Naturopathic Dietary Health con't
Buster was 3 when I adopted him, by 4 years of age he started to stand on 3 legs. We took him to the Veterinarian to have x-rays taken of his rear legs. Then had the x-rays sent to the radiology dept at the University of Guelph.
Buster's prognosis was not good. We were told that he would succumb to an advanced form of arthritis found in his knee joints, and that his joints would completely seize. It was predicted that we would only have Buster for another year or so before we would have to destroy him.
It was recommended that I put Buster on Prednisone in order to help him see another 1-1/2 years on this earth. I refused to give this 4-year-old dog steroids and started him on Herbal remedies. The vet said that we would be cutting his life even shorter because I refused to give him steroid treatment.
Buster died 2 months after his 11th birthday!
Buster enriched and influenced our lives. He was, and still is my inspiration when it comes to the benefits of Naturopathy.

Is kibble enough?
Over the shift of time our lives have become busier and convenience became more and more important. Commercial milk replacement formulas would free women from the nursing, fast food and take-out restaurant businesses opened everywhere, and commercial pet food flooded the market. After so many years of having to cook at home, and feed the pets, we were offered a quick and convenient way to save some time.

Oddly enough after 25 years of hearing that breastfeeding a baby was ìold fashioned" and unnecessary, our health board announces that commercial formula can have several adverse affects of your childís long term health. Advertising that ìnatureís wayî is best. The health board started to offer support to encourage women to breastfeed once again.

Convenience pet food has also had an effect on our petís over-all, and long-term health. Dogs started to succumb to various forms of cancer that would effect internal organs and bones, and obvious nutritional deficiencies were found. It was evident that we needed to improve on our commercial foods and some of the leading pet food companies made some drastic changes. However the dogs were still not thriving as they should. So it was then blamed on genetics. All the over-breeding surely had to be the reason that our petís health was failing. Or at least this is what we have been told.

Is kibble enough? con't
I am not saying that genetics does not play a role in our dog's health. However, it is not the sole reason for pathological changes. Farmer's that raise cattle for meat may feed Corn in order to make the meat more tender upon rendering. However, they will tell you that the liver of the cow will likely be up to 4 times it's normal size and usually cancerous. 10 years ago commercial dog food was made up of 70 - 80% corn.

Corn is a good food source, but I don't think that you will see wild dogs or wolves out grazing on it in the farmer's field. Our dogs are not wild, but they are not vegetarians either. We should not employ our own personal taste onto our dogs. They need a balanced diet and more meat then what most commercial foods offer.

Chemical preservatives, and sub-standard food products were being used by some of our leading pet food companies and being called "whole, balanced and nutritious". On the contrary it was not balanced, and the preservatives used were carcinogenic.

There were several reports that the preservative 'Ethoxyquin' was making dogs sterile, dams were whelping small and weak litters, congenital defects and numerous health disorders were being reported. The food industry refused to believe it. It was only after TV interviews and bad publicity, that the manufacturers finally removed Ethoxyquin and replaced it with a less harmful preservative.

There are so many reports and findings that would indicate that the commercial pet food manufacturer's were more interested in profits then in our dogs health. After researching many of these companies over 10 years ago, I was unwilling to feed any commercial kibble to my dogs. But I had 10 dogs at the time and to home-cook for them all was not realistic. So I continued searching for any pet food manufacturers that seemed to have higher nutritional standards.

Today I am happy to see that more and more pet food companies are producing a better product for our pets. Human-grade meats and holistic ingredients can be found in a wide variety of manufactured foods. However there still remains the issue of home-cooking.