What are the pros and cons of feeding a pet, dog specifically, natural as well as processed bag foods? I know there has to be unbiased reasons, both good and bad, for each side. Please enlighten me.
edit: i meant feeding a dog bag food from vendors as opposed to “making” meals out of “human” food (meat, rice, bone, etc.)
Asked by:Mansurus
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Your question is a little off. The FDA sets rules and guidelines about food labels, including pet foods. There is not definition of “natural”. Ground shoes, mercury and arsinic are all “natural”. So, there are processed foods labeled “natural”, but the term is meaningless. There is a definition and standard for Organic. The catch is that something can claim to be organic even if only 5% of it is produced under the organic standard. (1, 2, 3) Here you want something 100% organic.
The other problem is that the FDA regulations haven’t taken into account the globalization of everything. They still assume food products are largely USA produced when this is increasingly not the case. Approximately 70% of wheat gluten (aka: textured vegetable protein, or wheat protein) used in human and pet foods comes from Europe and Asia according to a reference from CNN. (4)
So – “natural” is meaningless. You want things that say “Organic” or 100% USA ingredients (but imho, a USA label isn’t too likely). There are regulations, controls and some protections- but not as good as we would like or probably expect.
natural is always better!