Food for Pets

The article I chose to discuss comes from Science Daily and it is titled Veterinarian Says Natural Foods Not Always Best for Pets. The article is on a Kansas State veterinarian who thinks that all pet healthy pet foods that it is very important to pets to get a well balanced diet, not just a constant diet of fruit and vegetable based pet foods. The veterinarian is not trying to push a false statement in saying that the natural pet foods aren’t healthy because they are. Pets just need all parts of the food pyramid just like humans do.

The best way to make sure pets get a quality healthy amount of all nutrients is by making sure the food has an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement on its label. That organization has made sure that the food has a well balanced nutrient requirement or made sure the company has been threw feeding trials. The veterinarian also says it is important to know the difference between words like natural, organic and holistic. These words have no true definition in pet food terms under the Association of American Feed Control Officials guidelines.

The veterinarian said that it is important to monitor your pets’ health especially if you’re changing food products. It is important to look for the AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement on the products label and not to always think that natural/organic labeled foods are enough for your pets’ diet. I thought it was interesting that the organic labels really don’t mean anything when it comes to picking a healthy product for your pets. It doesn’t seem fair or even legal really because it is almost false advertisement. It is not fair to the buyer that goes out trying to find the best product pet and gets suckered in to buying something that might not be very good for their pet.

Matt Racer