Food for Fido

September 04, 2012

Many of us have pets for a variety of reasons. They can lower our blood pressure, offer companionship, and help fight depression and loneliness. In fact, statistics say that 62% of U.S. households have a pet. That’s 78.2 million dogs and 86.4 million cats that are a part of our families and everyday lives. And when it comes to taking care of those pets, we spend big. In 2011, we spent 50.96 billion on pet supplies alone. 
 
A large portion of that spending goes to food, and a big dilemma with many people is what kind of kibble to feed our furbabies. As with people, animals can have allergies and different issues with the food they eat. We’ve all seen the commercials that talk about how to read labels and find specific ingredients that are not good for our pets to eat. If you’ve done any research at all into what is put into pet food, you may be as appalled as I am to see what some of the ingredients are (many of which cannot be repeated on this blog). 
 
Whether you are feeding your pets a holistic variety or a grocery store brand, you may want to check out some good books that we have here at the Library to help you make an informed decision. One of my favorites is Not Fit for a Dog! The Truth About Manufactured Dog and Cat Food by Michael Fox. You can also look at DogFoodAdvisor.com and DogFoodProject.com, which are reliable resources for information as well. Good luck!
 
Becky C
Colbern Road Branch