Why Use Natural Pet Food?

Understanding the answer to the question “Why use Natural Pet Food?” isn't an easy task. In the past sixty years or so, commercial, processed pet foods have become popular.  They are convenient, they aren’t as messy as raw meat, and they don’t smell bad.  It’s easy to control how much your pet eats, and most vets recommend feeding pets a good-quality commercial pet food.

Commercial pet foods aren’t the best food for most pets, though.  Dogs and cats are carnivores.  In the natural state, they eat very little vegetable matter.  Yet, the pet foods we feed them have quite a lot of vegetables in them.  Cat’s and dog’s digestive systems are not equipped to handle the large amounts of fiber found in vegetables.

Dogs and cats need a variety of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids that they get from a natural diet.  Processing commercial pet food destroys a lot of these essential nutrients.  The animal winds up eating more food, trying to get the essential nutrients it needs, and becomes obese but malnourished.  This is one of the best answers to the question of “Why use natural pet food?”.

Some of the preservatives in pet food are known to cause cancer in humans, and pets cannot tolerate all of the ingredients in some commercially prepared pet foods.  Some people believe that the increase in cancers, arthritis, allergies and obesity among house pets is due to feeding them commercial foods that are not suited for them.

So, why use natural pet food? Natural pet foods support the animal’s natural digestion and immunity.  Pets fed naturally are more active, have less of a tendency to obesity and have healthier immune systems.  They have cleaner teeth and better breath without brushing. Their skins and coats are healthier because the get the omega-3 fatty acids and oils they need for healthy skin.

It makes sense to feed household pets the kind of food they are intended to eat.  It makes sense that naturally fed pets are healthier, happier and more active than those who eat commercially prepared pet foods.