Can you comprehend a time when dog food, cat food, or pet treats did not even exist?

The very first commercial dog food was a product produced in the year 1860. James Pratt, an American, was visiting England from the US when he saw dogs surviving off left-over biscuits from ships. So he prepared a dog biscuit product consisting of wheat meal, vegetable, beetroot and meat, and began selling them entirely to British rural gentlemen who owned sporting dogs.

Much has changed since then....... as our ideas of nutrition have advanced, so have our pets' foods.

New products such as dry kibble, canned foods, and moist products have varied our choices substantially.

For many dog and cat owners, the food that we give our animals means a great deal, while the treats we give them are merely an afterthought. Even the most health-conscious pet owners who purchase expensive cat and dog food often go to the supermarket and buy the least expensive treats. Why is it that so many of us have a habit of feeding our pets top shelf foods and then give them relatively poor treats with the nutritional value of paper? We ask a lot of our pets' foods. Even the healthiest cat or dog food does not have everything. Each pet has specific needs. Because we only feed our pets around 2 times a day or so, treats are a superb supplement to their diets. Even 2 or 3 treats a day really adds up in the long haul. If we are going to add calories, they really should be healthy ones.

Your supermarket is filled with treats that are full of poor ingredients. Here are a few things you will definately want to look out for: Soybean meal, wheat, wheat meal, corn gluten meal, corn meal, whole/crushed corn, and maize are very frequently used for their protein. They cost far less to include in a treat than the superior quality carbohydrates or meat protein such as chicken or fish. In addition to this, soybean meal as well as ground corn and wheat are common pet allergens. Also keep this in mind when choosing a cat food or a dog food.

Artificial food coloring is widely used even though they are completely unnecessary and have even been linked to medical issues. It is believed by some in the medical field that if an ingredient is foreign to the body the body reacts to it and can cause numerous health issues. Pets care more about taste than color. By-products are an easy way for dog food or cat food and treat firms to keep costs down. Instead of using whole meats, they use by-products. These are obviously the less desirable parts of animals.

Essentially, by-products are all of the items that you would not willingly feed to your pet. Stawa away from them if possible.

There are a number of other items that the labels do not always reveal to us. For example, condemned parts of animals not good enough for human injestion are sometimes rerouted into commercial treats. These parts may be the parts of animals who are dead, dying, decayed or even diseased

In addition, certain meats, grains and other ingredients cannot be sold for use by people. They are either damaged or else the meat does not have the look that the US Dept. of Agriculture officials want. Sadly, we cannot always decipher this from the label. This goes for treats, dog food as well as cat food.

Furthermore, some companies have lower standards pertaining to the freshness of the ingredients they use. Though there should be a "use by" date or code on most packages. We would not eat stale cookies so why would we want to give anything but fresh ingredients to our pets? Again this applies to dog food and treats and cat products.

For additional information go to Dog Food, Premium, from Life's Abundance and find out about premium dog food and healthy pet products.

Ryan Joseph is a writer and researcher. For more info. go to http://www.premium4pets.com and http://www.premium-cat-food.com/