Pet Food Debate: Manufactured or Homemade

A new trend in pet food has been to make the pets food from fresh ingredients at home rather than purchasing manufactured food; there is nearly a 50/50 divide among world wide veterinarians as to which is the healthiest for pets. The new trend is manufactured food, it is an invention of the 20^th century, before this time both cats and dogs were given scraps and lead full and healthy lives. Many dogs were hunter's companions or working farm dogs, and cats hunted mice for much of their meals and were treated with occasional scraps or saucers of milk from humans.

Manufactured Foods

Veterinarians recommend certain brands of pet foods such as Science Diet, because of their acclaimed nutritional value to the pet; additionally many pet owners are lead to believe that the crunchy kibble is good for cleaning a pet's teeth by removing plaque. None, of these claims have been proven, as a matter of fact, veterinarians are not required to learn any sort of pet nutrition as part of their medical training. The pet food companies are known to give a day or two, overview of their products and hand out information to the veterinarians while they are still in school.

Furthermore there is no proof that chewing the crunchy kibble helps teeth at all, in humans too many foods that have the same consistency actually cause plaque build up; the only sure way to fight plaque is regular brushing. Dogs and cats teeth are designed to eat meat; the grain based manufactured foods do not properly 'season' their teeth and is a large part of the reason house pets can have such serious dental problems.

The quality of manufactured food is also up to debate as while the bag claims certain percentages of protein, the protein is not usually of any quality; nor is the grain in both instances the foods are labeled not suitable for human consumption. Further more the rest of the ingredients on the bag are often unintelligible with out the use of a periodic table or a pocket translator of scientific terms.

Whole Natural Foods

It is thought by some veterinarians that the recent trend to feed pets whole raw foods is part of a general movement by people to eat less processed and more organic and natural foods; it seems natural for people to want to pass the better health on to their beloved furry friends. In the wild both wild dog and cat species eat meat, this most people know; what they don't know is that thought they do eat the flesh, they nearly always first eat the stomach which contains the partially digested vegetation materials that the prey animal ate, there for supplementing their otherwise vitamin and mineral voided diets.

Raw or Cooked

Among people who believe in feeding pets real food, there is the debate of raw or cooked, in the wild dog and cat species alike eat all their foods raw, however most domesticated animals have rarely or never had real food, and on such occasions certainly not raw; raw foods can be a real adjustment to an animals digestive system. This being the case many people do choose to cook their pets food, it is important to add the proper supplements for maximum health. There are many recipe and nutritional guide books available to anyone interested in preparing their pets food at home. It can be done and is often no trickier than preparing any other recipe.

A Compromise

There are some pet food companies that offer human quality foods made into a easy to use kibble, this is ideal for people which are seriously concerned for the health of their pets but lack the time, ability, or desire to prepare all their pets meals from scratch. Additionally these types of food can make a great "grain" for a pet's complete diet, mixing in raw meat and vegetable pieces for a balanced meal.

People who love their pets are always trying their best to keep their pets as happy and healthy as possible; the foods they choose can go a long way towards their life long health. For every pet owner, the best they can do is to read labels on pet foods, read books about the specific pet, and follow the pets health to determine any necessary changes; if it's not broke...