If yes, you’re not alone. But you have been the victim of some very sloppy homework, the kind you see in high school. Sadly, it’s proliferated all over people’s uninformed pet food blogs and SOME pet food manufacturer websites. It steers you away from some of the finest pet foods ever made.
Let me show you what I mean.
Someone wrote to me yesterday… the quote they cited was incomplete and left them with a very bad bit of misinformation that could, sadly, impact the long-term health of her dog.
In my search for a good diet food I have read many articles on what goes into commercial dog food …
I like the freshness of your product but here’s a review I found:
There have been several reported problems concerning the use of beet pulp in animal foods, including potential swelling in the stomach, palatability, and plugging of the intestinal villus.
Well, I told her, that is a direct quote from a veterinary textbook, Small Animal Clinical Nutrition 4th Edition. HOWEVER, her “source” (steer clear of them next time) left off the next sentence. Here is the original quote, as found on the PetEducation website maintained by the very reputable Drs. Foster & Smith pet products company. I’ve bolded the sentence that makes all the difference:
There have been several reported problems concerning the use of beet pulp in animal foods, including potential swelling in the stomach, palatability, and plugging of the intestinal villus. Few of these have been substantiated and most refer to the feeding of beet pulp to horses.
It goes on to say that the amount of beet pulp fed to horses is of a much higher quantity and percentage than would ever be fed to a cat or a dog, and that because of its fiber and usefulness to colon health, it’s an “EXCELLENT FIBER SOURCE” for almost all pets.
You will hear people say that “the use of beet pulp is controversial”, and that might make you wary. They only say it’s controversial — and I feel like shouting this — BECAUSE THEY DID NOT DO A SPECK OF HOMEWORK ON IT!! Dear readers, please, I love your pets probably as much as you do. As you run across the goofy things people say about pet food ingredients, feel free to bring your questions to me. Use the Contact Us form on my sister’s website. You can trust that I will do thorough homework and set the record straight.
Filed under: Ingredients Tagged: | beet pulp, Cat Food, dog food, Holistic Pet Food, Pet Food
I have a working service dog and we are only allowed to feed our dogs specific foods and none of them have beet pulp. We only use food that may have a shelf life for less than a year. I feed my dog ShowBound Chicken and Rice. Out of the 500 service dog teams- most of us have it shipped to us. We can use Wellness but when I see buying dog food from th store it is a sure bet that your dog can get sick.
As we have to read the darn labels now for ourselves- We have to do the same for our pets too.
Alison/Hunter