Why Would I want BHT in my Dog Food?

BHT or BHA is a preservative used in commercial pet foods and it basically preserves the animal fat content quite plainly so it does not rot in the dog food bag or can. It is also called Thoxyquin which does not sound very appetizing to people.  The history of Ethoxyquin dates back to the fifties where it was used to kill weeds as a herbicide and it was a chemical used to make rubber more stable.

As a preservative it keeps old food preserved longer and that has to do more with shelf  life and not your dog’s health. BHA is more for the manufacturers to sell it to grocery stores so it can sit on the shelf longer than other foods.

What does Ethoxyquin do for your dog? Well it can kill it. People who work in the rubber business and were exposed to Ethoxyquin contracted skin cancer, blindness, leukemia, diarrhea and liver damage.  In animals it can kill their immune system which is their only defense against diseases.  It causes kidney cancers and makes stomach tumors or colon tumors and the Department of Agriculture lists it as a pesticide. Yes you will find BHA in poor cheap dog food at Walmart.

This is a chemical preservative that your dog is ingesting at every meal for years and years. Your dog will consume pounds of Ethoxyquin in its food approximately 27 pounds in its life time. Doesn’t sound very healthy does it?

You wonder why pet owners buy this food at all but most do because it is cheap. It is cheap in its ingredients but is it safe?  It all depends on how long you want your dog to live? Dogs can live 25-30 years but today the average life span of a dog is 13-14 years.  The best advice is to buy only certified organic food for your dog, and ensure that it does not contain BHA, or corn, or wheat or by products.  Pet foods are not supposed to contain chemicals that kill your dog. They are not supposed to contain harmful ingredients that damage your dog’s kidneys.

The only way to buy dog food today is with a magnifying glass as you read the ingredients.  These days I know where the organic food is and its not at Pets Mart, at least the fake organic food is but not the real stuff. If you find your local independent health food store -you will find organic dog foods.

Ingredients of Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition: even after the recall of 2007 this food is not fit for dog consumption.

Ground Yellow Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Soybean Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Wheat Middlings, Animal Fat Preserved With Bha and Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Brewers Rice, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Color Added Red # 40, Y …  (excerpt from : walmart.com).

There were no product reviews on this item for sale at Walmart. Usually when you buy a product on line you get to see other people’s reviews which states how they liked it, what it did for them, how they used it and how much they liked it. But in this case, we did not find any reviews for Ol’ Roy Complete Nutrition. As Wikipedia explains:

To date, the US FDA has only found a verifiable connection between ethoxyquin and buildup of protoporphyrin IX in the liver, as well as elevations in liver-related enzymes in some animals. It has been shown to cause mortality in fish.

Websites on BHA:  http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/Ethoxyquin.htm

Wikipedia Reference on Ethoxyquin:  Wiki

Even more information on BHA or Ethoxyquin: CBC Report.

TAGS:  BHA, life span of a dog, Pets Mart, Ethoxyquin, chemical preservatives, Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, animal fat preserved with BHA, Bha, Red Dye # 40, Walmart Pet food, walmart, wikipedia, dog food, pet food. FDA, doghealth1, commercial pet food, food, pet, eyzymes, pets food, dog’s food.

Dog manufacturers have a perception problem with their products these days. In 2007 the dog food recalls sent their profits plummeting because of the melamine and rat poison ingredients. Today they still use the same  ingredients but they need to be hidden more creatively as well as deceptively.The dog food ads look like they promote dog health but is this advertising truthful or just slick? The manufacturers have new ads to camouflage the real problem with dog food since the last scare. The ingredients haven’t changed much.  See ( DIGG.COM)

I have had many discussions with dog owners, many comments here on Dog Health 1, and the consensus is a continued and marked mistrust of pet food. Some owners stated their dog actually threw up after eating commercial dog food and others would not touch these products. There is a rampant epidemic of itchy dogs all over the planet. Skin rashes, sores, flaky skin, and dogs that have real sickness and health issues. The commercialization of our pet foods has threatened our domestic companions and friends.

Last year I did an article on pet treats about a factory where the workers who handled these pet treats, were getting sick just by handling the smoked bones and treats that were made for dogs.

The newest advertising catch phrase to describe pet food is “premium dog food”. This is supposed to make you feel better about what you feed your dog – but your dog will not be feeling very well. Premium does not give you the ingredients. Truth in advertising has never been so misplaced and so misused than in premium dog food which suggests you are buying the best dog food available -which is not true.

The other word dog manufacturers use is the word “natural”.
photo credit: ThreadedThoughts

There is nothing natural in premium dog food and that includes what is sold at veterinarians’ offices that is called natural by advertisers. Here is one example of what I mean, and I got this right off their website.

Premium dog food also contains the following:

Chicken meal ( another word for animal by products)

Bone Meal    ( not really good for your dog)

Protein (usually dead, diseased animals)

Crude Protein ( this could be more of the same)

Crude Fat (just adds grease and fat to your dog’s diet)

Crude Fibre ( this was melamine – last year)

Crude Ash ( filler and very unhealthy)

Sodium ( salt – not good for the kidneys)

Corn (too much sugar and could be GMO’d)

Chicken Digest (Your guess is as good as mine)

Here are some of the added chemicals:

Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (I won’t bother looking this up)

Thiamine Mononitrate (If I can’t pronounce it – I don’t want to buy it)

Manganese protein ate (used on heat distressed broiler chickens)

Zinc sulphate (chemical compound preservative for animal feed)

Calcium iodate ( a dough conditioner – I am not kidding here)

This does not sound like a premium dog food to you? Not likely if you want your dog to live long. What the DM have done is to make is seem like they are actually adding nutrients to their premium dog food while still using the diseased meat (called protein) from the slaughterhouses and anything else they can find. They assume you will be fooled by the vitamins and ignore this little exercise I just did for you.

What is missing from this formula that I took from a dog manufacturers website, is the list of additives in the premium pet food industry that is commonly used to treat diseased animals used in your pet’s food. The common additives such as : kerosene, motor oil and some other serious poisons.

Over at Shirley’s Wellness Café -Shirley Lipschutz-Robinson discusses the Poisons in pet food:

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/

Since the commercialization of premium pet food we have seen more pet disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, bone disease, gastrointestinal problems and premium dog diseases.

The real danger lies in the fact that genetically modified foods have found their way into our food chain, for human consumption and you can bet that the corn in dog food, is also genetically modified food. It is time we really stand up for what is right in this country and start demanding better from our government.

I personally recommend you consider the following if you really want to know the truth about Premium Dog food.

Dog Food Dangers

Tags: premium dog food, dog manufacturers, Premium dog’s food, Shirley’s Wellness Café, pet disease, commercial pet food, premium pet food, pet food, GMO, GMO’d, Dog Food Dangers, pet food, pet food danger, genetically modified pet food.

Commercial dog food is generally made for profit and not for your dog because it contains diseased and chemically treated animal by products. No matter how the pretty packaging looks or the billions spent on advertising – these are not healthy foods.

 

 

Pet food makers insist that commercial dog food is designed for a complete and scientific laboratory proven designer dog food which is superior to what comes off your dinner table.   Do you really believe this?

 

You see the dog food commercials of dogs jumping over fences in the meadows, and little puppy faces that they claim they are saving in animal shelters as part of their public relations campaign to restore their tarnished image to the consumer.

 

Their high glossy labels and bags adorn your pet food store with claims that their dog food is “nutritionally balanced” and the most popular tasty food your dog will ever eat in its life time.  They claim that they have proven formulas for dog with arthritis and diet dog food, dog food for senior dogs, for puppies, for fat dogs and for everything under the sun.  Much of these claims are unsubstantiated and there are no advertising restrictions or regulations to stop them – yet.

 

Home Made Dog and Cat Food:

 

Homemade dog food has never killed a dog or cat that I know of but commercial pet foods have killed thousands of pets.  Today one year after the pet food recall of March, 2007 commercial dog food just cannot be trusted nor have the manufacturers changed the ingredients. 

 

There is more doubt today that commercial pet food can sustain life, but can it sustain good health? 

 

Experiments performed in the 1930’s by Dr. Francis Pottenger proved that it took four generations of cats fed totally raw foods to regain optimum healthy teeth, bones and health.

 

Raw is The Best Food:

 

Cooking destroys vitamins, amino acids, damages proteins and vital enzymes while changing the molecules of fat.  If foods are lightly steamed these vital components of food remain relatively intact.

 

Raw Diet for Beginners: 

 

Transitional diets for dogs that have never been fed raw foods can begin with raw veal, turkey, chicken, beef and ground meats, preferably organic meats. If you can locate a butcher or an organic farmer you can buy bulk and have the meats ground.  Also chicken, liver, calves, liver, kidneys, chicken giblets, sardines, yogurt, cottage cheese all with no fat can be a quick meal for your dog.

 

 Recipe: 

 

Ground Bow Wow Dinner:

 

1 lb of ground beef (lean)

½ cup of lightly steamed vegetables. (Broccoli, green beans, carrots)

1 cup of rice or other grains like buckwheat, or couscous

1 full tablespoon of garlic powder

½ cup parsley chopped

 

Mix together thoroughly and keep in a container for feeding depending on your dog breed it should feed for a few days or more.  This recipe is a blend of a protein, vegetables and grains with the added benefit of flea control for the summer. 

Add bran, or any supplements with the food as well as a digestive enzyme such as Papaya enzymes which is very inexpensive and available at most health food stores.

This will help your dog digest and is made from the papaya fruit, just crush it up and add it to the bowl at each meal.  Your dog will digest better as well as eliminate toxins.

 

My friend Kristine who breeds dogs feeds them garlic powder and has had no flea problems for generations of her many dogs.

 

Tags:   Homemade Dog food, Commercial Pet food, pet food store, dog food commercials, raw diet for beginners, transitional diets for dogs.

 

Written By:  Teri Salvador