When one of my dogs started to have health problems at the age of six, I got pretty serious about dog health issues. I don’t watch TV much anymore, if I have any free time I’m usually doing research to try and improve and extend the lives of my dogs.

Those of you that know me also know that I believe the number one cause of health issues with dogs is commercial dog food. That is why I have been on a mission to spread the word about the best dog food, and I am a big believer in homemade dog food.

In actuality, the majority of people will need to provide supplemental commercial food in addition to the homemade diet. This is the reason I take a lot of time with the best dog food topic.

One area of controversy that I encountered was the usage of meat by products in dog food. You’ll recognize this because a meat, such as lamb or chicken, will be shown with the word by-product attached.

What exactly is it and will your dog benefit from it? If you investigate on the topic you will discover two groups, one group supports by products as positive, but the other group say it is dangerous for your pet.

The answer is, it depends; we need to explore what it really means when we say there are poultry by-products.

“Poultry derivatives contain mashed up, renderings, clean portions of murdered poultry cadavers, such as necks, beak, feet, unhatched eggs and intestines, leaving out feathers, “except in various amounts that might happen by accident in normal processing”The trouble is you are not aware of the ingredients all the time. There isn’t any standard that states there are a certain amount of feet or a measurement of intestines or any form of nutrition at all. In reality, none of this is actually suitable for a person to eat.

There are some who will make the argument that because some of the by-product ingredients are what the dog would actually eat in the wild, they are fine for them to eat in a dog food. Even if this is the case it is tantamount to saying that because homeless people eat out of garbage cans, dumpster food is great for everyone else, too.

Because I want the best possible nutrition for my dog, I’ll avoid those foods that contain by-products and stick with the best dog food with natural ingredients.

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