Dog Health Food Your Labrador Could Be Suffering If They Arent Getting The Right Food

Your Labrador could be suffering from the side effects of commercial dog food, which is why so many owners are turning to dog health food. With so many potentially toxic ingredients being put into dog food these days, it can be hard to know whether you might be actually harming your best friend with every meal.

Not only is there the possibility of contamination, but what about the actual nutritional value of your dogs food? With a growing emphasis on increasing profit margins and getting cheaper ingredients, there is less certainty than ever before about where the ingredients for your pets food actually comes from.

In 2007 there was a widespread recall from over 100 dog food manufacturers after it was discovered that there was melamine (a type of plastic) in much of their dog food. It was eventually traced back to a factory in China, which manufactured rice protein and wheat gluten (neither of which have any real nutritional value for a dog). So what that means is that it doesnt matter what standards the US based company may have for their production plants if the ingredients coming into the plant are already contaminated!

And although this was a couple of years ago, recently melamine was discovered in milk powder produced under standards for human consumption! So based on that I think that its safe to say that its only a matter of time before another similar incident occurs. I certainly don't want to take the chance that my puppy is going to suffer because I didn't act. At the end of the day our dogs depend on us to give them all the nutrients they need and now we also need to make sure there's no nasty chemicals as well.

So leaving the accidental toxins aside, what other things are going into your Labradors food? a really nasty preservative called ethoxyquin is often present in dog food but isn't listed. If your dog food contains fish meal it almost certainly contains ethoxyquin which has been linked to numerous allergic reactions, cancer and liver failure in dogs. Often the only time that it's mentioned is if it's not there!

So take a moment and check your dogs food just to see if there is fish meal listed as an ingredient, often its promoted as being a source of omega 3 (which it is) but that isnt going to offset the long term side effects that your dog is likely to suffer from continued consumption of this preservative.

All this is just scraping the surface and for the sake of your Labrador and its long term wellbeing, its vital to learn about dog health food. The best way to be absolutely certain about what you're feeding your dog is to make it yourself.