03/02/2017
Fresh food is always the best way to give vital nutrients to your
You can find a list of allowed and not allowed foods here: http://www.candogseat-this.com/category/food/human-foods/
Dry Food vs Fresh Food
Dry food for your cat or dog is not something I recommend unless you can't afford better food. But the way you store it impacts its freshness. An unsealed bag of pet food in a warm pantry or garage can be the recipe for disaster when it comes to avoiding disease and intentionally creating wellness.
The enemies of dry pet food include time, heat, moisture and oxygen. The longer the food sits on a shelf (at the grocer or your house) the more vitamin degradation occurs.
If pet food is allowed to sit in warmer, humid climates or a warm room of the house the potential for bacterial and fungal growth on and in the food is also a big risk to your pet. Storing dry pet food in an airtight container in the freezer, refrigerator or cool, dark room is your best bet.
For this reason, I recommend you avoid buying large-sized bags if you only have one pet or small pets; the food will go stale or bad (and at the very least may lose flavor) before you get a chance to use it up within this four-week, optimal timeframe.
When you open a new bag, don't pour the remnants from the old bag into the next, as you may transfer bacteria as well.
However, there are many reasons why you may want to reconsider this type of food entirely.
Believe it or not, with some pre-planning, sale shopping and an ounce of resourcefulness on your part, you can create well-balanced, homemade meals for little more than that ultra-premium bag of dry pet food you're currently buying.
Problems with Dry Food
Well, I have several issues with dry foods, but we'll start with the quality control issues with the raw materials going into kibble. Rendering plants create meat and bone meal from a mishmash of sources.
Parts of cows that can't be sold for human consumption (bones, digestive system, brain, udders, hide and more), carcasses of diseased animals, expired grocery store meat (including the plastic and Styrofoam packaging), and road kill and even zoo animals and dogs and cats that have been euthanized.
Aside from the poor-quality meats, byproducts and synthetic vitamins and minerals, most commercial dry pet foods are based on high glycemic, genetically engineered (GE) corn, wheat, rice or potato — grains and starches that have no place in your pet's diet and create metabolically stressful insulin, glucagon and cortisol spikes throughout the day.
In fact, many of the "grain-free" dry foods have a higher glycemic index than regular pet foods due to the excessive amounts of potatoes, peas, lentils or tapioca included in the formulas. Carbs also break down into sugar, which fuels degenerative conditions such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.
Most dogs and cats will thrive when given fresh, whole foods, which mimic their ancestral diet, but unfortunately, many must make do with entirely processed, largely inferior alternatives. Your pet may have adapted to this diet, but it's a recipe for chronic disease.
The low moisture content of dry food is also problematic, especially for cats. Dry cat food provides only about one-tenth the amount of moisture cats receive from prey animals, living foods and even commercial canned diets, which put significant stress on their kidneys and bladder.
Dogs also tend to become excessively thirsty when fed a dry-food diet. The carb-heavy nature of dry food, along with the propensity for owners to feed more than their pet metabolically needs, is also a significant factor in rising rates of pet obesity. So, in my book, the issue is far less about how to properly store your pet's dry food as it is about choosing the best food for your pet in the first place.
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