What do you think of when you hear the word nutrition?

We are not born with a comprehensive knowledge of nutrition. Our knowledge is gained from life skill classes in  school and from the media. Unfortunately lessons learned in life skills classes are often ignored or quickly forgotten.  Most people perceive nutrition as a complex topic and difficult to understand and thus through out our lives we rely on the media and advertising to guide us through our diet choices.

The media has taught us that vitamins and minerals are the corner stones of nutrition, but these are only 2 of the 45 plus nutrients in the foods that are essential for growth and the maintenance of your pets' health. Every day your pets' health is challenged by the air it breaths, the water it drinks and through diets comprised of agricultural by-products stripped of nutrients both during the initial processing and  when these ingredients are cooked, baked and extruded during commercial production. To replace these damaged nutrients, fat latened with heat sensitive vitamins, amino acids and flavors is sprayed on during the cooling process.

The pet food industry is a multi-billion dollar business with an annual growth rate of 4 to 7 percent . Each year hundreds of new products are introduced into the marketplace as well as new concepts in marketing pet foods ( weight loss diets, premium diets, growth diets, life stage diets, the list goes on).  What is amazing is that this complex industry operates using data from only two sets of nutrient requirements for dogs and cats set out by AAFCO, one set for growth and reproduction and one for adult maintenance.

For the majority of pet food, either canned or extruded or baked, the ingredient lists have more similarities than differences. Where the differences exist are in packaging, price and marketing.