Here's a good example of why you should save your pet food bags instead of dumping the kibble into a container, and why it's important to read the ingredients.
The FDA issued the following pet food consumer alert on July 12, 2018:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting pet owners and veterinary professionals about reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods containing peas, lentils, other legume seeds, or potatoes as main ingredients. These reports are unusual because DCM is occurring in breeds not typically genetically prone to the disease. The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network, a collaboration of government and veterinary diagnostic laboratories, are investigating this potential association.
Early reports state that the dogs consistently ate these foods as their primary source for months or years. Does your dog's food contain these items listed early in the list of ingredients? Time to change food!
Canine DCM is a disease of a dog’s heart muscle and results in an enlarged heart. DCM often results in congestive heart failure. Heart function may improve in cases that are not linked to genetics with appropriate veterinary treatment and dietary modification, if caught early.
For more details about this warning please check out our pet food consumer advocate Susan Thixton's article by going here: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/fda-investigates-potential-connection-to-diet-and-heart-disease-in-dogs/
In this article Susan also reminds us of how pea protein, pea starch and pea fiber actually got put into pet foods in the first place. Thanks for all you do in advocating for healthier pet foods, Susan!
UPDATE 8/10/18: The FDA has provided an update to their investigation into a potential link between diet and heart disease in dogs and also answer some frequently asked questions.
A new documentary was just released for pet lovers and veterinarians alike. The Dog Cancer Series - Rethinking the Canine Epidemic is a six hour documentary now available on DVD and will also be available for digital download very soon. It was co-produced by Karen Becker, DVM and Rodney Habib.
Dr. Becker is well known from Mercola Healthy Pets, which is the most viewed pet health website in the world. She is also the author of Real Foods for Healthy Dogs and Cats: Simple Homemade Food.
Rodney Habib is well known to pet lovers everywhere from his Facebook page Planet Paws, which is the largest Facebook pet health site worldwide. He also has a website with the same name.
It took them a year and over 25,000 miles to create this much needed documentary so they can bring awareness to the devastating epidemic of cancer in dogs. Another reason they created it is "to provide pet owners with the most relevant and impactful advice currently available from the top oncologists, researchers and veterinarians in the world." Another priority, Dr. Becker says, is to also get this information into the hands of veterinarians as this is information that is not taught in veterinary schools.
I've seen it and highly recommend it. It contains a lot of great information!
You can learn more about it, watch the trailer, and sign up for a free workshop they've created by going here: https://www.dogcancerseries.com/ (The free workshop is great too!)
You can also listen to a 20 minute interview of them talking about their new documentary by going here:
https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2018/03/12/dr-becker-rodney-habib-documentary.aspx
👉 Special Offer for Our Clients: I highly encourage all dog lovers (and veterinarians) to watch this informative and eye opening documentary. In an effort to make it easily accessible for you to do so, I have it on DVD (4 DVD Set) and will be happy to loan it to you. Just send me an email!
As if multiple toxic heavy metals in all the pet foods or treats that contain fish or seafood ingredients isn't bad enough.....
And we know that it has been discovered that the high heat processing that occurs in the manufacturing of dry kibble actually creates two carcinogens -- acrylamide and heterocyclic amines. These won't be listed in the ingredients of the food of course, because they are created in the process itself and are not ingredients. We know that carcinogens cause cancer.
(And I'm not even mentioning a whole host of other problems with pet food ingredients that I've written about on numerous occasions.)
Now we have a report that just came out by The Ecology Center's Healthy Stuff about the testing they have done on the different toxic chemicals in the coatings of pet can foods. (They also did a larger test on can foods for people.) And as you can imagine, it's not good.
"We know that safer substitutes for BPA and PVC are widely available,” said Lauren Olson, science campaign director with the Ecology Center. “Last year consumer pressure led to Campbell’s and Del Monte making a commitment to phasing out BPA from all their cans. We’re calling on pet food companies to follow their lead and remove these harmful chemicals from their products.”
Their press release states "The Ecology Center will reach out to the major manufacturers of the canned pet food tested asking them to make a commitment to safer substitutes in their can linings." I hope they do. We need to put the consumer pressure on the pet food makers the same way. Your voice and your action is needed. Our pets are being poisoned. This is unacceptable -- whether it's the BPA or PVC in the can linings or the list of heavy metals, GMOs and other toxins (like phenobarbital) in the food itself.
The Ecology Center has created an easy way for you to take action in regards to the toxins found in the can food linings that includes a photo of your pet. Click here to find out how! (
See my example below with our cat Kilo.)
We have to demand better quality foods for our pets!
There seems to be a few pet food manufacturers who are ahead of this issue and now offer or have been offering plastic tubs instead of cans. But what chemicals are in the plastic the tubs are made out of that may leach into the food? We know that different plastics leach different toxic chemicals into foods as well. (I stopped using plastic containers for food storage when I learned this.) Would the (possible) toxins from the plastic tubs of food be less toxic than the chemicals like BPA and PVC in the can linings? One can only hope so! (Until those are tested!)
It's pretty sad that we have to choose between which toxin is worse. And that we have to have everything not only tested, but we have to be sure it's tested by a laboratory that doesn't have any vested interest in the petfood business; but this is where we are. At least now there are more different types of pet food options available like frozen, refrigerated and freeze dried. Kilo still loves his homemade raw food in addition to wet foods.
For some time now I have been warning people not to feed their pets any food or treats that contain seafoods, and for good reason -- they are loaded with heavy metals.You can read the previous articles where I wrote about pet food testing that was done back in May 2017 and Jan 2015.
I also gave 9 reasons to avoid seafood cat foods in April 2016 (as if heavy metals isn't enough). But this isn't just about cat foods. This is about any pet food or treat that contains any seafood ingredient. More and more research and testing is being conducted on pet foods -- not by the pet food companies themselves of course, but by outside sources.
After reading this very disturbing but not surprising article on the subject, just released by Karen Becker, DVM, I was looking at the Clean Label Project's list of product ratings of their scientific testing on 900 pet foods and treats. I was only looking at the section on cat wet foods, but with a little investigating I discovered my suspicions were true. All of the cat wet foods that were tested and showed having less than a 5 star rating on the list (the fewer stars, the more heavy metals in them) had a fish or seafood ingredient in them. All of them. Even the ones labeled beef or chicken and duck! They either had fish in the list of ingredients, some form of seafood, or fish oil or dried kelp.
It's worth mentioning here that when I have gone to a pet supply store to buy wet cat food and read the list of ingredients on different foods, I discovered that the pet food manufacturers are putting fish or other seafood ingredients in many of the foods without mentioning it at all on the front of the label. In fact, it's very misleading. You think you are getting a "chicken" only or a "beef" only food for example, because that's what it states on the front of the can, but if you actually read the list of ingredients, you will find fish in there! And usually it's one of the first 5 ingredients. So if you don't read ingredients, you could very well be feeding your pets seafoods or fish (and therefore heavy metals) without even knowing it.
So what does this mean? Unfortunately it means that you must read the ingredients of every pet food and treat you buy. And if there is any type of fish, fish oil, dried kelp or any other form or derivative of seafood in the list of ingredients, don't buy it! DON'T BUY IT! You will be slowly poisoning your pets with heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and others if you feed these types of foods and treats to your beloved pets. And if you are already feeding them these foods, stop! Please. And if you give your pets any type of supplement like fish oil or dried kelp and it's not certified organic with the seal of The Non-GMO Project Verified, then you can be sure that they contain toxic heavy metals. (USDA Certified Organic has no limits when it comes to heavy metals.) A safer alternative to generic fish oil or salmon oil is (sustainably harvested) krill oil.
I'm with Dr. Becker - the safe amount of any toxin or heavy metal should be 0 ppm.
Please read this article by Dr. Becker:
Busted: 55 Times Worse Than Giving Your Pet Water From Flint, Michigan
