Don’t Give Your Pet These Dog Food Ingredients

Check out the can of dog food you are feeding your dog.  Don’t just look at the label.  “Super Gourmet Beef Delight” doesn’t let you know what your pet is really eating.  Read the ingredients.  Have you any idea what each ingredient is?  What it really is?  Not all ingredients inside of a can of food are necessarily good for your dog.  Here are three dog food ingredients you need to steer clear of.

Corn (in any form)

You will notice it listed as corn gluten, corn gluten meal, corn cellulose, or just corn.  Dogs are carnivores but they can eat and digest vegetable matter.  However, corn can be quite difficult for them to digest because they don’t have enough of the correct enzymes.  A lot of corn can lead to digestive issues.  The corn gluten, gluten meal, and cellulose are used primarily as binders and possess very little nutritional value.

BHA/BHT

These are phenolic antioxidants, used to preserve fats and oils.  Many countries have banned these from human use, but they are still permitted in the U.S.  They might be human carcinogens and have been demonstrated carcinogenic in animal experiments.

Here’s how this ingredient listing looks on the bag of a preferred brand of kibbles.  It is the fourth ingredient, by the way:  “Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT)”.

Ethoxyquin

Ethoxyquin is an antioxidant.  It was developed by Monsanto as a stabilizer for rubber.  It has also been used as a pesticide for fruit and also a color preservative for spices – and later for animal feed.  It may be linked to thyroid, kidney, reproductive and immune related illnesses and also cancer.  Studies to determine the safety of Ethoxyquin have not been completed, which explains why it’s still allowed in dog foods.

As a side note, if you see that fish meal is an ingredient in the pet food brand you’re using, unless it says “human grade” fish meal, it is preserved with Ethoxyquin, even if it’s not specifically listed.

They are a few of the pet food ingredients you might want to avoid feeding your dog.  The best way to make sure that your dog is getting the healthiest, most nutritionally balanced food possible is to make it yourself.  Otherwise, you could possibly be compromising your pet’s health without even realizing it.