Are you slowly killing your sweet furbaby?

Let me start by introducing my sweet furbabies.

 

The baby of the three... but now the largest of them all.. Sweet Miss Sadie.

 The first furry addition to the Hollis family... Buddy.. AKA Budders.

 And our Alabama rescue dog.. Marmaduke.. AKA Duke. Duke came to us at merely 6 weeks old.. extremely sick. He was saved by a local rescue that found Duke and his brothers and sisters abandoned in some hedges by an apartment complex. Now look at the handsome young guy! He is filled with so much life and love!

 

Now... lets talk about the purpose of you meeting my furry children. Budders came to us when he was one. When he came to us, his previous owner had told us that the military vet said he had dry skin, but she thought it was something more. We decided to get a second opinion and took him to a local vet in Italy where he diagnosed him with allergies. The allergies were controlled with prednisone, which is a steroid. We didn't have to give them to him on a regular basis, but just as needed. Upon moving to Alabama, his allergies spiraled out of control. We became desperate and tried everything. He got no relief. Our options were to let him dig his legs raw, or keep him on steroids daily and slowly let them destroy his vital organs. I felt hopeless. His allergies are seasonal, not food related, so we were at a loss.

 

I began researching. With google at my fingertips, I learned some new insight. I learned that allergies in dogs can be caused by their diet. This does not mean they are allergic to what is in the food, but rather their body is lacking something in their diet from the food they are eating thus causing the allergies. I thought surely this fix cannot be that simple. Dry dog food is cooked at such a high temperature that any nutrients in the food is cooked out. Chicken in dog food can also make those allergies worse. Omega acids are key to helping skin conditions in pets. I began a hunt to find a dog food that had no chicken, added Omega acids, and was preferably raw meat.  My researching went even further after reading that. I needed to know what I needed in my furry kids' diet.

 

This is why I'm here. I feel as though I NEED to share with everyone what I have found. We give our kids kibbles n bits. It's not cheap, but it's not the $100 food. I always assumed it was a good, hearty food. WRONG. Completely freaken wrong Mandee. After the knowledge I have found, I feel as though CPS for dogs should come take my furry kids away cause I have been a terrible mom for not educating myself! lol!

 

One of the major fillers in dry dog food is corn.  Not the sweet corn we eat... but feed corn. It may not even be complete feed corn.. but rather corn dust! This corn could be completely contaminated with pesticides or is corn that was condemned for human consumption.

 

Next you may see a lot of "by-products". Or it may just read "animal meat". I never understood what the term meant. I'm so glad I know now. By-products in dog food are basically the leftover parts after animals have been slaughtered and then some. This can be ANYTHING.. feathers.. hooves..heads.. but by-products go further than that. Other things used for by-products are ROADKILL, euthanized cattle, spoiled grocery meat, diseased and dying livestock, dead zoo animals, restaurant grease, and the list goes on. Dead pets are often thrown right into the grinder with their flea collars still intact. Cattle will still have ID tags on. Even the green waste bags from vets that contain the euthanized pets all get thrown right into the grinder and get processed into the foods you are feeding your sweet furbaby.

 

Not grossed out yet? So your dog food says it has grain in it. That's healthy, right? WRONG. They are not getting the healthy grains we get.. but usually it's just the SWEEPINGS off of the floors of mills!

 

If this stuff is "unfit for human consumption", then why can it be given to our "children"?  If you are like me, right now you are feeling blown away, misled, and deceived into thinking you have been feeding your pup properly. After work today, I went to the gym and then went straight to Pet Smart and picked up a bag of Blue Buffalo. Upon doing my research, it is one of the best. They have NO BY-PRODUCTS, NO "GRAIN",  NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS! Blue Buffalo is all natural and has added omega acids! The meat in Blue Buffalo is REAL meat! After these findings, I informed Kevin that nothing will come into our house without me reading the label now that I have the knowledge of what our pups are eating. All of the treats in our house have been replaced with Blue Buffalo too.

 

I hope everyone now has some insight as to what your dog is ingesting. If the ingredients in your pets food say by-product, animal meat, or grain, then you are basically feeding your pup McDonalds every day for their entire life. Would you go out on the road and pick up a week old, diseased and decaying deer infested with maggots and put it in your pup's dish? Of course not!