Diet & Nutrition
You are what you eat! Dogs are no different. Fill a dog up with E numbers, cheap "fillers" and low-grade ingredients, and you can expect any number of the following problems:
- Loss of coat
- Obesity
- Skin Irritation
- Dull Coat
- Itchy Eyes
- Scratching
- Lethargy
- Hyperactivity
- Aggression
- Underweight
- Constipation
- Excessive Poop
- Diarrhoea
- Bad Breath
Low-quality ingredients, E numbers and artificial preservatives can all create intolerance in your dog's gut, and this can manifest in any of the ways listed above.
Do you know what ingredients are in your dog's food? Do you know why the ingredients in the food are used? Below are some examples of ingredients, the words in bold are links to read more about them.
| Cereals | Source is non-specific and so will include a variety of grains, including wheat? Wheat is well-known to cause digestive intolerance in dogs. |
| Meat/animal derivatives | These are the left-over bits after the best cuts of meat are removed for human food production. This means there is very little meat content. |
| Poultry fat | Source is non-specific. Could include any type of fowl, not just chicken. |
| BHA and BHT | E320 and E321. Both are banned from use in human food production in many countries as they have been proven to be carcinogenic in experiments |
| Digest | Animal/poultry. Includes all usable parts (intestines etc.) which are rendered before being labelled unfit for human consumption and then used in pet food |
Try to research food and its ingredients before you buy. Some useful websites are:
I started researching dog food ingredients in 2007 owing to a health problem suffered by one of my own dogs and you are welcome to view my conclusion at Salters Pet Nutrition
Heather Stevens MCFBA MGoDT(MT)
