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from Natural Life magazine, March/April
2006 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 ... To read the rest of this article, subscribe to Natural Life's online edition. |
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