How to choose the “Best” Pet Food

The better first question is: “What actually is the best pet food for your pet?” How should a pet owner choose from the many options available today? These are basic questions I am being asked every day. They deserve basic and straight forward, simple answers, which is what I am going to try with this article today by explaining the important nutritional features of a good quality pet diet. Many opinions state that “Pets use the nutrients in the food, not the ingredients.” While this may be a true statement, let’s consider that the ingredients provide the nutrients, so these are important as well. Having both, a basic understanding of pet nutrition and the nutrients provided by various ingredients will help you make an educated decision on which diet is best for your pet. Don’t forget, though, that a diet that has a perfect label or apparently perfect nutritional content may not necessarily work for your pet. That is if you even find such a food. But don’t give up, a little trial and error will put you well on the road to finding the best food for your healthy pet. Remember to not let it turn into a science either. While you may be spending tons of time figuring out what right or wrong for your pet, the pet is hungry and needs something to eat. Make up your mind, because in my and many other experts’ opinion there is no such thing as the “perfect” food. What does “perfect” mean anyway? Who are we to determine what is “perfect”? We can’t even figure out for ourselves what is the “perfect” diet. While we think the pet food we select is “perfect”, our pets may have a completely different opinion, only problem is that in many cases we will never find out, or at least not until it is too late. A good idea is using common sense. Using common sense let’s you handle many problems a lot easier and by the way, not just pet food related problems. What I always recommend as well is: Take a step back and look at what nature is doing. Follow that concept and you are right on track.
Now many people in the past (and probably will continue in future) have tried to argue with me on this one. They claim that what is or was so far going on in nature is not the best for our companion animals.
That’s when I usually remind them of a quote from Albert Einstein who said “People, let’s reason.” Because I cannot help it but to agree with Dr. Wysong, D.V.M. who makes an excellent point within his Time & Adoption Theory: “If we measure the time during which life has adapted to the natural environment, this would be represented by a line 276 miles long. Now let’s compare that with the time since the industrial revolution, approximately 200 years, went by. The 200 years then represent a line of 1 inch length. The time since the industrial revolution is also the time during which humans and animals have been eating and fed modern, processed food.” Dr. Wysong in his “How to apologize to your pet”: “Life forms have spent eons adapting to natural food, thriving on their nutrients and developing protective mechanisms against toxins. To suddenly consume the modern processed concoctions present to the body new chemicals, toxins and altered nutrients for which it has not had time to adopt. We - and our pets – are therefore part of a giant experiment. The results of which perhaps only our grandchildren will fully know.”