In order to make a truly sound decisions on your dog food options, we need to look into "Why was commercial dog food created in the first place?"
Commercial dog food was never created to be beneficial to your dog. The very first was actually a biscuit made with wheat, vegetables, beet root, and beef blood. However, this was just the first not the pioneer in the dog food market. Commercial dog food was created by slaughter houses and mills looking for a way to sell their by-products (diseased meats and un-wanted parts). In order to sell these disgusting products, companies had to come up with some very creative ways to market them. Here is a brief list of some of their marketing techniques, in my own words of course.
The miracle cure, just like in the old movies. Our food will get rid of your dogs' fleas.
The Great Depression, can't afford meat than buy our cheap dog food.
Dogs eat just about anything form scrapes to poop, so why feed them expensive people food?
A huge Viral Campaign was launched in the 1960's, that stated people food was bad for your pets.
Specialty Dog foods, if your dog is old our food will make him live longer.
And my personal favorite (which is still used today), You must feed your dog store bought food, because you have no idea on how to feed your pet a balanced diet.
Truth be told, eventually people and vets started debating the nutritional value of dog and cat foods. In order to please the customer, dog food companies started adding vitamins and labels to their products. Adding nutritional labels also fueled a new marketing campaign, now they could market pet foods as "complete". It does not matter what product is in the can or bag, as long as it was fortified. After reviewing dog food history, it is very clear which food is best for your dog or cat. Since commercial pet foods where never intended to be good for your pet, why would you buy it?
The funniest thing to me about the whole debate is, commercial dog food is made from people food? When you see a dog food commercial, what is shown? Beef, vegetables, and grains, everything that people eat on a daily basis.
If your vet recommends a natural store bought product that has meat, and vegetables as the main ingredient, why is it wrong for me to give my dog a small piece of steak and some potatoes!
