Xylitol is an artificial sweetener that is relatively well tolerated by most people. It is in lots of "sugar-free" or artificially sweetened products, from candy to gum to nutritional supplements like melatonin. Now there are a few brands of peanut butter that contain it. Xylitol in pets can cause life-threatening episodes of low blood sugar, […]
Category Archives: Nutrition
I've posted before about why we don't feed bones to dogs. They really don't get any nutrition out of them, and they can certainly cause some problems. Today we have another example. This guy looks pretty calm and snoozy, and he is… now. When he came in, he was unhappy and straining. The owner knew […]
KROGER RECALLS PET FOODS DUE TO POSSIBLE HEALTH RISK CINCINNATI, Ohio, December 18, 2010 – The Kroger Co. said today it is recalling select packages of pet food sold in some of its retail stores because the products may contain aflatoxin, which poses a health risk to pets. Kroger stores in the following states are […]
My usual Thanksgiving rant is "Don't overfeed the pets!" It's just not a good idea to turn the pets into garbage disposals under the guise of letting them share in the treat. I hate treating all the unhappy pukers. Skip the bones, skip the grease, skip the garbage. So this is a little different slant on the […]
So here's a weird thing: just the other day I was writing about Science Diet, and this week it goes on sale… for four months. All the prices went up in July, but if you buy a really BIG bag, the price is dramatically reduced. Do they have a surplus of big sacks? Is there […]
The old time livestock feed industry used to have a tongue-in-cheek motto: "The way to make money is to remember that 1,800 pounds of grain makes a ton of feed." In other words, add some inexpensive filler to adulterate the feed. This would be the same philosophy that resulted in the Chinese sending us poisonous […]
So how did I become a shill for Hill’s Science Diet? They’re sure not paying me. In fact, it was their latest price increase that got me thinking about this. No, it all started in 1981, when I got into the dog business for the first time. I had never had a dog of my […]
I started to call this post "Part of this complete breakfast". Google that phrase and you’ll find a lot of take-offs on that time-honored advertising slogan. I remember it as the tag on commercials for my favorite sugar-laden cereals. A bowl of sugar-saturated cardboard chips would be featured in a photo that also included bacon, […]
Nutritional wisdom is the concept that an animal somehow innately knows what nutrients its body needs, and also where to obtain them. For example, if your body were low on potassium, you would instinctively know to eat a banana. And you thought those banana cravings were just evidence in support of the "Man-from-monkeys" evolution theory. […]
In light of the recent spate of pet food recalls, many folks have considered preparing their pet’s diet themselves from fresh ingredients. Since any fresh produce that is out of season must be coming from South America or someplace, I’m not sure how that makes us feel that much safer. There is nothing inherently wrong […]
- 1
- 2