Shoppers love their pets and most have no qualms about buying high-quality natural products for them. Two of the biggest categories within the natural pet care market are food and joint health supplements.
Fat Cat
Pet food is the biggest segment of the pet care market, if only because pets consume it the fastest. But it could also be the solution to many pet health problems. “People are often amazed at how much their dog’s health can improve when switching to a more natural diet,” said Ken Hahn, manager, Planet Dog Company Store.
When one looks at the ingredients in conventional pet food products versus natural, it’s easy to see why. The big ingredients that can cause problems, according to Donna Spector, DVM, DACVIM, consulting veterinarian, HALO, Purely for Pets, are: corn and rice (“Corn and rice contribute to obesity because they are carbohydrates with high glycemic indexes”), meat meals (“There is very little regulation of the rendering process, which is why all rendered products are considered unfit for human consumption”), by-products (“This is a cheap way for pet food companies to keep the protein levels ‘high’, although not always high quality, while keeping food production costs low”), food additives (“Corn syrup, propylene glycol and MSG are examples of artificial flavors frequently used in pet food manufacturing to disguise inferior food quality”), preservatives (“Many preservatives are known to be carcinogens in humans and pets and should be avoided”), and artificial colors/dyes (“These artificial colorings are used in many pet products to entice owners into a purchase; however, they have no nutritional value and may be responsible for adverse or allergic reactions”).
When Donna Kay, buyer, Lori’s Natural Food in Rochester, NY, decides what pet food to put on the shelves, ingredients are the most important. “The first thing we want to do is look at the ingredient listing and know that it’s clean. By clean, I mean no additives and no preservatives,” she said. “We want to know that the meats are safe. The bulk of our products are human grade, which means they can’t put any kind of part of the animal that a human couldn’t eat.”
The ingredients in natural pet foods are usually good enough for the human to eat. “The more specific the ingredient listed, the better,” said Hahn. “Ideally, a dog food will start with human-grade ingredients and will have meat listed as at least the first ingredient and preferably the second ingredient, too. All dog foods contain ‘fillers’ of some sort—carbohydrates are a necessity of the dog food-making process—but a good-quality food should feature whole grains instead of highly refined grain.”