Wildlife Whole Prey Pet Food

Articles

>> Can you trust your vet?
>> Fast Food for pets
>> Table scraps
>> Benefits of a raw pet food diet
>> Pet Food labels: what to look for
>> Pet Food Myths & Truths
>> Life Stage Pet Foods

CAN YOU TRUST YOUR VET?

The recent pet food recalls have millions of pet owners scrambling to find a safe pet food diet for their dogs and cats. Meanwhile, pet owners are finding themselves subjected to a tidal wave of misinformation and out right lies perpetuated by many pet food manufacturers, retailers, vendors, perhaps even your veterinarian. Misinformed and unscrupulous pet food industry spokespeople continue to endanger the nation’s pet population with their continued campaign of misinformation.

One is reminded of the tobacco industry hearings in the 1990’s. The major tobacco producers lost a series of lawsuits brought against them for damages caused from the harmful effect of tobacco and smoking related illnesses. Dozens of tobacco industry executives swore under oath that they did not believe nicotine to be harmful or addictive, even though there was a mountain of evidence proving otherwise. One jury wrote the following: “In the name of profits, the tobacco industry has chosen to ignore and suppress the truth about the health hazards of cigarette smoking and of being exposed to cigarette smoke”. The cigarette industry was forced to pay billions in damages. Will we see pet food manufacturers forced to admit their products are addictive and harmful? Only time will tell.

Knowing who you can trust to give you accurate information about healthy pet food can be a real challenge. Can you trust your veterinarian to provide you with honest and accurate information about healthy pet food diets? Sadly, the answer may be no.

Veterinarians are not typically nutrition or pet health food experts. Most of them are general practitioners with only minimal nutrition education. Much of what they extol about commercially prepared canned, dry or raw pet food diets comes directly or indirectly from the major pet food manufacturers. In fact, most veterinarians sell canned and dry pet food diets out of their offices and clinics. Most have little or no experience with organic pet food diets, raw pet food or frozen pet food diets. Even if they do they are often unwilling to invest in needed freezer space required to keep raw pet food and frozen pet food.

Can you trust anyone, including your veterinarian, profiting from the sale of these products? If a smoke shop owner that told you tobacco wasn’t harmful would you believe it? Misinformation and lies from seemingly trustworthy sources like your vet have made feeding dogs and cats a healthy pet food diet very difficult.

Canned and dry pet foods are not classified as regular or complete pet food diets. Only a whole prey raw pet food diet can rightly be considered a truly natural pet food diet. Labeling often indicates this, however, that is not the message sent by indusrty advertising. Canned and dry foods are basically “fast foods” for pets. They are high in non food ingredients, highly processed pseudo-food that has been associated with many serious chronic health conditions. The process of sweetening, preserving, flavoring and filling pet foods with non food ingredients leads to systemic disease and allergic conditions. Many veterinarians are aware of this and yet continue to promote name brands on the recall list. Why? What’s preventing many vets from recommending whole prey healthy pet food diets?

Think about it. Who would benefit more from perpetuating un healthy pet food diets for pets more than a veterinarian? A dreadful suggestion, however, there is a serious conflict of interest that is inarguable! Have you taken your pet to a vet recently? Remember paying the bill? Now you know why very few veterinarians promote the use of a truly healthy pet food or frozen raw pet food diet. The evidence that raw pet food and frozen pet food diets are superior to commercially prepared diets is there for all to see, however, it has taken the pet food recalls to bring the issue to the forefront.

WildLife Whole Prey Frozen Pet Foods provide a complete and healthy pet food diet that outperforms all natural cat food and natural dog food diets. Only WildLife Frozen Pet Food contains the entire prey animal as prepared healthy pet food. It’s exactly what your pet would be eating if it were in the wild! WildLife Frozen Pet Foods are quick frozen to ensure freshness and shipped in styrofoam coolers direct to your door. Make the change to WildLife Today!

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FAST FOOD FOR PETS

Fast food is popular in America because it’s cheap, easy and fast. Franchised fast food restaurants are prevalent because people know exactly what to expect every time. Seemingly, there’s no risk to the buyer, just order by the numbers and here it comes. The talking head serves up the same thing every time, it comes fast, the service is friendly and best of all its cheap. Remind you of anything?

Canned and dry commercially prepared pet foods are fast food for pets. Here is a significant fact to ponder; commercially produced pet food diets were never conceived to benefit the animal. They have been created to benefit the manufacturer, distributor and retailer, not the animal. The animal’s health and welfare has been a minor consideration.

Commercial pet food diets are manufactured up to a year in advance of being used. They are produced in factories where it is manufactured, then stored until it is shipped to a distributor. The distributor stores it until it is shipped to a retailer, who in turn stores it until it is put on the shelf where it is again stored until it is purchased and used by a consumer that, guess what, stores it until it is used. The product doesn’t require refrigeration or freezing, as frozen pet foods do, because the manufacturing process has stabilized it to the point where it can be shipped anywhere and stored endlessly without going bad. There is little or no odor to it, no icky stuff to look at and best of all there is no risk or work involved for the distributor, retailer or the consumer. It never goes bad, it doesn’t rot, discolor or deteriorate. Just open the box or can pour it into the bowl and that’s it. It’s as quick and easy as.… that’s right, fast food!

A healthy pet food diet including whole prey frozen raw pet food diets can be quite the opposite; they aren’t particularly fast or convenient to use. They can be fairly unpleasant to serve and can take up a fair amount of cooler space. Raw and frozen pet foods can offend the visual and olfactory senses and, worse yet, raw pet foods aren’t cheap. What makes feeding a healthy pet food diet can be somewhat intangible. The satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are providing a healthy pet food diet is somewhat intangible, however, knowing typical pet owners will be visiting the vet twice as often with their animals offers some solace.

Many fast-food restaurants have started offering their customers healthier options, like salads and grilled chicken sandwiches. Problem is, most people crave and choose the unhealthy items on the menu, which far outnumber the healthier options. The reason that people crave these foods, according to some researchers, is because they're loaded with addictive compounds, including sugar, salt, fat and refined carbohydrates.

Thinking that there may be addictive compounds in canned and dry pet food diets isn't much of a leap in logic. If you don't just love your morning coffee but actually have to have it or else your entire day is ruined, you know the feeling of having a chemical dependence. This addiction isn't as serious as a heroin or nicotine addiction, but it is real.

Addictive substances such as refined sugar, salt, high quantities of fat and refined carbohydrates are absent from WildLife Whole Prey Pet Foods. Our whole prey frozen pet food formulas are healthy, not because of what’s in them, but because of what isn’t in them. We pride ourselves in preparing healthy pet food diets that are completely natural. No non food ingredients have been added so you don’t have to be concerned about contamination. It’s a beautifully simple concept, the whole prey animal, ground whole and quickly frozen. Thaw it, serve it and your pet is eating exactly what nature intended.

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TABLE SCRAPS

Half a century ago most people fed their pets table scraps while the pet food manufacturers struggled to stay afloat. Table scraps are basically free so competition for Fido’s bowl was stiff. Television, advertising and modern distribution techniques changed all that. The pet food industries’ media blitz of the 1950’s and 1960’s was successful in conditioning people to forget all about table scraps. The term “table scraps” is one that faded into obscurity… until the recent pet food recalls.

It is fair to say that a diet of well selected table scraps has merit. Problem is; most people don’t cook for large families like they did in the past. People say they are in too big a hurry to mess with raw meat diets. None the less, scraps can be healthier than modern canned and dry pet foods. Even so, one cannot fill a bowl with a weeks worth of table scraps without it drawing flies and decomposing so canned and dry pet food diets get the mark on this one. Everyone acknowledges that box food is quick and easy. Table scraps may not be as convenient as commercial foods but they are cheaper so give this mark to table scraps.

How do healthy pet food diets score on the quick and easy pet food test? Unfortunately, a healthy whole prey raw pet food diet is often more expensive and less convenient so it may never win over the masses. Just too many people are uninformed, lazy or too cheap to change to a healthy pet food diet. At least with table scraps there is a variety of fresh and healthy ingredients involved. Not so with a commercial boxed and canned pet food diet. So far as nutrition goes, it’s pretty much the same thing, day after day.

Would you feed your family the same thing day after day, never offering them anything fresh or raw? Fresh and frozen pet food provides much better nutrition for animals, as well as humans, than highly processed foods. Can you imagine what it would be like living on one highly processed food your entire life? Some animals have never eaten anything fresh, living entirely on processed foods. While it’s possible to do so, you could not expect to be healthy or feel well in the process. You wouldn’t likely live a long life either. Health authorities all agree that we need to eat fresh food for good health and longevity.

Whole Prey raw pet food diets are superior to all other diets, including table scraps. Raw pet foods are vastly more nutritious than canned and dry pet food diets because dogs and cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they are obligated to eat meat. Only whole prey natural pet food diets provide cats and dogs with a naturally balanced supply of bio-available protein, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.

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BENEFITS OF A RAW PET FOOD DIET

Would you expect to see your dog or cat digging for fresh vegetables? Heck no, in most cases they’re out hunting for fresh meat! Fresh critters are the only true source of healthy, natural pet food. Its organic pet food at its freshest! Problem is; you can’t toss Fido a freshly killed rabbit and let him drag it through the house until he’s finished with it.

Outdoor pets often spend a large part of their day hunting. What they are looking for can be described as whole prey organic pet food. There is no argument that it is uncooked raw pet food. No one has removed the feathers, fur or bones for them. What amounts to whole prey healthy pet food is consumed in its entirety. Unarguably, what they catch is a truly complete and natural pet food diet. Even so, many animal nutritionists ignore the facts about whole prey natural pet foods and promote “veggie” diets for pets.

Consider a large cat such as a lion or tiger. Biologically, domestic cats vary little from their larger cousins. Any zoo vet will tell you the biggest difference between a tiger and domestic cat is size alone. So, would you feed a big cat a bowl of veggies? We think not. If you did he wouldn’t eat it anyway. Why? Because cat (and dogs) are obligate carnivores. In other words they are obligated to eat a diet consisting entirely of meat. so far as his dietary needs go he is obligated to eat meat. Large or small that cat needs a naturally fresh raw pet food diet to thrive.

Everyone knows that cooking food reduces its nutrition and pet food is no different. Have you ever wondered happens to vitamins, minerals, fats, carbohydrates and proteins once they’ve been cooked? Where do they go? Do they just disappear? Unfortunately, they do not. They are transformed by chemical reactions into deadly killers such as carcinogens, mutagen, and free radicals. Heated and processed pet food diets destroy DNA and RNA structural intelligence, creating fare that is appropriate only for survival, not health. Only healthy pet food diets that are uncooked, avoid these hazards.

Raw pet foods can be powerful healers. It has been proven time and time again, most notable in cases of allergy, arthritis and skin disease in dogs. Dogs have been waiting for organic and whole prey frozen pet foods for an entire lifetime, and they will eat it with gusto as long as there is some remaining taste bud function left in them. The genetic encoding of the raw pet food and the genetic encoding of your pet is a match. This is the key to revitalizing your pets weakened system, causing DNA and RNA sub-unit transfer from food to consumer, from one species to another. Only a natural pet food, whole prey frozen pet food such as WildLife can guide your to a more healthy state. With this in mind, it is best to switch your pets over to WildLife Whole Prey Frozen Pet Foods gradually, because commercial foods have severely weakened the entire body, especially the vital digestive system. While switching to a raw pet food diet is worthwhile, care should be taken in consideration of an animal’s likely poor digestive health.

Feeding a raw meat diet is not just good for your pet it is good science! Science proves that cooking not only obliterates nutrition and enzymes, but it chemically changes what may have been otherwise healthy pet food from the substances your pet needs for health into free-radicals, poisons that destroy its health! Don’t pass on your responsibility for your pet’s health.

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PET FOOD LABELS: WHAT TO LOOK FOR

By learning how to read a pet food label, you can learn a great deal of information about what you are feeding your pet. Food labels for human consumption, labeling is strictly regulated by the FDA and USDA. These labels must follow strict guidelines and be approved by these agencies. Frozen pet food diets and well and canned and dry food labels are typically divided into two separate sections: the principal product display and information about the food product.

Principal display and product name part of the pet food label contain the brand name of the product, in this case WildLife Whole Prey Natural Pet Food, as well as the precise food or formula contained in the can. The label will list which is the primary meat used in the food and may offer an age designation such as Puppy food, adult food etc. The principal display may also include the type of animal the food is intended to feed, dogs or cats. The product weight is displayed in grams and ounces.

How the product is described on the label is also regulated. In order to call something "Laying Hen Whole Prey Natural Pet Food," at least 95 percent of the product must be the named meat, without counting the moisture content. If the moisture content is included, at least 70% of the product must be the one named. If the product name has a combination of meats in it such as "Beef-Fish-Hen Natural Pet Food," then it must have 95% of the first ingredient listed first. Beef-Fish-Hen Natural Pet Food cannot be labeled this way unless the first ingredient is actually beef.

When the amount of meat in a pet food diet is over 25% but less than 95%, a qualifier must be added. Also, just because this product name says "chicken formula" doesn't mean beef or fish have not been added. Check the ingredient list to find out which meats are included so that you don’t get something you weren’t looking for.

It can be entertaining to note that canned and dry commercially prepared pet food diets often use desperate sounding qualifiers such as feast, banquet, platter and entrée in an effort to add legitimacy to what is essentially highly processed meat by-products, that have been reshaped, colored and flavored to the hilt. Also noteworthy is the observation that healthy pet foods such as WildLife Whole Prey Natural Pet Food and competing brands don’t bother with such wild stretches of the imagination.

Another labeling trick a pet food manufacturer may use is the word “with”. Consider the opportunities for deception this little word offers! Here’s a good example; Healthy “Cat Food with Chicken”. New rules state pet food manufacturers must include at least 3% chicken to use the term Healthy Cat Food “with” Chicken on the label. This wording is deceptive because there is a big difference between “Chicken Cat Food" and "Cat Food with Chicken". The first product has 95% Chicken in it while the second one has only has 3% chicken in it.

The Informational Section displays the product name, brand name, weight and the targeted specie for which it has been produced. The label includes a more complex section containing the ingredients, guaranteed analysis, feeding instructions and the nutritional adequacy statement. This part of the label is very important when one compares products, brands and makes a judgment on nutritional value. While reading the information part of the label you will want to watch for non food ingredients such as BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, artificial preservatives and other chemical additives. Ethoxyquin is the fat preservative used in almost all canned and dry pet foods. The substance is not allowed for use in food for human consumption in the United States and is prohibited in both pet foods and human foods in virtually all other countries of the world. These ingredients are absent from healthy pet foods.

It should be noted, so far as we are aware, all major brand-name canned and dry pet food diets, are formulated with meat by-products, which are inferior quality meats. There are some natural products in this category, but often are made with unwanted and inferior ingredients such as wheat flour, which is refined white flour. Avoid all pet foods containing dyes, BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, and more than 3% whole grain. We are proud to say that WildLife Whole Prey Frozen Pet Food does not contain any non food ingredients.

Once a fungicide and rubber tire stabilizer, ethoxyquin is now the most widely used fat preservative found in pet food. Even if not found on the label fat suppliers to pet food manufacturers often add it before it reaches the pet food manufacturing facility. Feeding refined grains to obligate carnivores is the same thing as feeding refined carbohydrates and sugars to humans. The body ages more quickly, teeth go bad, immune and parasite problems occur more frequently, and aging is accelerated.

The list of Ingredients must be in order as the list descends. The most common part of the pet food diet is listed first then followed by each ingredient in order by weight.

The Guaranteed Analysis part of the label lists the amounts of each ingredient contained in the food. When making comparisons you will want to take the moisture content into consideration. The ingredients should be compared on a dry substance basis. This means that if 82% moisture is present the remaining matter comprise 18 percent of the diet. The minimum values listed for each ingredient (excluding water) should be divided by 0.18 in order to get a dry matter total. With this information products can be compared fairly.

Feeding Instructions:
Individual pet food diets list how much food to feed on a daily basis. It’s up to you to decide whether to feed as one meal or split into several throughout the day. Feeding instructions should be considered suggestions, not hard fast rules. A variety of factors will determine if your specific pet needs more or less food. When carnivores are fed a healthy pet food diet such as wildlife Whole Prey Frozen Raw Pet Food diets you may want to feed only six days per week. Remember that in the wild carnivores may not eat on a daily basis. Many knowledgeable veterinarians, biologists and animal behaviorists recognize that not only do carnivores miss meals but when they do eat they naturally gorge. In light of this we suggest feeding a whole prey, raw pet food diet only six days per week and just once per day.

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PET FOOD MYTHS AND TRUTHS

What better way to address the subject of pet food myths than to consider pet food facts. Excluding whole prey and frozen raw pet food diets there are three types of commercial pet food diets used in the pet food industry: Here’ are few facts about commercially prepared pet food diets:

Processed dog and cat foods are generally sold as complete and balanced products.

Only whole prey frozen pet foods contain a naturally balanced organic source of bone, muscle and organ meat.

Canned and dry foods are usually more economical than all meat natural pet food and raw pet food diets.

Canned foods are generally more palatable than dry because they contain more water, protein and fat.

Dogs and cats have complex nutritional requirements. In fact, dogs require 38 different nutrients daily, while cats require up to 40. A pet food label indicating that a product is “complete and balanced” means that it not only contains all of the known nutrients required by the animal but that those nutrients are in proper balance with one another. As stated above the only complete and balanced natural pet food diet in existence is either whole feed animals or whole prey pet food diets.

Only a whole prey, frozen pet food diet can rightly make the claim of being complete balanced and natural pet food diet and yet most commercially prepared canned and dry pet food diets claim to be not only complete and natural but use product descriptions such as all natural pet food, pet health food, premium cat food, safe dog food and the like. Are these descriptions based on truth or myth?

Many people erroneously believe that "natural" foods are "safe." Not true. Arsenic and radon are natural, but nobody argues their safety. Not all so called “natural pet foods” are safe either. Whereas food fit for human consumption is preferable to the leftovers and waste products in most pet food, there is no legal or even practical definition of the term "human grade food." This is strictly marketing at its best. The term is often used and abused.

With human nutrition we are encouraged to eat a variety of foods because no one food contains all the nutrients we require. Not so with a natural pet food source such as WildLife Whole Prey Frozen Pet Food. WildLife contains all of the known nutrients required by cats and dogs.

The truth is that commercial pet foods are loaded with refined grains. Typically these grains are refined white flour which is harmful to an obligate carnivore such as a dog or cat. This is not an over exaggeration or over simplification of the facts. The only thing about the claim that these foods are complete is the fact that the myth is complete in itself. White flour is not a naturally occurring food so it cannot rightly be considered part of a complete and natural pet food diet. Any commercial pet food manufacturer making such claims should be regarded with a good deal of mistrust.

In order to determine the nutritional needs of a dog or cat and dogs all one has to do is look out the window to see what nature is serving for dinner. There’s plenty of evidence of birds, rabbits, mice and moles. One would have to look long and hard to see bags of white flour, kibble or pet food tins being stalked by Fluffy or Fido.

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LIFE STAGE PET FOOD

In our own diets, meat is combined with vegetables, fruits, breads and other foods to give us the balanced nutrition we need. If we were to eat one particular food day after day chances are we would become malnourished and develop health problems. No one food or food group can provide all the nutrients we need in proper proportions. Not so with cats and dogs. A complete and balanced diet for cats and dogs can be found in one single food source, as whole prey natural pet food diet.

Cats and dogs are obligate carnivores. Their natural diet consists almost exclusively of meat from small prey animals. They have survived for eons consuming virtually nothing but prey animals and grass. They do not need food for any particular life stage. If commercially prepared pet food was adequate to begin with, they would not need kitten, adult, senior, urinary tract, sensitive stomach, weight control and hairball formulas. Cats consuming commercial cat food, especially dry food, are typically malnourished! If commercial pet food diets were adequate they wouldn’t suffer from the illnesses that are tied directly to long-term commercial pet food consumption, such as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and urinary tract disorders.

A cat or dog’s natural prey is almost completely carbohydrate-free. Without the pet food manufacturers to make use of what is essentially slaughterhouse waste, there would be virtually no profit for those involved in the mass production of cheap, ‘fast food” for pets. That's a simple economic truth.

Commercial pet food manufacturers claim they have incorporated all the nutrients a dog or cat needs during a particular life stage into complete and natural pet food diets. In our own diets, as in we humans, should combine meat with vegetables, fruits, breads, etc., however, cats are not humans, therefore, they shouldn't be fed like humans.

Muscle meat is a source of protein, however, by itself, it has very low levels of calcium. Calcium is mineral our pets require for proper bone and tooth development. Calcium also plays an important role in blood clotting, muscle contraction and transmission of nerve impulses. The only natural pet food, or any other pet food for that matter, that is a source of bio-available protein and calcium is whole prey pet food.

Most commercial pet foods use an inferior and inexpensive calcium source such as calcium carbonate. What ever calcium is present in commercial pet food comes from the rendered by-product that is cooked. Cooking meat destroys many of the nutrients needed to thrive. Bio-available calcium is not present in cooked meat or bone. These nutrients are only available in raw uncooked natural pet foods.

Carnivores do not need food for any particular life stage or age. If commercially prepared pet food was adequate to begin with, they would not need life stage foods. If commercial pet food diets were adequate they wouldn’t suffer from the illnesses that are tied directly to long-term commercial pet food consumption, such as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and urinary tract disorders.

Because cats and dogs are obligate carnivores, they have difficulty using nutrients from plant sources. Ingredients from animal sources are much more expensive than those from plant sources so they aren’t typically used by pet food manufacturers. Attempting to supplement a raw meat diet with vitamins and minerals isn’t the answer either because, again, these vitamins and minerals are not usually bio-available. Certain vitamins and minerals react with one another causing ill effects. Unless they are present in the proper amounts a pet may suffer malnutrition.

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