Letters to the Editor
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Stay away from my Iams
Nikita the girl dog is just fine after nine years of Iams. She was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve after we rescued her from a shelter. The first vet's recommendation? Put her down. Or get a valve replacement (at 10 grand, right!). We took a middle course. "She might live six months; she might live six years."
This border mix is now a very vigorous nine. She has a little arthritis in one forepaw, but otherwise she'll still round up all the dogs at the off-leash park, and she tracks ground balls better than Alex Rodriguez. All she eats is "green bag" Iams. (Well, actually, now that there are two young boys in the house, she gets the occasional piece of burger or string cheese off their plates. Naughty girl!)
Any raw food she's ever consumed has been puked up. No thanks!
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Raw or store bought, keep it high quality
I don't feed my cats raw food, and while I'm not necessarily against raw food, my concerns would be: 1)bacteria, and 2) wild animals' immunes systmes might be different or stronger than those of their domesticated cousins.
Anyway, I think the most important advice is to avoid supermarket pet food, i.e., garbage. It's cheap for a reason folks. If you can afford to buy better, you should. It's much healthier if you serve your pets canned and dry food made from human-quality ingredients. Go to a pet store like PetSmart and get the better foods. Avoid any food that has "by-products" in the ingredients, since that's a sure sign the food is made with garbage.
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Sadie
I've received the "raw is bad" schpeal from many vets, but I've seen first-hand evidence of raw being better for my dogs.
I have a 14 year-old pomeranian and three italian greyhounds at home and have been feeding raw (pre-made Nature's Variety) for a little over a year now. While my IGs are all young (spanning 1-4 years), Sadie is the senior of the bunch and is a daily reminder of why I feed raw to my fur kids.
Sadie came to my husband and I at 12 years-old and had gone with untreated and undiagnosed Cushing's disease for at least 7 years (we were told that she had about a year left if we did not begin treatment immediately). The Lysodren perscription did help significantly, but her fur was not really growing back (we had to keep her shaved for the sake of appearances.) About a year later, I switched to raw and noticed an immediate change in Sadie. Her once lethargic and generally unhappy self completely disappeared. She is spunky and can now grow a full, beautiful coat expected of her breed. She can even keep up with my IGs on the playing field (which is something we never expected, even when planning the initial switch to raw.)
People do not believe that Sadie is 14. She has the energy and looks of a healthy 8 year-old. I will never go back to non "high quality" dog foods (basically anything that you can purcahse at the large pet store chains) ever again.
I do switch up the variety of their food. Nature's Variety offers a host of different meats ranging from Venison to Organic Chicken in their raw line, but they also offer kibble and canned, both of which are recommended by Nature's Variety to be rotated into your pet's diet (but I have been told to not feed kibble and raw in the same sitting as they digest at different rates). I always rotate the type of meat that they eat, purchasing a bag of Organic Chicken and a different meat variety every week, and buy a bag of kibble once every 6 weeks. They are also supplimented with Wellness brand treats (in addition to chewies such as flossies, bully sticks etc.)
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Response to LMAO: I'm a vegan pet owner, too.
Like Purple Kitty, I don't eat meat. However, my pet cats do. In fact, they must eat meat to survive. I consider it a necessary evil, then, to buy them meat-based foods. Maybe one day when kitten- and puppy mills have been abolished and the animal shelters are empty, we can revisit the issue. Until then, homeless cats and dogs need to be adopted, and they need to be fed. I do hope, however, that a high-quality vegetarian cat food does come along.
As for your not getting a pet until all the world's problems are solved, that makes no sense. For one thing, pet overpopulation is in many ways a people-created problem, so other people need to help solve it. Also (and here's the part that will blow your mind), you can give a needy animal a home AND work to help people. That's what many of us pet owners do. Lastly, unless you willingly live like a pauper and spend 100% of your disposable income on feeding programs for the poor and hungry, you have no business lecturing anyone about "priorities."
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to Oxymoron:
You say you use Innova - here's what it says on their home page: The Innova EVO line of pet foods are specially designed to provide all the key nutritional benefits received from the feeding of raw food diets but with the benefits of 21st Century nutritional research.
You make the case for me.
To Cosmicmojo - I hardly think I'm holier than thou: I was responding to folks who posted that spending a bit more on your dog, or feeding your animal good food while people are starving constitutes some kind of moral crime.
You might want to reread my post: I stated that most commercial dog food is garbage - it says so right under the ingredients part - byproducts and fillers. And to those who say there's no evidence of raw food, you're just not doing the leg work - read DogWatch - the newsletter of the Cornell Vet school - while they don't advocate raw, they compare dog foods - and the commercial foods most close to raw are always rated the highest. Besides, isn't this common sense: whole foods, unprocessed, are considered the most healthy - wheat grass juice, super green foods, raw sushi - all this is considered the most healthy. I really don't understand the debate - it's like arguing for McDonalds as opposed to a freshly prepared meal! Of course there are high quality feeds out there - but I was strictly referring to the common brands most easily available.