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Most conventional pet-food brands you find at the supermarket consist of reconstituted animal by-products, otherwise known as low-grade wastes from the beef and poultry industries-you know, inedibles you wouldn't touch with a 10-foot fork. In fact, the animals used to make many pet foods are classified as "4-D," which is really a polite way of saying "Dead, Dying, Diseased, or Down (Disabled)" when they line up at the slaughterhouse. Unless that can of Chicken -N Liver Delite explicitly states that it contains FDA-certified, food-grade meat, you should know that its contents are considered unfit for human consumption-but apparently good enough for your cat or pooch.
It's also important to note how much of your pet's food is actual chicken, lamb, or beef (and not chicken, lamb, or beef "byproducts" that include ears, feathers, feet, tails, hooves, diseased organs, or worse), and how much are just fillers such as low-grade wheat and corn. (Tainted fillers led to the massive pet-food recall in 2007.) A woman who runs a cat-rescue group told me that one trick is to examine the first couple of ingredients listed on the side of the can, because those usually make up the bulk of the product. If it says chicken, lamb, or beef, you can rest easier, but if the ingredients list rattles off filler after filler before getting to the meat of the matter, then you probably have a low-quality pet food in your hands. (Learn more about deciphering pet-food labels here.)Now, since nutrition is one of the key determinants of health and resistance to disease, ideally you'll want your pet's chow to be comparable in quality with what we would eat. Natural and organic pet foods use meats that are raised in sustainable, humane ways, without added drugs or hormones. Besides being minimally processed, these foods are also preserved with natural substances such as vitamins C and E.
Certified-organic pet foods must meet strict U.S. Department of Agriculture standards that spell out how ingredients are produced and processed, which means no pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial preservatives, artificial ingredients or genetically engineered ingredients.
Here are some trusted brands available on the market:
1. Castor & Pollux Petworks
2. Newman's Own Organics
3. Pet Promise
4. PetGuard
5. The Honest Kitchen
6. Wellness
Difficulty level: Easy
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