*Gasps* A VET actually said Eukanuba and brands like it cause cancer!

[midnightgallop]

I almost passed out at the thought that a veterinarian had actually admitted that Eukanuba dog food and most other popular brands (Iams, Purina, etc) contain very cancerous preservatives and other harmful things. For once, a vet was glad that somone had chosen a natural dog food brand and he actually warned against buying it. Quite surprising since most vets swear by the mainstream cancer-kibbles. I've known quite a few dogs that have died early of cancer who were fed Iams, Eukanuba, and other brands like that. I know it's random, but I just had to share it.

 

[TonySr]

Where did you obtain this information?

 

[Jessicat]

As long as the worlds "by product" are in the first few ingredients listed on your pets food it is safe to say the food is NOT good for them. Corn meal is another harmful thing that is in pretty much every commercial cat or dog food.

I've tried to find Dog /Cat food with no by products and it's damn near impossible. Even the wet food contains them. I'm not sure if I'd go as far as saying they cause Cancer, but they sure aren't good for the animal's health, especially long term. I equate by products to high fructose corn syrup.

 

[diamondlil]

This is why the BARF and raw meaty bones diets are gaining ground. This month Ellie has been introduced to rabbit carcases which she is going crazy for. The butcher threw in a pig foot for her too but I haven't had the courage to thaw it out yet.

 

[midnightgallop]

Where did you obtain this information?

My vet told me not to get eukanuba because it has preservatives that cause cancer (and most of those other foods use the same preservative).

The by-products and corn gluten are not the things giving them cancer. Their primary purpose is to serve as a filler so the company can save a dollar.

 

[Austin M]

I know a lot of people use the BARF diet, but I'm just a little uneasy about it. We cook out meat for a reason. It kills harmful bacteria and parasites. Yes high fructose corn syrup and preservatives can be harmful to health in large quantities long term, but harmful bacteria and parasites can be even more harmful short term.

It reminds me of a story about a "health food" company that was putting out there, how pasteurizing products were bad for your health and stripped vital nutrients. So they didn't pasteurize and that company had a line of unpasteurize apple juice that contained Ecoli. Kids were getting very sick and it took a while to figure it out. I'm sure the "health food" company had no ill intensions and the parents of the kids thought they were getting a healthier apple juice because it was unpasteurized.

My point is personally I would prefer dealing with potential long term consequences as opposed short term. I have a Rott and a ton of Rott people have their dogs on the BARF diet. More power to them, but like I said it just makes me a little nervous.

 

[Nanci]

The butcher threw in a pig foot for her too but I haven't had the courage to thaw it out yet.

Eew, I'd way rather eat a pig's foot than a rabbit carcass...(My grandfather used to eat pickeled pigs' feet- yuck!)

Nanci

 

[midnightgallop]

I know a lot of people use the BARF diet, but I'm just a little uneasy about it. We cook out meat for a reason. It kills harmful bacteria and parasites. Yes high fructose corn syrup and preservatives can be harmful to health in large quantities long term, but harmful bacteria and parasites can be even more harmful short term.

It reminds me of a story about a "health food" company that was putting out there, how pasteurizing products were bad for your health and stripped vital nutrients. So they didn't pasteurize and that company had a line of unpasteurize apple juice that contained Ecoli. Kids were getting very sick and it took a while to figure it out. I'm sure the "health food" company had no ill intensions and the parents of the kids thought they were getting a healthier apple juice because it was unpasteurized.

My point is personally I would prefer dealing with potential long term consequences as opposed short term. I have a Rott and a ton of Rott people have their dogs on the BARF diet. More power to them, but like I said it just makes me a little nervous.

The parasites will be gone if you freeze the meat, but I can still understand your hesitation. I am hesitant with the BARF diet as well, most likely because it's new. Cooking also helps a lot and that is still ehathier than the kibble if you have the right balance of food groups. It's great that you are open-minded, but also cautious with what you read In relation to your pastuerization story, people also think soy milk is healthy, but that causes birth defects and cancer (I have read studies on it) because it is not prepared correctly. It requires fementation longer than what American companies are willing to perform. A good source for info on all of this stuff is a site called JSTOR. it contains a lot of peer-reviewed scientific articles on the subjects and it's a great resource.

 

[midnightgallop]

Oh I just realized...I think JSTOR is a paid-service for peer-reviewed studies, experiments and papers. I get it for free because of school I think. My bad But if anyone gets the chance to go there, it's VERY interesting and they have loads of studies on stuff like this (and anything else you've been wondering about really haha). I am a big science nerd though, haha

Oh yeah and....
Pigs feet?! ewww haha not sure how yummy that would be. I don't think I could ever eat one of those.