Notes

Pet Food Marketing Hype - THE WITHIN Scoop From a Holistic Veterinarian
A trip down your pet food aisle nowadays will boggle the mind with all the wonderful claims created by manufacturers for their particular products. But what's the reality behind all of this marvelous hype? You could be very surprised...let's have a look.

1. Niche claims. Today, for those who have an inside cat, a canine athlete, a Persian, a Bloodhound, a Yorkie, or perhaps a pet with a tender tummy or itchy feet, you will find a food "designed" simply for your pet's personal needs. Niche marketing is here in a large way in your pet food industry. check here like to feel special, and a product with specific appeal will sell better than an over-all product like "puppy food." However the reality is that there are only two nutritional standards against which all pet foods are measured (adult and growth/gestation/lactation)-everything else is marketing. Your very best bet is really a food made with good quality ingredients that satisfies "All Life Stages."

2. "Natural" or "Organic" claims. The definition of "natural" adopted by AAFCO is quite broad, and permits artificially processed ingredients that the majority of us would consider very unnatural indeed. The term "organic," on the other hand, includes a very strict legal definition that the USDA has ruled pertains to pet food. However, some companies are adept at evading the intent of these rules. For example, the name of the company or product could be intentionally misleading. For instance, some companies use terms like "Nature" or "Natural" in the brand, whether their products fit the definition of natural.

3. Ingredient quality claims. A lot of pet foods claim they contain "human grade" ingredients. This is a completely meaningless term-which is excatly why the pet food companies get away with using it. Exactly the same pertains to "USDA inspected" or similar phrases. The implication is that the food is made using ingredients that are passed by the USDA for human consumption, but there are many ways around this. For example, a facility might be USDA-inspected throughout the day, but the pet food is manufactured at night after the inspector goes home. The utilization of such terms ought to be seen as a "Hype Alert."

4. "Meat may be the first ingredient" claim. A declare that a named meat (chicken, lamb, etc.) is the #1 ingredient is normally seen for dry food. check here are listed on the label by weight, and raw chicken weighs a whole lot, since contains a large amount of water. If you look further down the list, you might see ingredients such as chicken or poultry by-product meal, meat-and-bone meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, or other dry protein. Meals have had the fat and water removed, and basically contain a dry, lightweight, high-protein powder. It generally does not take much raw chicken to weigh more than a great big pile of the powder. Not just that, but the "chicken" used in dry food is truly a slurry of about 90% water; so the truth is the food is based on the protein meal, with hardly any "chicken" found.

This has turn into a very popular marketing gimmick, even in premium and "health food" type brands. Since everybody is now deploying it, any meaning it could once have had is indeed watered-down that you might just as well ignore it.

5. Special ingredient claims. read more of the high-end pet foods today rely on the marketing appeal of people-food ingredients such as fruits, herbs, vegetables, and a variety of supplements such as for example glucosamine or probiotics. However, the levels of these items actually within the food are small rather than therapeutic. Vegatables and fruits are usually scraps and rejects from processors of human foods-certainly not the complete, fresh ingredients they need one to picture. Such ingredients don't provide a significant health benefit and are just a marketing gimmick.

It's a jungle on the market...Pet food advertising has become extremely sophisticated over the last few years. It's important to know what is hype and what's real, so that you can make informed decisions in what to feed your pets.

Dr. Jean Hofve is really a retired holistic veterinarian with a particular fascination with nutrition and behavior. Her informational website, http://www.littlebigcat.com, features an extensive free article library on feline health and pet nutrition, in addition to a free e-newsletter. Dr. Hofve founded Spirit Essences Holistic Remedies for Animals (http://www.spiritessence.com) in 1995; and it remains the only line of flower essence formulas designed by a veterinarian. She is an avowed Medicine Woman within the Nemenhah Native American Traditional Organization who uses holistic remedies as a part of body-mind-spiritual healing.
Here's my website: http://xn--8prw0a.net/home.php?mod=space&uid=14260294