10 Things Not Found in Natural Dog Food
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Dogs may steal a tomato or a piece of lettuce now and again, but what these carnivores need in their dog foods is a healthy proportion of meat. What they are better off without are cheap fillers with insufficient nutrition, additives that may be dangerous and addictive, unhealthy sweeteners--ingredients that are missing from a natural dog food worthy of its name.
Sweeteners
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Sugar, whether it is in the form of cane molasses, corn syrup or plain old table sugar, is bad for dogs and completely unnecessary. As it is for humans, sugar is addicting to pets and can cause problems like obesity, nervousness and tooth decay.
Flavoring Agents
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Dogs are not all that picky; they may like the taste of broths from unknown sources, called digests, or glandular meat. But owners who know better purchase natural dog foods that leave out these suspect ingredients.
Generic or Low-Quality Protein
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Natural dog foods will indicate the species of a protein source, for example, lamb meal, rather than say generic animal protein.
Coloring Agents
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Whereas the dangers of artificial colors like Blue 2, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 may not be proven conclusively, natural dog food manufacturers leave them out of dog food.
Chemical Preservatives
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Natural dog foods do not include chemical preservatives, such as Butylated Hydroxysanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT), Ethoxyquin, Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) or Sodium Metabisulphite.
Fibers
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Natural dog foods do not use fibers to add bulk. Unnecessary fibers include cellulose (often made from dried wood); corn bran; corn cellulose; oat, peanut, or rice hulls; and soybean and wheat mill run.
Grain Fragments without Whole Grains or Starchy Vegetables
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The common brewers rice, hyped as a quality ingredient, consists of kernel fragments that lack the nutritional benefits of whole ground and brown rice. Other fragments that natural dog foods avoid for similar reasons are cereal food fines, feeding oat meal, potato products and soy flour.
Binders
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Corn and wheat gluten, cheap by-products of processing people food, have little nutritional value.
Propylene Glycol
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You wouldn't want your dog to have his kibble moisturized by this compound, which is used as a solvent in antifreeze solutions.
Generic and Low-Quality Fats
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Natural dog foods avoid generic fats like poultry fat in favor of fats from a particular species, like chicken fat. They also do not use cheap, low-quality fats like beef tallow and lard, which are used because they are cheap and dogs like the taste not because they are healthy.
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