeders Choice (and AvoDerm by implication)
Prairie - Natures Variety Pet Food
Premium Edge
Prime Life Dog and Cat Food
Royal Canin Natural Blend
Timberwolf Organics
VeRUS
Wellness
Wellness Simple Food Solutions
Wenaewe
Wysong
Zinpro
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Health/Vaccines
Vaccinosis and the affects of over vaccinating our pets:
Dear Friends,
Many dog caregivers across the country are becoming more and more aware of the possibility that over vaccination can have harmful effects on dogs - and the rabies vaccine is no exception. The incidence of rabies exposure in companion animals and humans, though very low today, still remains a distinct possibility. Consequently, the Federal and state governments require every dog to be vaccinated triennially (still even annually or biannually in a few states) against rabies. However, the veterinary community is increasingly concerned that rabies vaccination given this frequently is not only unnecessary but also responsible for inducing adverse reactions that lead to both acute and chronic immunological and other disorders. Although a French medical study completed in 1992 showed that rabies vaccine is protective for at least five years, Federal and state legislatures have not accepted this finding.Thus, the health and well-being of millions of dogs in the United States remain threatened by the potential for adverse vaccinal events.
W. Jean Dodds, DVM
HEMOPET
938 Stanford Street
Santa Monica, CA 90403
310-828-4804 Fax 310-828-8251
e-mail: hemopet@hotmail.com
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Dr. Jean Dodds' Recommended Vaccination Schedule
CANINE VACCINATION PROTOCOL - 2005
MINIMAL VACCINE USE
Note: The following vaccine protocol is offered for those dogs where minimal vaccinations are advisable or desirable. The schedule is one I recommend and should not interpreted to mean that other protocols recommended by a veterinarian would be less satisfactory. It's a matter of professional judgment and choice.
AGE OF PUP VACCINE TYPE
9 - 10 weeks
Distemper + Parvovirus, MLV (e.g. Intervet Progard Puppy DPV)
14 weeks Same as above
16 -18 weeks (optional) Same as above
20 weeks or older, if allowable by law Rabies
1 year
Distemper + Parvovirus, MLV
1 year
Rabies, killed 3-year product (give 3-4 weeks apart from distemper/parvovirus booster)
Perform vaccine antibody titers for distemper and parvovirus annually thereafter. Vaccinate for rabies virus according to the law, except where circumstances indicate that a written waiver needs to be obtained from the primary care veterinarian. In that case, a rabies antibody titer can also be performed to accompany the waiver request.
More articles to read
http://www.doglogic.com/vaccinemain.htm
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VERY IMPORTANT-PLEASE READ!!!
SECONDHAND SMOKE KILLS!!!
Are you killing your pets with your smoke?
Dogs who inhale secondhand smoke are three times more likely to develop nasal cancer than dogs living in smoke-free homes.
A University of Massachusetts study found that dogs who live with a smoker have a 60 percent chance of developing lung cancer.
This correlation was especially strong among long-nosed dog breeds such as Dachshunds or Collies, according to a Colorado State University study. Dogs like Lassie typically inhale chemical-laced fumes through their noses, so it only follows that dogs with long nasal passages consisting of greater surface areas and more cells stand an increased chance of developing cancer there.
This study also found that short- to medium-nosed dogs living with smokers risk developing lung cancer—their shorter nasal passages are thought to filter relatively few carcinogens out of the toxic air that they inhale before it deposits carcinogens in their lungs.
Dogs can also experience allergic reactions to secondhand smoke—including scratching, biting, and chewing their skin. Fido may not have fleas or be allergic to food—he may be in misery because of those cigarettes!
Speaking of cigarettes, the deadly dangers don’t end with the smoke that they produce. A cigarette butt, if eaten by a puppy, can quickly cause death.
Still want to smoke in your home??
What You Can Do
If you smoke, please consider the effects that your habit has on the smallest of your loved ones. If you’re not ready to quit, head outdoors with the tobacco so that your animal companions are less affected.
Ask smoking friends and relatives to smoke outdoors, or designate a separate smoking area of the house that is off-limits to animals.
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