Question about pet food.
Jun. 4th, 2004 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreI hear a lot of people go on about how bad canned and/or dried foods are and that they only feed their cat/dog fresh meat.
I have a Certificate in Animal Care and part of that involved studying animal nutrition. We had to devise a balanced diet for various animals (different weights and breeds of dogs and cats), using non pet food products (canned and dry stuff and things like that). It was EXTREMELY tough to get it balanced and required a heap of supplements. In the wild the animal would eat the whole carcass and get all the nutrients from a combination of muscle, skin, bone and organs but with people feeding their pets raw meat they usually only get muscle meat - which does not provide all the essential nutrients.
What I'm actually wanting to know is the legislation on pet foods in other countries. Here in Australia if a pet food says "complete" (most do, but some of those fridge rolls of meat and most treats aren't) it is just that. It has all the essential nutrients to keep your pet healthy. You can easily feed your cat the same food day in day out and as long as it continues to eat it it will stay healthy (it's usually good to give dry food for dental care, a pet on purely wet food will have awful teeth problems if they don't chew anything else).
So, are the rules the same elsewhere? Or are pet food companies allowed to stick whatever they want in pet food hence causing people to go on about how bad canned and dry foods are?
I have a Certificate in Animal Care and part of that involved studying animal nutrition. We had to devise a balanced diet for various animals (different weights and breeds of dogs and cats), using non pet food products (canned and dry stuff and things like that). It was EXTREMELY tough to get it balanced and required a heap of supplements. In the wild the animal would eat the whole carcass and get all the nutrients from a combination of muscle, skin, bone and organs but with people feeding their pets raw meat they usually only get muscle meat - which does not provide all the essential nutrients.
What I'm actually wanting to know is the legislation on pet foods in other countries. Here in Australia if a pet food says "complete" (most do, but some of those fridge rolls of meat and most treats aren't) it is just that. It has all the essential nutrients to keep your pet healthy. You can easily feed your cat the same food day in day out and as long as it continues to eat it it will stay healthy (it's usually good to give dry food for dental care, a pet on purely wet food will have awful teeth problems if they don't chew anything else).
So, are the rules the same elsewhere? Or are pet food companies allowed to stick whatever they want in pet food hence causing people to go on about how bad canned and dry foods are?
