Non Pruimum Dog Food Is Bad?
Image via WikipediaFrom our friend…
Have you ever made the assumption that because a product is on the market it is safe? This unfortunately is not true. There are lawsuits before the courts on a weekly basis because of some of the poor quality things that are on the market. My husband had a very bad experience with a poor product that almost cost him the life of his dog.
About seven months prior to our marriage my husband bought a black lab puppy. My husband is a duck hunter and he was raised in a family that always owned a lab. The puppy was very smart and so his training went quite smoothly. We did not have very much money when we were first married and we were saving for a home. We were always looking for ways to save money. When the puppy got to be a year old we switched it from puppy chow to adult dog food. We were feeding him food that we bought from a large farm supplier. When the dog was about eighteen months old we noticed that his coat was getting very thin. When we would pet him there were clumps of hair that would fall out. He seemed to have no energy. We took him to the vet. The vet’s first question is what have you been feeding the dog. We told him the name of the food and where we were buying it. We found out that our dog was starving. The food we were feeding him was mostly fillers. He was not getting the nutrients needed to maintain a healthy coat or to sustain activity. We felt awful. The vet suggested buying science diet dog food to help get him back on track. The vet explained to us that the science diet dog food might seem expensive; however it is so concentrated with protein and nutrients that you only feed the dog a small amount.
We bought a bag of the science diet dog food from the vet and took the dog home. Within two weeks the dog was filled with energy and you could see that his coat was getting its sheen back. We also noticed that we had much smaller feces to up. When he had been eating the cheap filler food he would have large piles of feces. We went to the farm supplier and told them our experience with using the dog food that they were selling. They told us that the ingredients are listed on the bag as well as the percentages based on weight. They told us that the percentages meet the minimum requirements of the food and drug administration. We could not believe that they could have something on the market that will starve a dog no matter how much was fed to it. We have tried to spread the word as much as possible to let people know the importance of feeding high quality food to their animals such as science diet dog food.
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Should You Consider Adopting A Dog?
Image via WikipediaMy friend’s son wants a dog very badly, but it is simply out of the question for them at this point. I told him that they can get one some day, and when they do, they should consider adopting a dog if they can find the right one. There are plenty of places to get dogs, but I would prefer to rescue one that has lost their home as long as they are a good fit for their family. Many children ask for dogs as pets, and if you are in this situation, you might want to consider doing the same thing. When considering dogs, however, there are some things you should think about in regards to choosing the right one.
You have to think about the ages of your children when you adopt a dog. Not all breeds do well with children, but you can’t always go by breed. What is great about going to an animal shelter when you want to adopt a dog, or a cat for that matter, is that they have already figured out what families each dog is suited for. That means they can tell you which one will do well with your children and which ones might not have the temperament to deal with the excessive amounts of love that children sometimes like to give.
Another great thing about opting to adopt a dog from a shelter is that they have been seen by a veterinarian, and they should be up to date on shots and will have been spayed or neutered. You do have to pay for a dog you get from such a place, but the cost covers those things, and you usually pay less than if you were to get those things done on your own. If the dog has an illness, they already know about it, and they will never knowingly give you a pet that is sick and might die soon.
You may find that you have to go through a few things before they allow you to adopt a dog, but they do that to make sure you have the right home and circumstances to care for the pet properly. They may ask you all types of questions, and will want to know about children, other pets, and where you live. They may want to know if you plan to keep the dog inside, and other information that protects the dogs from the wrong families. It might seem like a lot to go through to adopt a dog, but when you do, you know you are getting a great pet that matches your lifestyle.
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Carolin Shadler’s Blog
