Notes

Pet Food Marketing Hype - The Inside Scoop From a Holistic Veterinarian
A trip down your pet food aisle these days will boggle the mind with all the wonderful claims made by manufacturers for their particular products. But what's the truth behind all this marvelous hype? You may be very surprised...let's take a look.

1. Niche claims. Today, in case you have an indoor cat, a canine athlete, a Persian, a Bloodhound, a Yorkie, or perhaps a pet with a tender tummy or itchy feet, you can find a food "designed" simply for your pet's personal needs. Niche marketing has arrived in a big way in the pet food industry. People like to feel special, and something with specific appeal is bound to sell better than a general product like "puppy food." But the reality is t here are only two nutritional standards against which all pet foods are measured (adult and growth/gestation/lactation)-everything else is marketing. Your best bet is really a food made with good quality things that satisfies "All Life Stages."

2. "Natural" or "Organic" claims. The definition of "natural" adopted by AAFCO is very broad, and permits artificially processed ingredients that many 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 applies to pet food. However, some companies are adept at evading the intent of these rules. For instance, the name of the business 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. Many pet foods claim they contain "human grade" ingredients. That is a completely meaningless term-which is excatly why your pet food companies escape with using it. Exactly the same pertains to "USDA inspected" or similar phrases. The implication is that the food is made using things that are passed by the USDA for human consumption, but there are several ways around this. For instance, a facility may be USDA-inspected during the day, however the pet food is manufactured at night following the inspector goes home. The utilization of such terms should be viewed as a "Hype Alert."

4. "Meat is the first ingredient" claim. A claim that a named meat (chicken, lamb, etc.) may be the #1 ingredient is normally seen for dry food. Ingredients are listed on the label by weight, and raw chicken weighs a lot, since contains a lot of water. In the event that you look further down the list, you're likely to 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 consist of a dry, lightweight, high-protein powder. It generally does not take much raw chicken to weigh greater than a great big pile of the powder. Not only that, but the "chicken" used in dry food is actually a slurry around 90% water; so in reality the food is based on the protein meal, with very little "chicken" found.

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

5. Special ingredient claims. Lots of the high-end pet foods today depend on the marketing selling point of people-food ingredients such as fruits, herbs, vegetables, and a variety of supplements such as glucosamine or probiotics. However, the levels of these items actually present in the food are small rather than therapeutic. Vegatables and fruits are usually scraps and rejects from processors of human foods-certainly not the whole, fresh ingredients they want you to picture. Such ingredients don't provide a significant health benefit and are only a marketing gimmick.

It's a jungle on the market...Pet food marketing and advertising is becoming extremely sophisticated during the last few years. It is critical to know what is hype and what's real, so that you can make informed decisions about what to feed your pets.

Dr. Jean Hofve is really a retired holistic veterinarian with a special interest in nutrition and behavior. Her informational website, http://www.littlebigcat.com, features an extensive free article library on feline health insurance 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 type of flower essence formulas created by a veterinarian. She actually is a certified Medicine Woman within the Nemenhah Native American Traditional Organization who uses holistic remedies as part of body-mind-spiritual healing.
Website: https://www.soulmete.com/felix-health-reviews/