Quote Originally Posted by Miriel View Post
And now for a rant about dog food. (SPOILER)The majority of the major dog food brands that are out there are very unhealthy for dogs. The ingredient list should give you a good idea of whether a particular brand of food is good or not. The first things you should see is some type of meat. If meat is further along the list, that means that there's less of it and more filler. Anytime you see meat "by product" or "meal" it's a bad thing. By product is any leftover bits of an animal that is rejected for human consumption such as feet, neck, intestines, etc. Corn being high on the ingredients list is bad too since its unnatural for dogs to eat corn and they get very little benefit from it. It's basically filler. Pedigree, Iams, Science Diet, Purina, all these dog food brands and more have very low quality ingredients in their dog food. Some brands that I would recommend: Honest Kitchen, Wellness Core (this is what I feed my dogs), & Innova. You can check out Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble for more info. A raw food diet is supposed to be the most natural for dogs, but it does take quite a bit more effort than feeding them commercially packaged foods. It's something of a mini-crusade for me - trying to get people to feed their dogs better quality stuff so that dogs can be happy & healthy. Also, here's a little info on foods that could be harmful to your dog. DOG TRICKS, TIPS AND INSIGHTS, Foods that are Harmful or Fatal to Dogs. Most people know about things like chocolate, but there's some surprising things on the list.
I didn't know about avacados! I know those are fatal to our pet bird, but I didn't think it was bad for dogs.

My parents are so bad about what they feed our pets. The bird gets fed pizza crusts, french fries, potato chips, mashed potatoes as treats if we've had that for dinner, among other things. I've tried to warn them that he's not a child and can't eat human food, but they don't listen.

Right now I can hear him begging for a cookie. I really hate the bird, but I wouldn't feed him bad stuff. It's not his fault that he's noisy and evil. He needs nuts for treats, not fatty foods.