Healthy hounds and fit felines

Making sure your furry friends’ food is healthy can be somewhat confusing because reading ingredients lists and nutrition labels can seem like another language.

According to Martha Stewart’s Healthy Home, there are three different levels of care when deciding how to feed your pet. The “most careful” designation is for those who decide to consult a veterinarian about what to feed their pet and then make their own meals for their pets. You have to be cautious, though, because if the meal isn’t balanced, your pet can suffer from malnutrition. The article explains that some may even serve raw meats to their pets, but most professionals wouldn’t recommend this for fear of you or your pet coming into contact with E. coli or salmonella.

Buying organic food—with the “USDA Organic” label—for your pet receives the “more careful” designation. When you go up the care meter, so to speak, you also go up on the price meter, with homemade pet food typically being the most expensive and organic food being more expensive than other healthy pet foods.

Receiving the “careful” designation is learning to understand what’s written on the labels of your pet food.

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) sets the nutritional standards behind the complete and balanced nutrition labels. A pet food meeting these standards is certified to be sufficient for keeping your pet nourished on its own. It’s important to make sure that your pet’s food has this designation.

Cats and dogs both need meat. Ingredients listed on the nutrition label are in order of how much there is in the food. The ingredient that is first is the most abundant and so on. Make sure that the first ingredient listed is real meat, not just a by-product, a grain or some corn product (cornmeal, corn gluten, ground corn). These fillers are harder for animals to digest and by-products and bonemeal are poorer sources of protein than real meats, according to Healthy Home. The article also says to pay attention to preservatives, listed at the bottom of the ingredients, because ethoxyquin may be damaging to a dog’s liver and Vitamin C or ascorbic acid and Vitamin E or tocopherol are better preservatives for your pet.