Dog food is driving me mental.
I know that's not something that people often lose their marbles about but I seem to be locked into an all out battle with my 11 year old Golden's digestive system and the dog food companies.
First off, I would like to apologize to the Pet Valu worker who attempted to help me. I didn't mean to be a total snatch to you but I am frustrated. When I explained the fact that my dog has severe allergies to chicken and WILL NOT eat fish please don't tell me that he'll eat your house brand's fish-based food because he'll love it.
He won't.
He's 11 turning 12. That's like 72 in people years - that is plenty of time for him to stick to guns about not eating fish. Fish oil counts.
So does whitefish, pickerel - hell if it has gills let's just avoid it like the plague, because he will. I can guarantee you the only thing more stubborn than a pissed off Italian is a this dog faced with the prospects of dinner - au - poisson tonight.
The other issue I'm having is where these companies are sourcing their ingredients from. Contrary to popular belief there isn't this big governing body over dog food companies that monitors them. I don't care about "real" meat being the first ingredient in his food, dogs in the wild and when they kill something that eat it eat everything! They eat the organs and bones and all that "nasty" things we think they shouldn't. What I'm concerned about is the fact I don't want my dogs food to be involved in a recall because they imported their ingredients from another country and it's been topped up with toxic fillers.
Through this whole process I've learned that if you want to get a work-out just try the run around you'll get from dog food companies about where their ingredients come from. I don't want to know what parts of the damn sheep you used just tell me if it came from North America! I'm not asking because I want to jump on this bandwagon and lecture the shit out of you - I want to be an educated dog owner who knows where her dog food is coming from.
UPDATE
I realize that I never published the above article - but left it in draft. Since I wrote this I have found a dog food that meets my dogs nutritional needs and allergy needs that doesn't cost 150.00/ bag!
After falling in absolute love with Nutro food I have been faced with the reality that they will no longer be bringing it into Timmins....
Stay tuned as the saga may continue.
