What Food Is Safe For Your Pet?

Now a days, dozens of commercial products are available in the market so that you can take good care of your pet.

Many of us get confused when it comes to feed our pets. What food is safer, commercial food or homemade food?

Let us have a look at these issues in details.

The first thing to remember is that the food that can spoil the health of your pet can come for any source.
It can be commercial or homemade food as well. We should just make sure that whatever we are giving to our pet, should not be contaminated.

Food borne illness in your pets can be because of some bacterial infections, mycotoxins, metals, chemicals etc.

Some toxins such as mycotoxins are produced by fungus. The one fourth part of entire world's crop is affected by tiny molds.
This mycotoxin litigation has been proved to be a big pain for the food industry.

People often can not differentiate between 'food poisoning' and 'food infection'. They are two different things.

Food infection is a result of ingestion of microbial cells that are infectious. They attack the tissues of your pet and start reproducing.

Mostly, clinical decease does not become visible before 12 hours at least.

Food poisoning results from the food that contains a microbial toxin already.

The symptoms of food poisoning appear more rapidly, may be within an hour.

So, now you must have understood the essence of our articles. Whenever you prepare homemade food for your pet, always make sure it is hygienic and if you are going to buy some commercial product, take some help from the people who already feed their pets in the same way.

When you know a product is right, you can go for it.

Pet Food Recall Grows

The tainted food recall grew again on Saturday, March 31, as Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. added Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food to the list of growing pet foods being recalled. Purina said a limited amount of food contained wheat gluten from China.

Hill's Pet Nutrition, late Friday, March 30, recalled its Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food that contained the same allegedly contaminated wheat gluten. Hill's is the only company so far that has recalled a dry pet food.

It appears that even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other experts don't understand the real cause or full extend of the problem as concerned pet owners seek answers from both their vets and pet food suppliers.

The same US supplier of wheat gluten, a protein source, also sold to a Canadian company. So far Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under nearly 100 brand labels.

To date, the Chinese company that supplied the allegedly contaminated wheat gluten remains a mystery as Menu Foods refuses to name the company.

Last week, the New York State Food Laboratory identified aminopterin, a cancer drug also used as a rat poison, as the likely culprit. The FDA said that it could not confirm that finding.

Federal testing of some of the recalled pet foods, and the wheat gluten used in their production, resulted in the finding of the chemical melamine. Melamine is used to make kitchen ware and other plastics.

According to Fox News, Menu Foods, said the only certainty was that imported wheat gluten was the likely source of the pet deaths, even if the actual contaminant remained in doubt.

What's the bottom line to pet owners who are unsure of what to feed their pet? The best thing to do, at the current time, is to check the ingredients and if your pet food contains wheat, think seriously before you serve it to your beloved pet.