What is safe to feed your dog

As competition within the industry grows, foods are made more appealing to owners with new colors, shapes, textures and artificial flavors, none of which the dog cares about, and the use of which has grown so that today more than 200 different ingredients are used in pet foods. So what to look for on the label? Named Meat or meat meal as the first ingredient (after all our dogs are carnivores at heart). No by-products from either meat or grain, and no artificial flavors or colors. Mixed Tocopherols as preservative. After that there is a bewildering list of added fruits, vegetables, oils, digestive enzymes etc. etc. The Whole Dog Journal, a monthly holistic magazine, publishes a list of dog foods each year that it has approved for both nutritional balance and healthful ingredients. As an indication of industry growth, the 1998 to 2002 list had 18 approved brands of dry dog food. The February 2005 issue listed over 42 including ones from companies who have been feeding our dogs for 60 to 75 years.

However, when people began to look into the question of processed foods and additives in their own diets, a logical progression was made to "if it's not good for me it can't be good for Fido." And the home made, human quality, Natural movement was born.

Early proponents of "natural" diets were influenced by the research of Dr. Francis Pottenger who, in the 1930's, studied cats on a raw diet over a ten year period, as well as by the Natural Rearing Diet of Juliette de Bairacli Levy whose Afghan hounds were raised on a totally raw diet and went on to win numerous championships. Her 1955 book titled The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat is the reference for many breeders today and its proponents became pioneers in the Holistic movement.