Do You Know How To Read A Pet Food Label?
Food labels are tricky! People food labels can be tricky, but pet food labels are even trickier! That's not by accident either! 😬
There's a whole different language we have to know to read a label with any chance of success! Ok, maybe not a different language, but when words have a different definition than what we use in everyday discussions, it feels like a different language and can be very deceptive when it comes to what we're feeding our furry family! 😡
Here's a few examples of what we mean! 👇
🥩 Meat - listed in the ingredient panel may sound good, but what kind of meat is it? You may be surprised! If it's not an identified protein source, leave that bag on the shelf! "Meat" listed as an ingredient can be 4D Meat, which means Dead, Disabled, Dying or Deformed. "Meat" can include road kill, dead zoo animals or even euthanized pets!
🍗 Chicken By-product - ok, now we know the by-product comes from a chicken, but what is a by-product? It's nothing we would eat...😳 By-products are the waste in the human food industry, meaning it's not consumable by people. Why on earth would we want to feed our furry guys anything we couldn't eat?
🌽 Whole Grain Corn or Whole Grain Wheat - as humans, we're told "whole grains" are the way to go, so seeing "whole grain" included in the ingredients might lead one to think it's a good addition. Have you ever seen a Scarewolf in a corn field? Nope! You see Scarecrows! That's because we don't have to scare wolves away, they're not corn eaters and neither are our cats and dogs!
❓ Meal - though meals are a much denser source of protein, no meal in the world is ever going to be a BETTER source of protein than what it came from. Think sirloin steak compared to protein powder! That's essentially what "meal" is...powdered protein and we always want to see our "meals" identified! If you see "animal or meat meal" listed as an ingredient, put that bag down! We have no idea what kind of meat or animals that meal came from and it's a good indication it's not a quality meal! Quality meals always identify the source animal they came from.
The big pet food manufacturers want to impress you with pretty bags and fancy fonts in hopes you don't turn that bag over! We want you to know how to read a bag and not fall for their marketing trickery! What's IN the bag is listed (or sometimes not listed) on the back of the bag! The front of the bag tells us absolutely nothing!