Aren’t Pet Foods All The Same?
It’s not unusual that we hear someone say that they are feeding their dog or cat “x” (something from a big box store or grocery store), they like it, and seem to be doing just fine on it. Or, “my dog/cat just loves “x”, and really doesn’t want to eat anything else.” There are some important factors I would like to point out.
First, it’s not an uncommon practice for producers of these cheaper dog and cat foods to use flavour enhancers. This means that they are artificially increasing the palatability of the food. This allows them to use lower quality ingredients (i.e. lower cost products) to produce a food that the pet will like. Just because the pet really likes the food, does it mean that it is actually “good” for them? Are they getting all the nutrition they need? They need foods that not only “taste good”, but food that is actually good for them so they don’t develop food intolerance issues in the future.
