Commercial food and its components

With few exceptions, prefabricated industrial feeds are extruded, which means that the ingredients are heated to ultra-high temperatures and then pressed into shape. Due to this heating, a large part of the vital substances and nutrients die and have to be added again after production. As the acceptance is usually not very high, the manufactured pieces are sprinkled with vitamins and artificial flavourings. These substances can cause the dog or cat to have an allergic reaction and thus become ill. The ingredient declaration on a convenience food can often hide more than we think. For example, it often says: meat and animal by-products. These animal by-products are leftovers from meat production and may even contain urine, dirt and other waste products. In addition, extruded foods are flatulent, which means that after eating and drinking, the food swells in the stomach and can cause gastric distention. Most dry food consists largely of cereals, which is fatal especially for the cat, which is an obligate carnivore (meat eater), and has very negative effects on it. The cat cannot digest vegetables, cereals and fruit. Dogs can partially digest carbohydrates, but their diet should still consist of a maximum of 10-20% carbohydrates.

If you look at the declarations of a convenience food, they have different indications, the ingredients are listed from highest to lowest. This means that the product that comes first is the one that is most present in terms of quantity. For example, animal by-products do not mean anything other than beaks, hooves, faeces, blood, hair and feathers, i.e. the waste products of slaughter. In addition, there are vegetable by-products, which in turn are the residues from flour production. This is just a small sample of the components of a prepared feed. Access our nutritional consultations. More information on this topic can be found in Vida Natural Animal and Puro Menú.