Full disclosure: I work in the petcare industry
Lets start with safety. If you’re concerned about safety follow these tips:
- Avoid foods that use the terms ‘and/or’ in their ingredients list (like the aforementioned Supercoat). ‘And/or’ signifies a manufacturer changes their formula based on whatever they can buy the cheapest increasing the risk of contamination
- Look for foods that state no byproducts are added. Byproducts are more likely to contain contaminants. This may also be listed as ‘Tallow’ or ‘Animal Fats’
- Foods made in the USA are subject to stricter regulations than foods made in Australia. Personally I still feed my pets Australian food where possible, but if you’re really concerned USA foods are a better safety bet
- Past recalls are poor indicators of food safety. Recalls can happen due to random incidents, so unless a company has a history of serious recalls don’t use that to decide which food is the safest
- Foods that state they’re made on a dedicated production line are less likely to get contaminated
- The presence of a lawsuit/accusation against a manufacturer is often a poor indicator of whether there was ever an issue. I’ve seen first hand how people tend to jump to conclusions without a vet actually looking at their animal and determining what’s wrong
- A common thing you’ll see is people claiming ‘Grain free’ options are dangerous (it’s popped up here before). The FDA is currently investigating this link based on a pattern that dogs with heart issues are commonly fed grain free foods. There’s no scientific evidence to suggest this though, it could be totally unrelated (especially given grain free foods are popular in general). If you really want to go the safe route vegetable fibre is the most popular theory of the problem causer. So either pick an ultra-high meat food (expensive though) or a food that uses rice or potato
- Some dogs may get excessive wind or messy poops from too much cereal. This will depend on genetics.
- If you have an allergy prone breed the most common allergy causes (roughly in order from most common) are beef, chicken protein, wheat, corn, soy. This will only be an issue for a small amount of animals and breeds though
thank you for coming to my ted talk. part 2 incoming
