Not All Dog Food is Created Equal – Part Three

Know the facts

When you pick up a bag of dog food from a retail store, it’s impossible to know the history behind the product you’re holding. You don’t know how long it’s been on the shelf, or how long it lingered in the storeroom before being placed on the shelf. You don’t know how long it was stowed in a shipping container, subjected to temperature extremes. You don’t know how long it was stockpiled in a distribution center prior to shipping. In fact, many mass-produced dog foods are stashed away in tractor trailers without any form of climate-control for weeks, even months. And, you have no idea if proper handling of bags and pest-control are priorities for the packaging centers and warehouses where the product is bagged and stored.

Why does it matter that you can’t know the history of the retail product? As you might correctly guess, the way a dog food is stored can directly affect its nutritional value and safety. The bottom line is, just because it’s store-bought doesn’t mean it’s fresh.

Start to finish quality control

At Life’s Abundance, we don’t leave factors that impact safety and quality to chance. Our commitment to providing your dog with superior food goes well beyond the formula and the individual ingredients. To ensure the safety and quality of the final product, we exercise control, from preparation to packaging to storage.

As we mentioned before, Life’s Abundance All Life Stage Dog Food is prepared in small batches on a regular basis. We test the quality of our foods to ensure the integrity of ingredients and to make sure the formula is adhered to. Immediately after each batch is prepared, it’s bagged and shipped directly to one of our six warehouses.

Our shipping departments take pride in the speedy yet careful handling of our products. When you place an order, your dog food is shipped with an average transit time of only two to three business days.

Visit the website at: www.LifesAbundance.com/FurryGodmother

We Never Include Inferior ingredients

Not all pet food manufacturers have your dog’s best interests in mind. Unfortunately, many use ingredients that you would never knowingly feed your dog. Some intentionally attempt to mislead you with clever marketing, touting ingredients that sound appealing to you but are not actually suited to the nutritional requirements of dogs. At Life’s Abundance, we focus on what canines truly need to help ensure a lifetime of good health, rather than on making the cheapest possible product that might not fulfill your dog’s dietary needs.

We Always Use Wholesome Ingredients:

Our premium dog food recipe features safe and wholesome ingredients. But for dog food to be considered truly exceptional, we believe it must meet several specific nutritional criteria. Not only should a dog food score well on the majority of seven distinct measures, but it must also score well on every measure. Even if one area is overlooked, you could be compromising your dog’s chances for wellness and longevity.

To account for the unique dietary needs of your dog, all of the following must be included in the formula: a diverse array of high-quality proteins; healthy species-specific animal fat; a guaranteed amount of the antioxidant Vitamins A, C and E; a guaranteed amount of omega-3 fatty acids (for optimal benefit omega-3’s should be scientifically balanced with omega-6 fatty acids); prebiotics; a guaranteed amount of probiotics. Furthermore, to minimize health risks, no wheat or wheat gluten or corn or corn gluten-based products should be featured.

If your current food doesn’t score well on every single one of these seven distinct measures, we strongly suggest that you feed your beloved canine Life’s Abundance.

Tradition of quality

Even though the quality and variety of ingredients provide insight to the strength of a food’s formula, they shouldn’t be your only consideration when choosing the right food for your dog. In fact, the process by which the food is made is equally vital. Life’s Abundance premium dry health food is prepared by a family-owned, third-generation pet food maker, where creating a high quality food is not only a priority and a family tradition, it’s an art form. Batches of food are produced in limited runs on a regular basis, minimizing periods of storage and helping us to deliver the most nutritious product to your front door.

Visit the website at: www.LifesAbundance.com/FurryGodmother

What’s in Your Dog Food

The brand of food you feed is the most important decision you can make as a pet parent. Because your dog eats the same food every day, it’s his primary source of nutrition. And a superior dog food can help to foster a solid nutritional foundation, which can help sustain your dog over a long and healthy life.
As a caring pet parent, it’s important that you see through marketing ploys designed to mislead you about the quality of ingredients and their intended dietary benefits.

Additionally, some competing brands use wheat and wheat glutens, corn and corn glutens, as well as artificial food colors and preservatives. We never have, and we never will. That’s part of our commitment to you and your dog to provide the safest and most innovative nutritional formulas for a better life.
Look at the whole formula, not just individual ingredients

While the top five ingredients of a given dog food provide the consumer with insight into the nutritional priorities of a pet food maker, they don’t tell the whole story. Every ingredient plays a critical part, which is why we provide a comparison based on seven different quantitative measures. Furthermore, the secret to superior pet food lies in the formula itself – not only in the ingredients but also in the proportions of those ingredients to one another.

The significance of the ratios cannot be understated

From the beginning, we have stressed the importance of synergism, or the interaction of ingredients, because the proper proportions help to maximize the nutritional impact of a formula. As with any recipe, if you use the wrong ratios, you will get very different results.

With quality ingredients working synergistically with one another, you can be certain that you’re providing the very best for your companion animal.

Visit the website at: www.LifesAbundance.com/FurryGodmother

Yes, summer is on the way out, but here in South Texas, there are still several weeks to go. Lately, I’ve seen several Face Book posts about dogs overheating. (more…)

This article will depart slightly from Focus on Felines as it concerns dogs too. (Be sure to read to the end of the article for a special announcement.)

In this geographic area and at this time of year, pet owners are concerned about the adverse effect the soaring summer temperatures may have on their pets, specifically cats and dogs. I know every pet parent realizes the importance of providing plenty of water, and for outside pets, plenty of shade. Indoor pets may also have an increase in their environmental Fahrenheit as we all try to keep electric bills lower by raising the indoor thermostat. But for the house cat or dog, this is seldom a problem, even if your pet has long hair. (more…)

The Furry Godmother wishes to pass on some helpful information to aid you with your pet’s care or for the strays in your area.

Prevent-A-Litter (PALS) is offering a low-cost spay and neuter program for dogs 40 pounds and over from Hays, Caldwell, Guadalupe, and Comal County. Call or email [email protected] Phone: (512) 754-PALS (7257), press 2 and leave a message.

In the spirit of reducing the stray and homeless dog and cat population, The Furry Godmother encourages all pet owners to have their pets fixed. If you are considering adding a new furry family member, please consider adoption. I frequently post adorable cuties needing loving families on my Facebook Page www.facebook.com/furrygodmother Be sure to “like” the site.

You can use a Popsicle mold or just an ice cube tray to freeze yummy, refreshing treats for your dog.

Get creative by tossing ingredients such as yogurt, bananas, peanut butter, and carrots into a blender with a little water or, for picky pooches, chicken or beef broth (all-natural or low sodium versions are best). If your dog is a dedicated chewer, try stuffing a KONG® with your concoction and putting it in the freezer. Your dog will look forward to cooling off with his special reward at the end of playtime.