MEAT! Dogs are related to the wolf and need meat. Their teeth prove that they’re meant to rip and tear flesh. (Read why your Morkie’s teeth and Dog Dental Care are so important).

Most dogs, even Morkies, are also opportunistic eaters, meaning they’ll eat anything. So they can do well on foods like veggies and some carbs in addition to meat.

The ideal food should be heavy on animal protein and good quality animal fats. Quality dog food should be lower in carbs like grain, corn, and rice.

Of course, good food should not contain artificial preservatives, coloring or mystery chemicals.

Morkies need the best food for small dogs. If they fill up on treats and poor quality food, they don’t have room for nutritional food. You don’t necessarily need to feed a specialized small breed food, as long as your Morkie is getting good nutrition.

Tip: dog foods with CORN, CORN GLUTEN or GRAIN in the first 3 ingredients, has too much filler and is not the best food for small dogs.

1. Meat by-products near the top of the ingredient list. If it’s called just “meat,” then the animal parts used can come from any source. That includes rotting flesh that is contaminated or adulterated with who-knows-what.

Any animal can be included in “meat” and “meat by-products.”

This includes the infamous “4-D animals” (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, and even roadkill and animals euthanized at shelters! These “4-D” animals were only recently banned for human consumption but are still allowed in pet food!

Look for named meat such as beef or chicken. Avoid any foods that include “by-products,” “meal,” or “digest.”

2. BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin** – These are highly carcinogenic additives that are used to preserve dog food for longer shelf life. Besides cancers, these chemicals are to thyroid, kidney, reproductive, and immune-related illnesses.

3. Corn – there’s no nutritious value in dog food with corn, wheat or soy in the first five ingredients. Corn is a useless filler that is a known cause of allergies, and corn can be difficult for dogs to digest. Small dogs don’t need to fill up on corn, wheat, or soy. Plus corn and wheat can result in severe Dog Allergies.

**Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT ) and Ethoxyquin (an EPA-regulated pesticide)

When rejected body parts, scraps, and meat from sources you don’t even want to know about, are processed, it gets a different name and might sound OK.

It’s not OK.

Avoid any commercial foods that contain:

⊗  meat by-products

⊗  “meat” as opposed to a named protein such as chicken, beef or lamb (see box above)

⊗  meat meal, or any ‘named meat’ meal like beef meal

⊗  “animal fat” as opposed to a named animal fat like chicken fat

⊗  anything that’s RENDERED

⊗  beef tallow, propylene glycol, sorbitol, corn gluten, wheat gluten, sugar, cane molasses, corn syrup, sucrose, fructose

⊗  ANIMAL DIGEST

AND, TREATS must be safe too!

Pet food labels and television commercials lead us to believe the pet food comes from fresh meat and fresh vegetables. Yummy!
Some products show images of grilled meats on the label. Not one single variety of pet food is made from grilled steak. Some include pictures of prime cuts of steak or describe specialty meat in the product name, like Cesar’s “filet mignon.”

It means nothing at all. Manufacturers are not held to any truth when it comes to marketing their food. These terms have no legal definition when it comes to pet food:

premium

natural

organic (must say “certified organic”)

fresh

delicious

meaty

A pet food label can show you fresh food when the truth is far from it:

It’s all chicken!

The Dirty Dozen

Well-known brands you might want to reconsider, based on their ingredients:

1. Alpo Chop House – (canned) contains both named and unnamed types of meat. Corn is high on the list, along with slaughterhouse waste (meat by-products).

2. Beneful – (dry) chicken is the first ingredient which is good, but next comes two cheap fillers, corn, and barley. Next, chicken by-product meal — which is slaughterhouse waste including feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs, etc.

3. Cesar Savory Delights – (wet tubs) includes Angus Beef Flavor, Filet Mignon Flavor, etc. After water, the first ingredient is beef by-products (slaughterhouse waste, after all the meat has been stripped off); and meat byproducts (same waste but from what animal??); artificial color; sodium nitrite preservative (linked to cancer).

4. Cesar – (dry) lots of meat by-products and unnamed meat sources; contains sugar; red dye; BHA preservatives.

5. Gravy Train Dog Food – (canned and dry) leading ingredients are soybean meal; wheat flour; modified corn starch; animal fat (preserved with BHA); meat by-products. Wheat middlings, which critics say are floor sweepings. Yellow 5, yellow 6, blue 2 artificial dyes.

6. Hills Science Diet – the adult canned formula, for example, has a limited amount of meat protein; plus contains barley, corn and dried whey high up on ingredients list (all are minimum value to dogs); artificial colors. Some of the sub-brands include powdered cellulose, a non-digestible plant fiber to bulk up the food.

7. Kal Kan Dog Food – (dry) corn is the #1 ingredient, followed by unnamed meat and bone meal; soybean meal; ground wheat, and chicken by-product meal. BHA preservatives; artificial color.

8. Kibbles & Bits – (dry) #1 ingredient is corn, followed by soybean meal, a by-product of soybean oil production, (usually fed to farm animals). Unnamed meat sources; BHA preservative; corn syrup.

9. Ol’ Roy – (canned and dry) unnamed meat by-products; generic oil (which could be used restaurant grease); iron oxide for red coloring; BHA preservative.

10. Pedigree Dog Food* – (dry)  ingredients in order: ground whole grain corn; meat and bone meal; corn gluten meal; animal fat preserved with BHA; soybean meal, chicken by-product meal. *This label includes 11 sub-brands such as Pedigree Small Dog Complete Nutrition Grilled Steak and Vegetable Flavor (plus other flavors)

11. Purina Dog Chow – (dry) first three ingredients: whole grain corn; meat and bone meal; corn gluten meal. These are all of limited value biologically to dogs. Unnamed meat sources and unnamed by-products. Lots of artificial dyes: yellow 6, yellow 5, red 40, blue 2.

12. Purina Moist and Meaty – (semi-moist)  ingredients are, in order, beef by-products (slaughterhouse waste); soy flour; soy grits; and two empty nutrients: high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup. Artificial dyes and preservatives.

An excellent website about commercial foods – and assessments by brand name – visit the Dog Food Advisor – www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

DOWNLOAD A PRINTABLE LIST OF GOOD AND NOT-SO-GOOD FOODS TO TAKE TO THE STORE.

I’ve been working hard researching and writing a book on commercial dog food, from a pet lover’s point of view. 

I’m not a Vet, a scientist, or a [rich] Big Pharma sales rep… I’m just like you and I want to know what’s in the dog food they’re selling us.

The story is shocking, disgusting and stomach-churning. But as pet parents, we need to know the truth.

Prepare to be pissed off! Coming soon