Should You Start Making Your Own Dog Food?

Here at Dig-In, we’ve committed ourselves to create healthy and happy dogs. We created Dig-In to boost the healthful range of any dog food, be that off the shelf at your local supermarket or a high-quality mix of your own making.

Lately, we’ve noticed that there is an increase in people making their own dog food and we are behind the initiative 100%.

Making your dog food shows a tremendous commitment to your pet and we’re looking forward to launching our new product that’ll take a lot of the hassle away. We’re a while away just yet, so remember to stay tuned to your inbox for updates – feel free to subscribe – here at the bottom of the site.

A Closer Look at the Pet Food Industry .

Did you know that there is no mandatory standard for dog food producers across Australia? We have the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA) which enforces compliance of their AS 5812 standard and members are audited annually. This ensures that some standards are in place. Most of the ‘major’ manufacturers (and some of the minor ones too) adhere to their standards. The system, however, is not mandatory, so some shady pet food producers are still in operation out there.

The RSPCA website cites “Pet food [industry] is essentially self-regulated with voluntary industry standards applied through the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA).”

It’s pretty rubbery however so the government is looking at enforcing a mandatory standard. The Australian Senate is aiming to do something about it. Read the full article – here.

However, even with the majority of pet food manufacturers ‘playing ball’ with the PFIAA standards, there have been some incidents that have negatively impacted the pet food industry.

A tragic example is the Dermocare Dog recall that happened in 2018. You can read up on the story – here. In the Dermocare case, it was the police force of Victoria that first brought it to the attention of the Australian public and the product was ‘voluntarily’ recalled 6 months later. 17 dogs were killed and another 90 were affected others due to megaesophagus. Mars the parent company behind the Dermocare brand have spent considerable effort in trying to assess what went wrong. To date, there have been no conclusive findings as to the cause.

While the Dermocare case is an extreme albeit tragic example, there have certainly been other cases of sick dogs. From other trusted manufacturers, here are two more examples.

Mould found in dog food – here

Mould and/or harmful bacteria contamination – here

It is important to remember that many Dog Food companies do get it right and if you’ve found a winner that’s great. Just make sure you do your research and look at the ingredient’s list.

As an informed web-citizen of the 21st century, you’re probably also aware of other nefarious claims against the dog food industry. Such as; poor quality ‘fillers’ with no nutritional value, preservatives, brewers rice, dyes, grains and more.

Dogs are a tough bunch with guts that evolved from scavengers so they’re naturally resilient ‘gut-wise’. But, dogs still need a healthy diet using quality and nutritious ingredients.

By comparison to what you can make at home with a bit of effort (and our exciting new product), the dog food industry will most likely fall short.

More and more pet owners are showing their pets how much they love them with a home-cooked meal – perfect!

In the next article, we’ll drill down further into the argument for making your own dog food and a few things to look out for.

While we at Dig-In are tinkering away on that something special for your homemade dog-food, it’s nice to know that original product can and will help your pet regardless of what sits in their bowl already. So, if you’re noticing your best pal, could use a healthful boost reach out to us and grab some Dig-In.

Sources:

https://kb.rspca.org.au/how-is-the-pet-food-industry-regulated-in-australia_609.html

https://www.choice.com.au/outdoor/pets/products/articles/pet-food-regulation

https://www.pfiaa.com.au/Feeding-Pets/Safety-Labelling-and-Regulation-of-Pet-Food.aspx

https://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/health/articles/feeding-homemade-dog-food.html