Four Determinants of Watch for Changes About With any new food, watch for subtle changes in Golden Girls Canine Health Canine Health: your dog's skin, coat, appetite, energy level, mood, itchiness, discharges or odors, body weight, and es- The cover dog on this brochure was a throw-away 1. Food pecially poop size and consistency (quality food and dog. Watching her and many other dogs in my foster 2. Environment properly functioning digestive system produces care thrive on premium quality kibble, I wanted to 3. Health Care smaller, formed, brown, firm poop). If negative learn more. What I have learned has changed my Kibble 4. Genetic predisposition changes occur, try a different food. If the change understanding of dog nourishment—real food is Of these, you are responsible for three: persists, consult a canine healthcare person. healthiest. No more kibble! Food- High quality species appropriate food. Golden Girls Canine Health provides an opportunity Your Choices While kibble is NOT species appropriate food, How Often to Feed for people to increase their knowledge about canine some are more nourishing than others. Feed once or twice per day. Remove food not companion health. This information applies to all Shape Their Chances Environment- Safe; contaminant and stress free. consumed in 15-20 minutes. Grazing (leaving food dogs.

Health Care- Holistic preventive health care treats out all day) leads to overweight dogs. the whole dog, not just illness symptoms. References: To Learn More How to Choose Healthier Ingredients How Much to Feed 1. Whole Dog Journal, annual February issue Why it Matters... Always begin feeding based on manufacturer’s in- www.whole-dog-journal.com 1. Your canine companion cannot choose her own structions on bag. Feed to desired/target weight, 2. American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association food. You, therefore, must make responsible not to present weight. Keep bag for reference. www.ahvma.org and informed choices. 3. www.dogaware.com 2. The better your dog eats today the healthier she Dog’s Weight will be tomorrow and over her lifetime. Like people, each dog has an ‘ideal weight range.’ What the Golden Girls Eat 3. While domesticated dogs have been around for You should be able to easily feel her ribs as you Many ask what the Golden Girls eat that keeps them over 15,000 years, dry dog food (kibble) was lightly run your fingertips along her side. Generally, so healthy. The Golden Girls have been eating a invented in the early 1900s to dispose of human slightly thinner is healthier (like us). Biologically Appropriate Real Food (BARF) diet since food production wastes/by-products (feathers, they adopted me. Their meals consist of raw meat, hooves, feces, etc). Overweight Dogs raw meaty bones, and a few nutritional supplements. What to Look For Overfeeding is one of the cruelest animal abuses Foster dogs are fed -free premium quality kibble Jennifer humans commit. Feed overweight dogs less of high and a BARF diet. The first ingredient should be a specific meat Provided by quality high protein (meat-based) kibble PLUS some Yes, quality kibbles are expensive $1.20/day/dog. meal or fish meal (chicken meal, lamb meal, beef raw food. Avoid ‘lite’ or ‘prescription’ kibble. But, my cable TV costs $1.85/day. A no-brainer! meal, mackerel meal, etc) and at least one more in Exercise: You and the dog. Golden Girls the first 4-6 ingredients. Grain-free kibbles are less Senior Dogs Golden Girls Canine Health was begun in honor and likely to cause food allergies. memory of Jennifer, my canine companion for 11 Avoid Senior and Prescription kibble. Feed high pro- wonderful years. If I knew then what I know now, Canine Health Variety tein (24+), low carbohydrate kibble especially for as a Public Service Alternating between two kibbles from different dogs with cancer. Protein should be meat-based; she probably would have lived a longer healthier life. manufacturers that work well for your dog helps avoid heavily plant-based proteins (e.g., , corn, avoid excess or missing ingredients that may cause soy, , etc.). Try real food meal once a week. problems for your animal. Switch weekly; don’t feed the same kibble 365 days a year. Supplements Kibble: Your Choices Shape Their Chances by Jack Sivak is Consider feeding freeze-dried, dehydrated, or Supplement all kibble with ‘live’ foods, such as raw licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International OUR MISSION preparing a real food meal once a week in place of License. meats and a small amount of steamed or grated raw Improve canine companion animal nourishment, For updates contact: [email protected] kibble. See our brochure: Real Dog, Real Body, vegetables. Nutritional supplements provide en- environment, genetics, and health care. Real Food. zymes and nutrients destroyed during kibble manu- facturing. Be smart - read the ingredient list. Rev. 01APR14 About This Table. This table is an alphabetized sample of dog kibble (dry ‘food’) generally intended for adult dogs on a maintenance diet. Unless noted with a ‡, products are chicken-based, grain free and ’premium.’ Included are some heavily-advertised brands as well as some higher quality but lesser known brands. Healthy Protein Ingredients Use this table as a starting point for determining healthy kibble for your canine companion (use color codes at right). Healthier kibble will have 2-3 GREEN ingredi- (organic is better) ents, no RED ingredients and few or no BLUE ingredients. Also avoid manufactured treats and snacks without checking ingredients.  Turkey & Turkey meal  Eggs  Chicken & Chicken  Beef & beef meal Nature’s Eagle Pack Natural Pedigree Purina One Solid Gold  Iams Innova Kirkland Recipe Nature’s meal Other specific meat or Blue Original Innova Dry Balance: Nutro Adult SmartBlend Science Diet Sun Premium EVO Chicken Farm Variety: Orijen  [Named] Fish & Fish meat meal (buffalo, Wilder- Complete Chicken & Ideal Adult Dog Food‡ Turkey & Synergy Instinct Ultra Adult Dancer meal (e.g.: mackerel) deer, etc.) ness Protection‡ ‡ Stand ‡ Balance Formula‡ Chicken ‡ Chicken Nutrition‡ Rice‡ ‡  Lamb & Lamb meal Select‡ Protein (min) 36 25 27 24 42 26 28 25 42 25 38 21 26 26 30 Unhealthy Ingredients (just plain unhealthy) Fat (min) 13 15 12 14 22 16 16 13 22 13 18 10 16 17 14  [all] By-products  Salt  [any] Gluten or gluten  Sugar Calo-  414 420 297 504 537 362 360 Not avail 490 334 478 Not avail 383 360 350 meal BHA, BHT, ries/cup  [any] Digest Ethoxyquin Deboned Pork Chicken by- Chicken Boneless Ground Turkey Turkey Chicken Chicken Turkey Chicken Chicken Chicken Chicken  Glandular [anything] (preservatives) chicken meal product meal meal chicken whole corn  Meat & Bone meal  Non-specific meal/fat

Chicken Yellow Corn Chicken Chicken Turkey Chicken Chicken Meat & Pea Chicken

Chicken Chicken Tapioca Brewers rice

meal corn meal meal meal meal meal meal bone meal protein meal

Filler Ingredients

Ingredients in order listed by manufacturer listedby in order Ingredients (cheap, readily available, takes up space, poor nourishment source) Turkey Brown Ground Chicken Turkey Brown Brown Ground Chicken Brown Chicken Corn gluten Potato Corn gluten Tapioca (* = frequent cause of allergies) meal rice sorghum meal meal rice rice rice fat rice liver meal starch meal  [any] starch, bran,  [any] pulp, pomace Cracked flour  Soy*, wheat*, corn*, White Ground Chicken Chicken Pumpkin- Ground Animal Whole grain Dried Peas pearl Barley Herring Peas  rice barley meal fat seeds rice fat (BHA) corn potato Potato*, rice, barley, barley peas  Cellulose Tapioca Chicken Brown Chicken Beet Poultry Menhaden Rice Boneless Poultry by- Chicken Whitefish Fish meal Potatoes starch meal rice fat pulp fat Fish meal bran turkey meal product meal meal meal Who Makes What? Chicken Chicken Chicken Herring Egg Pearled Alfalfa Chicken Turkey Ground Whole grain Chicken Chicken Oatmeal Quinoa Many “pet food” companies in the US are subsidiar- fat fat fat meal product barley meal fat meal whole wheat wheat fat ies of major multinational corporations. Within company expect same ingredients different order. Tomato Beet Chicken Chicken Beet Lamb Potato Montmoril- Lamb Turkey Brewers Soybean Dried Flaxseed Potatoes pomace pulp fat fat pulp meal protein lonite clay meal liver rice meal beet pulp Nestlé/Purina: Alpo, Beneful, Dog Chow, Chef- Michael’s, Pro Plan, Purina One Natural Anchovy & Natural Del Monte: Gravy Train, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Dried Natural Natural Salmon Salmon Dried Animal Canola chicken sardine Potatoes Peas chicken Eggs Flaxseed beet pulp flavors flavors meal meal beet pulp fat oil Nature's Recipe, Natural Balance flavor meal flavor Colgate/Hill's: Science Diet, Prescription Diet Freeze Chicken Procter & Gamble: Eukanuba, Iams, California Dried Chicken Fish Natural Boneless Natural Animal Tomato

Oatmeal Peas Eggs Oatmeal Apples dried liver flavor meal flavors flavor Digest pomace Natural, EVO, Healthwise, Innova, Karma, egg walleye ckicken flavor Mother Nature Freeze Brewers Dried egg Dried Dried Whole Powdered Sweet Mars: The Good Life Recipe, Nutro, Pedigree, Potatoes Herring Apples Flaxseed dried Flaxseed Salt Glycerin dried yeast product egg cranberries salmon cellulose potato Royal Canin turkey Note: Underlined = 2 or more forms of the same non-meat ingredient Table Update: 11MAR13 ‡ = Contains For information only. No products are recommended.