The Blue Buffalo Company tugs at your heartstrings, or maybe your guilty conscience, with their “Love them like family . . .” tagline. Holistic and natural recipe dog foods are all the rage now. There are dozens of brand names to choose from . . . Blue Buffalo, Holistic Select, Halo, Innova, Honest Kitchen, the list goes on and on. Even Purina has gotten on the bandwagon. Each brand hails that it has the better food with the most holistic, organic and natural ingredients, much healthier than “regular” dog food. It makes you question — what IS in my dog’s food? And can I believe the marketing spill from these companies hawking their products, fighting for market share in this very lucrative market (accumulating over $17 billion in revenues)? This can be very confusing for the dog owner who certainly doesn’t want to feed his or her devoted friend ground up horse hooves or chicken feet (as some folks claim). Not only is it confusing, it can be expensive. The “high quality” brands can cost over 50% more than “regular” brands.
About three years ago, I was working for a company in Dallas, living in a corporate apartment and only traveling home to Raleigh two weekends a month. Needless to say, I was homesick. On a whim, I decided I was getting a dog. After searching through what breed of dog would be best for me, my lifestyle and my allergies, and finally deciding on my dog (the cutest Maltese you have ever laid eyes on, named Hobie), I thought my hardest decision was over. Oh, how I was mistaken. I then had to find out what I was going to feed him. I immediately hit the Internet and began my research with much enthusiasm. I quickly got confused as I was bombarded with all the marketing messages from the various dog food companies. I started learning about things I never dreamed of prior to owning a dog, such as chicken vs. chicken meal vs. chicken by-product meal (be sure to stay far away from that last one). And the definition of “chicken” is different for dog food than it is for human food. The confusion worsened.
Finally, I got it narrowed down to a few brands and presented them to Hobie for his approval, and his decision was . . . none of the above. He snubbed everything I put in front of him! Feeling worthless, I went back to searching through the Internet for answers on what I could feed my dog that wouldn’t cause me to have a wretched feeling in the pit of my stomach. I kept re-reading all the claims of the wholesome dog foods: “real chicken is our first ingredient” . . . “organic ingredients” . . . “wholesome food” . . . then the light bulb went on. Those dog food companies educated me so well in what I should be feeding my dog that I had a brilliant idea. If I wanted to make sure Hobie was getting wholesome, de-boned chicken as his primary protein source, I knew of one sure-fire way to make sure that happened. I headed to the butcher!
The chicken was great and he loved it, but I still felt guilty because he also needed kibble, if for no other reason than to help keep his teeth clean. After spending about $100 trying him out on various “high quality” kibbles, I finally found one that he loved and eats every day along with his boneless, skinless chicken breast. (In an effort to not endorse a specific product, I will keep the brand anonymous. But I certainly feel as if I am feeding him like family — wink, wink!)
In the end, the marketing messages spun by these companies did make me more aware of what I was feeding my dog, which led me to offer him only healthy options, whether those options were packaged by a big brand or bought over the counter from the butcher. However, the final decision was Hobie’s to make. After all, it doesn’t matter how healthy and wholesome the food is if it only sits in the dog bowl to be pushed away.
