Not all people know what they are talking about. A lot of people ACT like they know what they are talking about.
Most of the time we can pick these people in daily life, but here's the really worrying thing...many people in positions of respect ALSO don't know what they are talking about, do act like they do, and perhaps have other 'interests' that guide their advice.
Here's some advice I overheard from the staff of a petstore yesterday in relation to dog nutrition:
'You must feed 90% dry, as there is no-way near as much nutrition in wet food'
'Always mix the wet and dry'
Well, there are some big problems with this advice - BECAUSE IT IS WRONG. Dog kibble, like cat kibble, is made from similar ingredients. Not all of these ingredients are 'food'. A lot is rubbish - yes, the actual word GARBAGE is on the approved AAFCO list of ingredients for kibble. I write about this under Cat Food Problems. As to nutritional bio availability, there aren't any studies. There is science to tell us that protein (and other nutrients) is denatured (ruined) at high temperatures, and kibble is cooked -twice -at extremely high temperatures. So sorry, I cannot understand why something fresh, that animals would eat in a natural setting, is not good, and something full of rubbish, substandard ingredients (it's about profit folks), and cooked at extreme heat, is packed full of nutrition!
Now the thing about heat that most people know is, it kills bacteria. So many people think kibble is safer to handle and leave around than fresh meat. After-all, it has a used-by date of many years. Unfortunately, we'd be wrong. Countless numbers of recalls and thousands of pet deaths have occurred from pathogen poisoning (often salmonella) FROM KIBBLE. It lives, often in stasis or spores, on the outside surface of the kibble. So heaven forbid you mix it with wet food - what you've done is give it a growth medium and served up a potentially deadly case of food poisoning. And it's not just contamination from the food processing plant that results in such pathogens coating the kibble. The actual ingredients, for example condemned grains, have moulds and bacteria that have produced toxins in their growth (endotoxins), and these toxins SURVIVE the heat - and pet food manufacturers don't test for them.
So, WHY would a pet store employee give such advice? Well, here's some guesses - they have no qualifications in canine or feline nutrition (and gee, most VETS don't have this either, so why would they?), and they are educated by the pet food people who want them to sell their food (ah...sound familiar to vets who also profit from the sale of pet food?).
If you are reading this and thinking, well, why should I believe any of this over what my vet/pet store person/parents/pet food sales rep have said - WELL DONE. You SHOULD question every bit of advice that impacts on your or your pet's life. We have to do it for ourselves, as we know not all doctors give you the best advice, so of course we should do this for our pets. We should think. We should ask questions and test if that source does know their stuff (hint, if they answer like a politician, they don't!). We should research. My sources for the above information are all included in my post 'Good Nutrition, the Foundation of Good Health' under Cat Food Problems. If you would like detailed reading on Feline Nutrition, a good place to start is this site written by an experienced Vet: http://www.catinfo.org/. Remember, dogs and cats are different. So here's a site informed by a vet who has worked closely with dogs and his recommendations for feeding:
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php.
Dr Tom Lonsdale also fights to expose the pet food industry's dirty little secrets - in Australia. Some of his story is here: http://www.rawmeatybones.com/pdf/WhistleBlowers%20Australia.pdf
Most of the time we can pick these people in daily life, but here's the really worrying thing...many people in positions of respect ALSO don't know what they are talking about, do act like they do, and perhaps have other 'interests' that guide their advice.
Here's some advice I overheard from the staff of a petstore yesterday in relation to dog nutrition:
'You must feed 90% dry, as there is no-way near as much nutrition in wet food'
'Always mix the wet and dry'
Well, there are some big problems with this advice - BECAUSE IT IS WRONG. Dog kibble, like cat kibble, is made from similar ingredients. Not all of these ingredients are 'food'. A lot is rubbish - yes, the actual word GARBAGE is on the approved AAFCO list of ingredients for kibble. I write about this under Cat Food Problems. As to nutritional bio availability, there aren't any studies. There is science to tell us that protein (and other nutrients) is denatured (ruined) at high temperatures, and kibble is cooked -twice -at extremely high temperatures. So sorry, I cannot understand why something fresh, that animals would eat in a natural setting, is not good, and something full of rubbish, substandard ingredients (it's about profit folks), and cooked at extreme heat, is packed full of nutrition!
Now the thing about heat that most people know is, it kills bacteria. So many people think kibble is safer to handle and leave around than fresh meat. After-all, it has a used-by date of many years. Unfortunately, we'd be wrong. Countless numbers of recalls and thousands of pet deaths have occurred from pathogen poisoning (often salmonella) FROM KIBBLE. It lives, often in stasis or spores, on the outside surface of the kibble. So heaven forbid you mix it with wet food - what you've done is give it a growth medium and served up a potentially deadly case of food poisoning. And it's not just contamination from the food processing plant that results in such pathogens coating the kibble. The actual ingredients, for example condemned grains, have moulds and bacteria that have produced toxins in their growth (endotoxins), and these toxins SURVIVE the heat - and pet food manufacturers don't test for them.
So, WHY would a pet store employee give such advice? Well, here's some guesses - they have no qualifications in canine or feline nutrition (and gee, most VETS don't have this either, so why would they?), and they are educated by the pet food people who want them to sell their food (ah...sound familiar to vets who also profit from the sale of pet food?).
If you are reading this and thinking, well, why should I believe any of this over what my vet/pet store person/parents/pet food sales rep have said - WELL DONE. You SHOULD question every bit of advice that impacts on your or your pet's life. We have to do it for ourselves, as we know not all doctors give you the best advice, so of course we should do this for our pets. We should think. We should ask questions and test if that source does know their stuff (hint, if they answer like a politician, they don't!). We should research. My sources for the above information are all included in my post 'Good Nutrition, the Foundation of Good Health' under Cat Food Problems. If you would like detailed reading on Feline Nutrition, a good place to start is this site written by an experienced Vet: http://www.catinfo.org/. Remember, dogs and cats are different. So here's a site informed by a vet who has worked closely with dogs and his recommendations for feeding:
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php.
Dr Tom Lonsdale also fights to expose the pet food industry's dirty little secrets - in Australia. Some of his story is here: http://www.rawmeatybones.com/pdf/WhistleBlowers%20Australia.pdf