Do all ingredients in the pet food – including vitamins and minerals – originate from U.S. sources? All the ingredients in Pet Botanics Healthy Pet Gourmet Dog Food originate in the United States - EXCEPT some of the Vitamins and Minerals (many of them are not available in the U.S.) and the Lamb Meal, which comes from New Zealand.
Do the meat meal ingredients such as lamb meal include bones and internal organs? No, the meals we use do NOT include bones and internal organs. Real Chicken and real Salmon are used those two dry dog foods, which also contain some Chicken Meal (in chicken), and some Salmon meal (in salmon) as sources of oil, omegas and fatty acids.
Pet Botanics uses Lamb Meal in the Lamb dry food, as do almost all other “lamb” dog foods because of the source being mostly New Zealand or the Netherlands, and the shipping of meal made from the meat being much more economical. The Lamb Meal formula also includes some chicken meal, because of the fatty acid content necessary for meeting the nutrient levels for a healthy puppy, adult or senior dog.
Are the meat ingredients human grade/quality or pet grade/quality?
(By official definition, all pet food meat ingredients are considered pet grade. However many pet food companies use the same quality meat found in your grocery. Others do not, they use left-overs rejected for use in human food grade meats.) Ours are UDSA approved quality.
What is the shelf life of your foods?
The shelf life is 18 months from the date of manufacture. Pet Botanics Healthy OMEGA Gourmet uses the “Best Used By” date on the package.
What is Ethoxyquin? Do your products contain Ethoxyquin?
Ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative that is used in some pet products and has been linked to serious illness including cancer. We do not use Ethoxyquin to preserve any of our products. We also do not use BHA or BHT for preservatives.
Why do dog food and treats contain SALT? Shouldn’t we avoid salt for our pets?
With the “humanization of pets” it’s important to remember that DOGS don’t have the same nutritional requirements as humans do. Dr. Jamie Schmidt, DVM says, “Like humans, animals also need to replenish trace minerals and sugars that are lost through daily activity.”
Even though the sodium content of prepared foods is very important to us in our diet, dogs don’t get cardiovascular diseases like humans do. Dogs and humans have different nutritional requirements than we do, including salt and sugar.
Salt and sugar are part of maintaining the proper balance of nutrients in a dog’s diet. Salt provides two essential electrolytes, sodium and chloride.* Although the sodium content in prepared foods is of concern to humans, it’s not as critical for dogs. The salt in our treats and dog foods are essential nutrients for dogs and are well within the ranges recommended by veterinary nutritionists and the rules of AAFCO (the Association of American Feed Control Officials).
AAFCO has established the standard for dog food nutrition so that our pets receive the protein, moisture, fat, fiber and vitamins and minerals that they need to support a healthy life. That standard has been accepted by all 50 states. AAFCO regulations on dog food dictate the amount of salt that is required for a dog’s diet, whether it be for All Life Stages (Puppies, Pregnant Dogs, Adult or Senior) or just for adult dogs. For more information about the AAFCO rules, go to www.AAFCO.org
*Most people believe that dogs don’t sweat. It’s true that most of the heat in their body is dispersed by panting, but they do sweat through their paws and that sweat includes the loss of electrolytes.
What About Sugar in dog food and treats?
Dogs don’t have a “sweet tooth” like children and adults do, so sugar isn’t added to dog food or treats as a “treat.” If they did crave sugar, there would probably be dog “candy,” so we’re happy to say that dogs much prefer the fish in our Healthy Omega Treats.
Again because of the trend to “humanize” our pets we think they like what we like and worse, that they “need” what we need – or “crave” what we crave. Sugar is used in small amounts to support a natural preservative system like “mixed tocopherols” (Vitamin E).
Unlike the television commercial that says that all sugars are the same, cane sugar is also referred to as raw sugar. It is “sucrose” that has been removed from the sugar cane but it hasn’t been refined (processed with chemicals) like white sugar so there are no chemical additives.