TruthaboutPetFood.com

The most common question I hear from pet owners…’What pet food do you recommend?’ I’ve always hesitated to answer this question because I do not want to be perceived as endorsing any particular company. However the truth of the matter is that I DO support the pet food companies that use quality ingredients, from safe sources. I support their efforts of providing pets with a quality food or treat. These companies are the ones that should be thriving, instead of struggling to compete with the advertising strength of others. These companies depend solely on their quality and word of mouth advertising instead of television advertising. In fact, most can’t afford television advertising. 

The FDA clearly supports large pet food manufacturing instead of protecting pet owners. The FDA blatantly ignores Federal law with pet food, and no one with authority seems to care. Federal law clearly states that NO food can be falsely labeled or have a misleading label, however the FDA allows pet food to “make misleading claims, either directly or indirectly” on a pet food label. A ‘misleading claim’ is no different than a misleading label. Many pet foods make claims such as ‘Premium’ or ‘Choice’ or ‘Natural’, but when the truth is known, these foods are far from premium, choice, or natural. Many of these ‘Premium’ pet foods contain cow and chicken intestines and worse. Innocent pet owners purchase these products believing what the dog food or cat food label tells them; believing that the FDA is protecting their pet.

There are many quality minded pet food manufacturers, unfortunately because of regulations that guide pet food, those quality minded companies are hindered from telling customers the truth about their pet foods and treats. Many pet food manufacturers use the same quality/grade of meat that you purchase for your family; many more use a grade of meat known as pet grade/quality. Despite Federal law, a pet grade of meat can be from any 4-D animal; an animal that is/was diseased, dying, dead, or disabled. Even though there is a huge quality difference between a ‘pet grade’ and ‘human grade’ of meat, existing pet food regulations do NOT allow a manufacturer to tell you which one they use. Every petsumer – pet owning consumer – deserves to know exactly what they are feeding their pet.

On that note, below is a short list of products that I provide my own pets and the companies I purchase from. If these products are not for you, Petsumer Report Online provides reviews of over 1600 different dog foods, cat foods and pet treats.  Each review provides you with vital decision making information such as grade of ingredient and country of origin information.  

Pet Food
I purchase my dog food and cat food and their treats from HealthyPetNet via the Internet. My dogs eats Life’s Abundance dry, and Life’s Abundance canned Turkey and Shrimp. My cat eats the Life’s Abundance dry (cat food) from HPN, and the canned HPN Instinctive Choice. Kirby and Echo (my dogs) also eats the Porkhide bones.

I’ve been feeding the HPN food for over 4 years. Several things about this company make the difference for me…
• They use all US ingredients.
• They use all human grade/quality ingredients.
• And they can provide proof of the above. HealthyPetNet has gone to the effort of obtaining APHIS (Animal Plant Health Inspection Services – a division of the USDA) European certification. Any pet food that is made in the US that is shipped to Europe must have this certification that requires all ingredients to be of human grade/quality. HPN does not ship pet food to Europe, they go to the trouble of obtaining this certification to prove to customers the quality of ingredients. Plus, this certification requires that not only is the pet food manufacturing plant inspected, all vendors are inspected as well, by the USDA. Very few pet food manufacturers bother to have this certification.
• They control all warehousing of the pet foods, treats, and supplements. With almost every other pet food made, once the product leaves the manufacturer, they have no control as to how safely the pet food is warehoused; if it is subjected to pesticides, rodents, and/or extreme heat. The Petco warehouse problem in 2008 is the perfect example of what can go wrong. http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/64/1/If-you-buy-pet-food-at-Petco--read-this-just-released-FDA-warning/Page1.html HPN on the other hand, has three of their own warehouses across the country; all pest control is done outside the warehouse. The products are shipped directly from these controlled warehouses to customers front doors. This completely removes the risk from unknown warehouse conditions as with typical pet foods.
• Every customer is in a database with emails and phone numbers. No pet food company is perfect; all are subject to human error. Typical pet food recalls are announced very slowly through the FDA and then the media. HPN on the other hand can/could alert pet owners directly, immediately through email; hopefully preventing a serious problem should human error occur.
• The pet food formulator, Dr. Jane Bicks, speaks directly to customers, potential customers, and representatives every week on a national conference call. This is the ONLY company that I am aware of that allows customers to speak directly to, and ask questions directly to, the scientist that develops the products. If I ever have a question about the food or the treats with regards to my pets – I can ask the Veterinarian that knows every ingredient of the food; instead of trying to make sense of what a telephone spokes person tells me and that’s after waiting on hold for five minutes after each question. She’s not Miss Personality like those you speak with at other pet food companies, but she’s direct, straight forward, and honest; she tells me what I need to know.
• The foods use proteinated minerals (for better absorption), provide probiotics (friendly bacteria to help promote a strong immune system), and other health promoting ingredients.

This line of dog food is one of only a handful that uses the safer ingredient selenium yeast (it's not approved by the FDA for cat food yet).  Although selenium yeast is only a tiny ingredient in the food, the alternative ingredient that most pet foods use - sodium selenite - can have toxic results in pets.  To read more about this ingredient, read this: http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/308/1/A-Close-Look-at-a-tiny-Pet-Food-Ingredient-Selenium/Page1.html

There are many pet foods that I like, that have similar ingredients, some even have a few more ingredients of quality. But in my experience, none offer the complete package that this company does. This is why I’ve stayed with this company, purchasing their foods and treats for over 4 years.

Below is a link to independent Reps of this company. You can contact the Representative from their website – click on the ‘Contact Us’ link – should you have any questions. Please direct questions to the Independent Rep, not me.

www.FurtasticPetFood.com 

Water

I've done quite a bit of research on electrolyzed water. http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/2/1/Is-Mars-Pet-Care-Not-Washing-Their-Hands/Page1.html  I firmly believe that this water can not only benefit pets, but people too. My entire family - those with two legs, four legs, and those with feathers  all drink this water daily. While one day I hope to have an electrolyzed water system installed in my home, for now we use Earths Balance concentrated water. 

The product we use is called Fitness Fuel. The company makes a dog, cat, bird, and people version; however they are all the same. So, I purchase the human product only. http://www.Earthsbalance.com

Probiotics
The best probiotic I've found is from http://www.mightymicrobes.com. My dogs, cats, and I take this product daily. It doesn't taste very good, I mix it in cranberry juice for myself. I add it to canned food for the pets.

Fish Oil
The same company that sells the Lifes Abundance pet foods, also has a line of very good people products. Sealogix Pharmaceutical grade fish oil is NOT cheap, but it is a very pure fish oil which is extremely important. If you have interest in this fish oil, the same individuals that represent HPN links above can provide you with information about this product. My pets and myself, take fish oil daily. FYI if you would like to read a great book on the benefits of fish oil, read The Omega Rx Zone by Dr. Barry Sears. 

Bug Control in the house
I hated using chemicals around my pets and my kids, but considering I live in Florida where bugs can take over your house and can literally carry away small pets and children, I used chemicals.But now, no more chemicals! I now use an electronic pest control gadget.  I cant even begin to tell you how wonderful I think these things are; needless to say, they work.  You plug it into an electrical outlet and you are done. (Note: they need to be moved around - it seems the bugs get acclimated to them quickly.  I try to move them at least once a week.)

You can find these little gadgets at any home supply store (Lowes - Home Depot).

Please do me a favor, if you decide to purchase any of these products, please note on your order that I (Susan Thixton or TruthaboutPetFood.com) sent you there. Thanks! And if you decide to use any of these products, send me an email about what you think of them.