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Think You’re Feeding Your Pet the Best?
You May have to Think Again.
Once upon a time, I thought I was making the right choice. Iams was my go-to pet food—back then, it was marketed as a premium brand. But in 1999, when Procter & Gamble took over, I knew enough about corporate buyouts to realize one thing: profits come before pets.
Fast forward to today, a majority the popular dog food brands are owned by Mars Inc.—yes, the same company behind candy bars and junk food. Do they truly prioritize your pet’s health, or is it just another billion-dollar industry cash grab? 😡
Look at the below list, hopefully your pets aren't eating the brands that are listed except for Orijen and Acana, which are high quality foods.
Mars dog food brands:
Pedigree: A well-known dog food brand
Whiskas: A well-known dog food brand
Sheba: A well-known dog food brand
Cesar: A well-known dog food brand
IAMS: A well-known dog food brand
Royal Canin: A brand that offers therapeutic diets for pets with specific health concerns
Eukanuba: A brand that offers performance nutrition for active and working dogs
Nutro: A well-known dog food brand
Greenies: A well-known treat brand
Temptations: A well-known treat brand
Orijen: A premium dog food brand (Mars also owns Champion Pet Foods who makes this brand and it's actually a good food)
Acana: A premium dog food brand (Mars also owns Champion Pet Foods who makes this brand and it's actually a good food)
Even more worrisome, Mars also owns veterinary hospitals and clinics, including Banfield Pet Hospitals, VCA, BluePearl, and AniCura. If you have noticed your vet bills have gone up over the years, they are buying out the little mom and pop veterinary clinics and monopolizing your pets food and medical care. 😡
If that doesn’t make you question what’s in your pet’s bowl and why many vets recommend the above foods, keep reading. The truth about commercial pet food will make you rethink everything.
The Silent Killers Hiding in Your Pet’s Food
After years of running a dog rescue and working full-time with dogs, I’ve seen the devastating effects of cancer, kidney/liver failure, and heart disease—often linked to what pets eat every single day.
In my search for the best food, I developed a simple rule: if I wouldn’t eat the first five ingredients myself, neither should my dog. But most brands fail this test miserably.
🚫 Filler. 🚫 By-product. 🚫 Fat. 🚫 Meal.
Would you eat processed fillers every day and call it a “balanced diet”? Of course not! So why are these the main ingredients in popular pet foods?
Vets & Breeders Are Recommending WHAT?!
You trust your vet to guide you toward the best nutrition, right? But here’s the dirty secret: many vets push brands loaded with the worst ingredients. Why? Because they’re backed by multi-million-dollar pet food giants.
Take a look at this real ingredient list from a widely recommended pet food brand:
🔴 Corn gluten meal – Cheap filler with little nutritional value🔴 Chicken by-product meal – Ground-up waste parts, not real meat🔴 Soybean meal – Linked to allergies and digestive issues🔴 Animal fat – But from what animals? They won’t tell you.🔴 Meat meal – A mystery blend of who-knows-what
Would YOU eat this? Every single day? For life? If not, why are we feeding it to our pets?
What Can You Do?
✅ Read labels – The first five ingredients matter the most!✅ Avoid fillers – Corn, soy, pea protein, and beet pulp add bulk, not nutrition.✅ Choose whole foods – Real meat, fish, and whole veggies make a difference.✅ Ask questions – Challenge your vet’s recommendations if they seem questionable.
It’s time to take control of your pet’s health. Don’t let marketing tactics or corporate greed dictate what goes in their bowl.
👀 Look at the ingredients!
Purina puppy chow:
Ingredients & Nutrition
Whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, beef fat naturally preserved with mixed-tocopherols, soybean meal, barley, egg and chicken flavor, ground rice, chicken, mono and dicalcium phosphate, poultry and pork digest, fish oil, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, MINERALS [zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], VITAMINS [Vitamin E supplement,niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), biotin (Vitamin B-7)], L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (Vitamin C), Yellow 6, Yellow 5, DL-Methionine, Red 40, Blue 2, garlic
This is what I'm currently feeding my dogs:
Halshan: Prime Selection Turkey Blend
Ingredients: Turkey Meat, Turkey Heart, Ground Turkey Necks, Peas, Spinach, Broccoli, Zucchini Squash, Pumpkin, Apples, Blueberries, Organic Flax, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Nutritional Yeast, Blackstrap Molasses, Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, Kelp, and Lecithin. *Protein 17.73%, Fat 4.84%, Fiber 2.33%, Moisture 73.81%.
The below link is to a YouTube video comparing kibbles from best to worst and uses the salt test as one of their ways to compare brands. The (AAFCO) Association of American Feed Control Officials recommends that dry dog foods contain at least 0.3% sodium. So, when looking at your dogs food ingredients list, any ingredients after "salt", would make up less than 1% of the product. Here is more info on the "salt test"...
Remember, if your pets food has carrots, peas, sprouts, seeds, blueberries, etc on the front package implying they are a big part of the recipe and they are listed after salt on the ingredients list, it might have one blueberry in the whole bag. 👎🏼
Go look at your dogs food right now...I'll wait.
Dog food comparison video...
Spoiler alert, if you don't want to watch the above video, the winners are Carna4 and Orijen as the best according to this comparison.
The same video maker has another video where he shows you the worst dog food out there....spoiler alert..it's Hills Science Diet.
Now, these are fun little videos to get people thinking about their pets health and nutrition and what we are feeding our pets. We know that "an apple a day keeps the Dr. away" for us and "you are what you eat"...but why are we not thinking the same way when it comes to our pets food and health?
This is what my dogs had as a snack today; it's not a complete diet, as they have that for dinner.
I've spent many a nights researching dog food/diet and have gone down the rabbit hole when it comes to the marketing, vet recommendations, ingredients, and home cooking options. If you haven't thought much about what you are feeding your pet, perhaps it's time you put some thought into it. Your pet relies on you to give them the very best care, and that should start with their diet and exercise!
Just FYI...If I was feeding my dogs kibble, I'd probably be feeding them this brand...
Hand- Crafted Pet Food is one of the few pet foods available made with NO SYNTHETICS at all, only Table-grade Meat, and organic sprouted seeds. Carna4 is the only synthetic-free pet food that supplies all of the nutrition a dog requires with only whole, real foods and nothing else.
Ingredient List – Easy-Chew Fish Dog Food: Herring, perch, eggs, ground organic sprouted barley seed, salmon, ground fava beans, sweet potato, ground organic sprouted flaxseed, ground organic sprouted lentils, ground organic sprouted peas, potato starch, apples, carrots, salt, kelp, baking soda.
If you are looking for an affordable kibble, the Kirkland Signature Nature's Domain Beef & Sweet Potato Dog Food is a good food for the price, better than Mars Brand foods listed above. This is everything listed up to salt: Beef, beef meal, sweet potatoes, lentils, garbanzo beans, peas, dried yeast, canola oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), egg product, natural flavor, flaxseed, dried beet pulp, salmon oil (a source of DHA), salt
🙏🏻 Please, for your dogs health, make sure that your pet food pasts the test on quality and nutrition!
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