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Healthy Homemade Dog Food Recipes

by Anna Smith

Pet owners and vets are divided in two very distinct camps when it Commercial dog foods make use of non-human grade food ingre-
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comes to homemade dog food recipes. There are the naysayers who dients. If you are going to look at the product’s label at the back, you
consider that food prepared at home lacks certain very important nu- will notice some ingredients such as fish or meat meals which actually
trients and minerals and there are the ones who consider dogs should include parts of an animal which you won’t eat yourself.
eat homemade food. The food you prepare at home has the main
advantage of being fresh, delicious and prepared with ingredients you For example, they contain organ meats such as hooves, feathers,
actually know. entrails, brain, and other animal by-products. The worst thing about
these ingredients is that the FDA actually allows animals that have
If you’re not sure which side to take, here are a few reasons that could died by other causes, such as ailments and diseases, to be included in
help you understand the benefits of creating homemade dog food dog foods. A lot of people think that since they are just dogs, they can
recipes. These are all based on professional and individual observa- be fed anything.
tions according to the type of food that was provided for the dog. We
will talk about the benefits of homemade meals and their effects on Well, looking at the state of health of pets that are fed only processed
your dog’s health. dog food, one can say that this is not the case. Another interesting in-
gredient that you may find in pet food is propylene glycol. This ingre-
dient is used to maintain moisture in wet types of dog food although
it is a chemical used in car anti-freeze.
Commercial pet foods usually contain artificial preservatives and
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other unhealthy additives. In order to prolong shelf-life and create
an interesting “look” on their products, pet food companies will make
use of artificial flavors and coloring as well as preservatives which are
harmful for your pets.

These companies often defend its usage by saying that they only
come in minimal amounts which do not have any significant effect on
your pet’s health.But the truth is that the slow accumulation of these
toxins will eventually lead to serious damage on your dog’s kidneys,
liver, and heart. If you think that the natural antioxidants contained in
the packaging will help counter these additives, just think that these
antioxidants are also slowly destroyed by these chemicals and by the
initial processing methods.

However, there are some dog food brands that care about the kind of
food that you’re providing to your dog.

Let us take a look at the pros and cons of using these two types of pet
foods:

Commercial dog foods are prepared using processing methods
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which destroy nutrients in the ingredients. One of these processes is
by subjecting ingredients to extremely high heat to kill all the possible
harmful bacteria and microorganisms that may be present in the raw
food processing plants make use of industry grade heating equipment
which are designed to kill the smallest microorganisms in the ingredi-
ent.

The problem with this method is that most food nutrients are suscep-
tible to excessively high temperatures. These include antioxidants,
vitamins, and even protein content which can be rendered non-
biologically available when their overall structure has been rearranged
through the process of heating.

Some of the vitamins that can be easily destroyed are Folate and
Vitamin C. Other processes that contribute to the loss of nutrients
are boiling in large amounts of water, exposure to light and air, and
contact with some types of metals.
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