Over half of us share our lives with pets. But
although we take care of ourselves by eating well, exercising, employing
stress-relief techniques and limiting exposure to cigarette smoke, alcohol and
such, many of us forget to extend that level of care to our pets. Of special
concern is their diet.
Perhaps you buy high end commercial pet food and feel that this will ensure that
your dog or cat is eating the optimum diet. But that’s just not true.
Veterinarian Dr. Donald Ogden says that even the
most expensive, high quality pet food can have its nutrients altered,
adulterated, devitalized and destroyed by heat, processing, coloring,
preservatives and other chemicals. Therefore, feeding your pet such food on a
regular basis causes waste toxins to accumulate in their blood, lymphs and
tissue, which contributes to a weak immune system and renders the animal
susceptible to chronic diseases.
But there is a way to prevent such a dismal fate
for your pet and it’s called the Raw Food Diet (often referred to as the species
appropriate diet). Raw foods have become popular amongst ultra-healthy humans,
and the concept isn’t so different for our pets. Think about what wolves and
panthers eat in the wild; they don’t likely have a lot of starchy carbohydrates
at their disposal, nor do they cook the meat of their prey on a stove before
they eat it. Carnivores thrive on raw meat.
Commercial dry pet food contains approximately
40 percent carbohydrates (CHO), while cats in the wild only eat between two and
six percent carbohydrates. In contrast, dogs require a slightly higher
percentage of carbohydrates than cats. Dogs are also considered to be more
omnivorous than cats, while cats are basically carnivorous. Domesticated cats
have the same dietary requirements as wild cats, and overfeeding carbohydrates
is ...
